Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum announced that the approval for the asbestos ship planned to be dismantled in Turkey was withdrawn.
We have already described the dangers of the asbestos ship:
The warship named ‘Nae Sao Paulo’, which set out to be dismantled in Turkey with the approval of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate, created a big agenda in the past weeks. The thing that caused the warship to be on the agenda was 900 tons of asbestos, which was stated to be on the ship and was extremely harmful to health. Minister Murat Kurum published this issue later. It was announced as 9 tons.
While citizens and many non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace have been opposing the ship with asbestos for weeks, today the hoped-for explanation has finally come. Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum shared a new press release about the ship with asbestos. Minister Institution, given for the ship announced that the permit was withdrawn.
Shared press release:
“1- Notification for the importation of the old military aircraft carrier named “NAE Sao Paulo” to our country by Sök Denizcilik ve Tic. We gave CONDITIONAL APPROVAL to the application on 30.05.2022 “provided that inspection is carried out before entering our territorial waters and dismantling is carried out under the supervision of our Ministry’s experts”.
2- Since the beginning of the process, we have expressed our obligations under the Basel Convention and our rights arising from international law, and we have repeatedly shared that in case of any dangerous negativity, we will not accept the ship without any hesitation and will send it back before it enters our country’s territorial waters.
3- Upon the provisional injunction decision of the Brazilian Federal District Court regarding the ship, with our letter dated 09.08.2022 to the Brazilian Competent Authority IBAMA and Sök Denizcilik ve Tic. Ltd. $ti. We asked the company to submit the court decisions and the Re-prepared Hazardous Substance Inventory Report before the ship came to our country.
4- At the point reached; Failing to run a second inspection process, although it is included in the notification requirement under the supervision of international independent inspection organizations and inspection teams of our Ministry. Issued for the ship “NAE Sao Paulo” it has been decided to revoke the conditional notification approval. In line with this decision, the It will not be allowed to enter Turkish territorial waters.
We have always complied with international law in accordance with the legislation on every ship that came to our country for dismantling operations. We closely followed every step of the process, not only on the NAE Sao Paulo ship, but also on all ships; We did not allow any steps that would harm our environment and our people.
May our nation rest in peace. After that, we will NOT allow it.”