The trial of Fındıklı Mayor Çervatoğlu has started

The trial of Fındıklı Mayor Ercüment Şahin Çervatoğlu began on the grounds that he committed the crimes of "depriving the person of his freedom by stopping the vehicles of mining company employees" and "obstructing the movements of transportation vehicles, kidnapping or detaining them" during the mineral exploration works in Çağlayan Valley on July 21, 2025.

Defendants Ercüment Şahin Çervatoğlu and Faruk Büyükkurt and their lawyers attended the hearing at the 3rd Criminal Court of First Instance on Sunday. The hearing was followed by NEW Party Rize Deputy Tahsin Ocaklı, Ardeşen Mayor Enver Atagün, Trabzon Labor and Democracy Platform Spokesperson Muhammet Birinci, Human Rights Association (İHD) Rize Representative Günay Karafazlı, residents of the Fisherman's Village who fought against the cage fishing project, and EMEK Party and SOL Party representatives.

At the hearing, Çervatoğlu's lawyers requested that the hearing be recorded with SEGBİS and be held in a larger hall.

The court accepted this request, but this could not be done due to the problem in the SEGBİS system.

The judge then postponed the case to Monday, October 26, at 10:00.

“WE REQUESTED THE ENTIRE DEFENSE TO BE RECORDED, BUT IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE”

Çağdaş Karaüçük, one of Çervatoğlu's lawyers, made a statement in front of the courthouse after the case and said that his client's statements were not just a determination of the legal situation or merely responding to the allegations in the indictment; Stating that he also has a perspective that protects Fındıklı's right to life, environment and nature rights, he said:

"He had a defense of nearly 24 pages. Since it would not be possible for this defense to be recorded or printed one by one, we, together with our colleagues, requested that the entire defense be recorded with the SEGBİS record in order to prevent both the integrity of the defense and the order of the defense during the hearing.

However, the physical facilities of the courtroom did not allow this recording to be made, and for this reason, the court deemed our request justified and decided to record the entire defense with SEGBIS. However, due to insufficient technical facilities, the hearing was postponed to 26 October at 10:00. Naturally, Mr. Mayor and our Fındıklı Municipality worker, Mr. Faruk, did not make their defense.

"At the next hearing, we will defend Fındıklı's nature and defend the allegations in the indictment."

“WE WILL GIVE THIS HEAD, BUT WE GIVE IT FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN”

Speaking later, Fındıklı Mayor Ercüment Çervatoğlu said:

"You have shown once again that it is not an individual who is being judged, but our unborn children who are being judged. Because this nature was not entrusted to us, we borrowed it from our unborn children. With this awareness, we will protect our water, our sea, our land, throughout the Black Sea; we will not forget the struggle of our women in Zelk, we will stand by them. We will stand by our people in Artvin, Cerattepe, and our people in Fatsa.

If the problem is only Ercüment's trial, we will give this head, but we will give it for the future of our children, not for anyone else. Not for the monopolies of imperialism and collaborationist capital. We will always stand by our children, our unborn children, against them. "We will fight for them and leave them an honorable future."