Over the past week, Turkey has been battling intense wildfires that have ravaged coastal regions and forced thousands to evacuate. Smoky orange skies and apocalyptic images of burning forests have led many to ask – is Turkey on fire?
While parts of Turkey are indeed ablaze, it’s important to understand the scope and context behind the ongoing wildfire crisis. In this article, we’ll break down where the fires are located, what’s caused them, and how authorities are responding.
Where Are the Wildfires in Turkey?
The worst wildfires have occurred along Turkey’s southern Mediterranean and Aegean coasts These are popular tourist destinations, known for beach resorts, historic sites, and abundant forests.
Specifically, over 100 fires have burned across the provinces of Antalya, Mugla, and Aydin The tourist hubs of Bodrum, Marmaris, Manavgat, and Alanya have been impacted Around 50,000 hectares (123,500 acres) have burned so far.
While other regions have been spared the fires have devastated forests and landscapes across a significant section of Turkey’s southern coast. Dramatic satellite images clearly show massive burn scars and smoke plumes along the Mediterranean seaside.
What Sparked the Turkey Wildfires?
The wildfires burning in Turkey have been caused by a combination of extreme heat, high winds, low humidity, and human negligence.
A intense heatwave has scorched the region, with temperatures exceeding 40°C (104°F) over the past week. This created tinderbox conditions. The very hot, dry weather dried out vegetation, turning forests into fuel.
Strong winds then quickly spread the flames once fires initially started. Wind gusts up to 50 km/h (30 mph) prevented firefighters from containing the blazes.
Authorities have determined that people caused the majority of fires through negligent activities like discarding cigarettes, lighting campfires, or burning debris. Fireworks, bonfires, and improperly extinguished barbecue coals have also sparked blazes.
Essentially, extreme heat coupled with careless human actions allowed the wildfires to ignite and spread rapidly.
How Are Authorities Responding?
Thousands of Turkish emergency personnel have been battling the blazes alongside international assistance. Resources involved include:
- 60 helicopters
- 16 planes
- 1 drone
- 960 fire trucks and support vehicles
- Over 5,000 personnel
International planes and helicopters have arrived from Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Iran, and the European Union to bolster firefighting capacities.
Mass evacuations of tourists and residents have taken place via land and sea. Coast guard boats and commercial ships have evacuated thousands trapped by fires along the coast.
The government has faced criticism over a lack of firefighting planes and preparation. But authorities are ramping up efforts to contain blazes and protect lives and infrastructure.
What’s the Damage So Far?
As of August 2021, the wildfires in Turkey have resulted in:
- 8 deaths
- Over 10,000 displaced
- 1,200+ people evacuated by sea
- 50,000+ hectares burned
- Over 100 fires sparked
- Widespread destruction of forests and landscapes
While extensive, the damage would likely be much worse without the ongoing firefighting response. The true toll and recovery needs will continue to grow as blazes persist.
When Will the Wildfires End?
Authorities hope to fully contain and extinguish all active fires within the week. Cooler temperatures and calmer winds could assist firefighters in gaining control.
However, the region’s months-long fire season means high risk could linger. Officials continue to urge extreme caution to prevent new fires from igniting as vegetation remains tinder dry.
The immediate crisis may cease if crews can subdue the current blazes. But Turkey faces a heightened fire threat through September and must remain vigilant.
How Has the Fire Crisis Impacted Turkey’s Tourism Industry?
The wildfires have dealt a major blow to Turkey’s crucial tourism sector. From resort evacuations to bookings cancellations, both domestic and foreign visitor numbers are dropping.
Some key tourism impacts include:
- Mass evacuations from beach resorts and disruption for guests
- Cancellations and booking declines for upcoming trips
- Devastation of key natural attractions and landscapes
- Hotel room losses from displaced residents
- Lost business for restaurants, shops, tour operators, etc
- Bad international publicity and fears over travel safety
Turkish media reports occupancy rates down 20-30% in impacted regions. Tourism accounts for up to 12% of Turkey’s economy, so declines could have broad ripple effects.
While listings remain available away from fire zones, many travelers are apprehensive. Tourism won’t fully rebound until the fires cease and recovery efforts restore scorched regions.
How Can Travelers Stay Safe?
For those with upcoming trips planned to Turkey, it’s important to closely monitor the wildfire situation in your destination area. Have contingency plans in place should you need to change locations or delay travel.
Avoid directly impacted areas with active fires and heavy smoke. Check for evacuation orders and road closures. Steer clear of forests and land vulnerable to sparks.
As with any destination, have adequate travel insurance and know how to contact local emergency services if needed. Keep informed through news sites, social media, and government advisories.
While much of Turkey remains perfectly safe, it’s wise for tourists to exercise additional caution given the ongoing crisis. Choose lodging away from fire zones and limit outdoor activities during heat waves.
Will Turkey’s Wildfires Impact Other Countries?
Turkey’s wildfires mostly pose a localized threat. However, there is the potential for some broader impacts:
- Smoke carrying air pollution across the Mediterranean
- Displaced residents seeking refuge in Europe
- Strained emergency resources unable to assist other nations
- Tourism shifts towards other Mediterranean destinations
- Supply chain disruptions affecting trading partners
- Instability if fires exacerbate domestic tensions
No major international spill-over has occurred yet. But countries like Greece, Italy, and Spain should closely watch Turkey’s fires and strengthen their own preparations, given similar hot and dry conditions.
