Veysel Eroğlu

Racketeers are exploiting legal loopholes to grab lands on lakes and around dams that are drying due to drought and leasing them out for commercial agricultural activities, daily Milliyet has reported.

Those lands, which emerge when water levels in lakes or dams recede, are very fertile but they normally belong to the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSİ).

A Turkish delegation will visit Iraq in June to discuss cross-border water resources, with the Turkish government already having appointed a special envoy to Iraq, former Forestry and Water Affairs Minister Veysel Eroğlu.

The government is trying to take all necessary measures against a possible drought in 2018, following rainfall in 2017 that was far below the annual average, Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Veysel Eroğlu has said.

Forestry and Water Affairs Minister Veysel Eroğlu has said that 11,781 hectares of forest land were damaged by fires, adding that 2017 has been Turkey’s driest year in the past 44 years.

Turkey might suffer a drought in 2020 or 2021, as the country experiences droughts almost every seven years, Forestry and Water Affairs Minister Veysel Eroğlu said on Aug. 7.

Forestry and Waterworks Minister Veysel Eroğlu has criticized the comments of a meteorologist about a possible extreme heatwave in Istanbul on July 30.

Eroğlu blasted Professor Mikdat Kadıoğlu, saying "scientists do not claim, they prove."

A fire erupted over at least 250 hectares of forest lands and woodlands in the Aegean province of İzmir on July 25. 

Ufuk Sesli, Mayor of Bayındır said at least 250-300 hectares of forest lands had been affected due to the fire. 

A total of 147 forest fires, which erupted across Turkey in the last three days and destroyed 673 hectares of land, have been brought under control, Forestry and Water Affairs Minister Veysel Eroğlu said on July 4, urging citizens to properly clean up areas in forests after having picnic.

The forest fires that have erupted across Turkey have been brought under control, the Forestry and Water Affairs minister, Veysel Eroğlu said on June 7.  

Amid a sweltering heatwave in Turkey, forest fires in the country's western and southern coasts have been ongoing for the past four days, with hundreds of hectares of forest land already burnt to ashes.

Forestry Minister Veysel Eroğlu has predicted that the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen will "end up dying in the U.S. and be buried in a Jewish cemetery."