Turkey's forestry authority revealed to have allocated 1,000 liras to purchase 26 helicopters

Turkey's General Directorate of Forestry was revealed to have allocated a mere 1,000 liras to purchase 26 helicopters. The total budget of the directorate for 2021 is 4.2 billion liras.

Wednesday August 04 2021 03:50 pm

Serkan Alan / DUVAR

Turkey's General Directorate of Forestry was revealed to have allocated a mere 1,000 Turkish Liras to purchase 26 helicopters, as outrage over the authorities' incapability in putting out the wildfires in the country's southwest continues.

The directorate's allocation of 1,000 liras was brought to parliament's agenda by main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Murat Emir, who said that the amount corresponds to the authority's unwillingness to purchase helicopters this year.

With an annual budget of 4.2 billion liras, the directorate was seen to have reserved only 193 million liras to tackle forest fires.

Emir, who submitted a parliamentary question for Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli to answer, said that the directorate ignored all warnings of possible wildfires.

"Their budget reveals how they were unprepared for the fires despite all warnings. They allocated only 1,000 liras to purchase 26 helicopters. This means that they decided not to buy any this year," Emir told Duvar.

He also said that the directorate allocated 40 million liras for the construction of a hangar for planes and helicopters.

"Although 40 million liras were reserved, no construction was made. Some 15 million liras were reserved to purchase walkie-talkies, but they can't be found," he said, adding that only 3.4 million liras out of the 193 million liras reserved to tackle fires were spent.

"What happened to the rest is unknown," the deputy said.

According to Emir, only 10 percent of the planned projects were completed.

"The budget was planned as if no fires would erupt. Such planning is unacceptable," he noted.