March 2022 No. 147 Crown Family Director Professor of the Practice in Politics Gary Samore Director for Research Charles (Corky) Goodman Professor of Middle East History Naghmeh Sohrabi Associate Director Kristina Cherniahivsky Assistant Director for Research Daniel Neep Assistant Director Karen Spira Myra and Robert Kraft Professor of Arab Politics Eva Bellin Founding Director Professor of Politics Shai Feldman Henry J. Leir Professor of the Economics of the Middle East Nader Habibi Renée and Lester Crown Professor of Modern Middle East Studies Pascal Menoret Founding Senior Fellows Abdel Monem Said Aly Khalil Shikaki Senior Fellows Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch David Siddhartha Patel Goldman Visiting Senior Fellow Chuck Freilich Harold Grinspoon Faculty Leave Fellow Jeannie Sowers Neubauer Junior Research Fellow Ekin Kurtiç Junior Research Fellows Mohammad Ataie Hannah Elsisi Criminalizing Environmental Activism in Turkey Ekin Kurtiç I n the summer of 2019, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—the president of Turkey and leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)—expressed his desire to create a Turkey that would be lush and green. Taking up a citizen’s suggestion on Twitter, Erdoğan declared that November 11 would be National Tree Planting Day. 1 The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry coordinated a nationwide tree planting festival: Under the banner “Breath for the Future,” 11 million tree saplings were planted at precisely 11:11 a.m. on November 11, 2019. Broadcast on live television, the festival reinforced the image of a government frmly committed to the moral duty of greening the country. In his public address during the festival, Erdoğan explained this commitment in the following words: “Our love for green means planting 1.5 times more trees in 17 years than were planted in the entire Republican period [since 1923]. Our love of nature means we will plant over 40 times as many trees as there were in the burned areas [in the wildfres of 2019]. No scale can measure our love of green, and our sensitivity for trees and for the environment.” 2 The festival was intended to substantiate the AKP’s claim that it was the only—and best—force for nature protection. In Turkey, tree planting and forestation have long been politically signifcant activities. Since the foundation of the Republic in 1923, the aim of greening the landscape has been a key component of building the Turkish nation-state and bolstering its power. This Brief argues, however, that Erdoğan and the AKP