83.5% of Voters: The Forest Fires Are Under Responsibility of the Ministry

The forest fire continues in the Aegean parts of Turkey. The responses to the fires are not sufficient due to their occurrence of them in different areas. The continuity of the fires increases the critics to the central government as is seen in last week’s report of Turkey Monitor.

The new area of the political discussions is forest fires while they are actually environmental problems. The discussion between the government and opposition parties opened another page about the responsibility. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “Responsibility for such fires in residential areas is the responsibility of municipalities” and pointed local governments. As it is known that these local governments belong to the biggest opposition party, CHP. However, CHP did not approve the comment of the president and pointed to the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry.

Turkey Monitor asked the idea of voters about the current discussion on forest fires. 83.5% of voters believe that controlling forest fires is under the responsibility of the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry while 16.5% of them believe that it is under the responsibility of the local governments.

President Erdogan did not even convince his own voters. 74.4% of AK Party and 80.4% of MHP voters think that the fires are under the responsibility of the Minister, as it is the opposite of president Erdogan’s idea.