Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı attended the “Arazöz and ORKUT Rescue Vehicle Distribution Ceremony” held at the General Directorate of Forestry.
In his speech at the ceremony, Minister Yumaklı said that new vehicles that will strengthen the forestry organization have been added to the inventory.
Yumaklı, who pointed out that the devastating effect of climate change in recent years has affected the Mediterranean basin like the entire world, emphasized that Turkey has also had its share of this and global warming.
Yumaklı stated that they have made all the plans to be prepared for the elements they call the “new normal” in order to reduce these effects and that they continue to work to increase both personnel and machinery equipment capabilities.
Yumaklı, who emphasized that education and awareness-raising activities to prevent fires are at the forefront of these preparations, said, “For us, what we see as a success is not extinguishing the fires that break out, but ensuring that fires do not break out. Therefore, our entire organization continues these education and awareness-raising activities in the field, in villages, districts, hamlets, and places where forest fires have the potential to start or are at risk.”
THE MOST POWERFUL FIRE FIGHTING FLEET IN Türkiye'S HISTORY
Providing information about the new vehicles, Yumaklı said, “65 water trucks to combat forest fires, 8 disaster first response vehicles to be used by our ORKUT teams and 1 fire mobile operation center management vehicle will join our ranks to defend our green homeland as of today.”
Minister Yumaklı stated that the vehicles added to the inventory will further increase their defense power and made the following assessment:
“We have been carrying out these preparations systematically for a long time. We started using 2022 new water tenders in the defense of the green homeland in 2023 and 400. Then, last year, we added 80 water tenders to our inventory. Thus, we increased the number of water tenders, which are one of the most effective elements of our land force, by 36 percent. With those that will enter the inventory today, our number of water tenders reached 1751 and our total number of land vehicles reached 5. Our water throwing capacity was 264 tons in 2002, and we increased it to 73 tons in 2024. We achieved this with a strong air fleet consisting of 438 aircraft and 27 helicopters, together with reserve forces. We became the second country in the world to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) not only during fires, but also before and after them in the field of combating forest fires, and with 105 UAVs, we have gained a very important power in this title on this important path.”
Yumaklı, emphasizing that they are fighting forest fires with the most powerful fleet in history, gave the information that the rate of burned area according to forest assets in the last 2 years was 0,09 percent in Turkey.
Minister Yumaklı, emphasizing that their goal is to reduce the rate to zero, said, “For this purpose, we will continue to strengthen both our personnel and machinery equipment profile. We will continue to use technology in all processes in all its lines.”
Yumaklı stated that fighting fires is no different from war, and that the final point is always put in place by land power.
Yumaklı pointed out that the importance of land power was revealed during the forest fires in the USA, which they followed intensively last week, and pointed out the importance of balanced defense.
Yumaklı emphasized that the forestry organization is working with all its might to make the burned forests green again and host living creatures, and stated that they have seen some disinformation on this issue from time to time.
“WE WILL BE IN ALARM STATE AS OF MID-MAY”
Minister Yumaklı stated that all areas that were burned or damaged in any way were afforested, and said:
“This is a constitutional obligation. However, apart from this, our colleagues also ensure that a minimum of 500 million saplings and seeds meet the soil annually. Our country ranks 1st in Europe and 4th in the world in terms of countries that plant the most trees in the world. Our knowledge and experience in both planting trees and fighting fires have of course returned to us as requests for assistance, support and training from other countries in this regard. I would like to thank my valuable colleagues for their efforts to bring our green homeland back to the most beautiful of greens, both in their activities before the fire, during the fire and after the fire. I would like to express my gratitude to our fire fighters and our volunteer army, and I wish that these vehicles added to our inventory will be beneficial again.”
Yumaklı, who also stated that they are conducting studies to increase the selectivity in perception in forest fires in the field, said, “We are saying to the citizens, ‘If you do not want us to be here with all our vehicles in the region where the fires have increased or where the fight against the flames is intense in your region, support us and ensure that the fires do not start.’ Let us all use these opportunities to further develop our green homeland. Our citizens have very important support in this direction, we feel it. We will now be on the highest level of alarm starting from mid-May, when we think the fire season will start.”
Following his speech, Minister Yumaklı examined the vehicles included in the inventory and received information from the authorities.