Looking Ahead After the Fires
Once the wildfires in Turkey subside, significant recovery work will begin. Reforestation, infrastructure rebuilding, economic aid, and improved preparedness will be crucial next steps.
The troubling trend of large, destructive blazes across the Mediterranean highlights how vital it is for Turkey and all nations to invest in fire prevention and mitigation. Better coordination, resources, land management, and public education can help prevent similar fire catastrophes in the future.
While the damage done will take years to fully repair, Turkey can emerge stronger and more resilient by learning from this crisis. Implementing wise reforestation policies, updated building codes, and robust warning systems can limit future fire impacts when the next heatwaves arrive.
The heartbreaking wildfires in Turkey reinforce the harsh realities of climate change. Record heat and prolonged drought create a tinderbox, where sparks can unleash disaster. We must tackle the challenging work of adapting our landscapes and communities, or else face repeated scenarios of uncontrolled burning.
By Coşkun Okan Güney, Kevin C Ryan, Aylin Güney, and Sharon M. Hood
Millennia of extensive grazing, agriculture, and timber harvesting have altered Turkey’s native vegetation and modified fire regimes. The degree to which this is so is a topic for debate among policy-makers, managers, and scientists – with implications for understanding the potential impacts of land use and climate change on future forest management.
While rapid urbanization, modern agribusiness, intensive forest management, and fire suppression continue to dominate the Turkish landscape, the dynamics of land use and climate change raise questions about the sustainability of future landscapes. How should and how will policy and management evolve to deal with expected increases in wildfires and insect and disease problems? How will these disturbances affect the land’s ability to provide adequate supplies of food, productive soil, clean air, and water as well as increasing demand for outdoor recreation? And what is the role of research and development in informing policy and management changes?
These are the questions – particularly the role of research – that engaged our team’s exchange between scientists from Turkey and the United States, held in Turkey in the fall of 2018. And this is the history and the issues we explored.
The crossroads of nature, culture, and agriculture
Turkey is an ancient crossroads. Surrounded on three sides by water, it forms the bridge between Asia and southern Europe. It is where East meets West and people, their cultures and vegetation merge and mingle. It is a country of great beauty steeped in human history. For a sense of scale, Turkey is nearly the size of California, Oregon and Idaho combined (303,000 square miles vs. 345,000 square miles), with nearly twice the population (80 million vs. 45 million. Located between 36- and 42-degrees north latitude, defined by 4,474 miles (7,200 km) of coastlines, dominated by rugged mountains and the Anatolian Plateau, Turkey has diverse climates and vegetation morphologically quite similar to those found in the three states. Unlike those states, whose mountains tend north and south, Turkey’s mountain ranges tend east and west with increasingly high mountains to the east. It is literally the land bridge formed by tectonic forces. Eighty percent of the land is considered rugged. The average and median elevations are 4,400 feet (1,332 m) and 3700 feet (1,128 m), respectively. In the Asiatic portion flat land is largely limited to the river deltas.
Western Turkey is bordered by the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara. The region has a distinctly Mediterranean climate with mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers. The terrain is generally rolling, a matrix of productive farms and intensively managed forests. The Black Sea region along Turkey’s northern coast is cool and humid throughout most years. The landscape is extensively fragmented by agriculture including orchards and tea plantations. Intensively managed hardwood and conifer forests dominate the higher slopes of the Northern Anatolian Mountains which rise steeply and block moisture from the Black Sea from reaching the interior of the Anatolian Plateau.
On its southern border, the Taurus Mountains also rise steeply from the Mediterranean Sea forming a narrow band of Mediterranean climate.
COASTAL FORESTS. The Taurus Mountains rise abruptly from the Mediterranean Sea. This results in rapid urban-wildland transitions, steep vegetation and fuel type gradients with elevation, and forests dominated by Turkish red pine (Pinus brutia) from 0 to 5,000 ft (0 to1,500 m); European black pine (P. nigra) from 1,300 to 6,900 ft (400 to 2,100 m); and Cedars of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) from 2,600 to 7,500 ft (800-2300 m).
FLAMMABLE SHRUB. The foreground “maquis” shrub vegetation is similar to California chaparral and indicates past fire. The water impoundment is a yangın havuzu (“fire pool”) at 2,382 ft elevation, on the slopes of the 7,762-foot (2 366 m) Mount Tahtali. Such fire pools are strategically placed throughout the Mediterranean region and are a critical resource for initial attack.
Similarly, the Taurus Mountains block moisture from the Sea. As a result, the interior Anatolian Plateau is predominantly a semi-arid shrub-steppe similar to the high deserts of the Great Basin and Columbian Plateau east of the southern Cascade Range of California, Oregon. Summers are hot and dry and winter cold and harsh often with deep snows.
Wheat and barley farming are common on the productive sites while animal husbandry (primarily goats and sheep), alkali flats and terminal (endorheic), saline lakes dominate the less productive sites. And, like the semiarid lands east of the Cascades one might encounter a herd of wild horses (photos below). The Northern Anatolian and Taurus Mountains converge in eastern Turkey with high, inhospitable mountains bosting peaks over 10,000-feet (>3,000m) with Mount Ararat 16,853 feet (5,137m) the highest point in Turkey. These ranges are the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that defined ancient Mesopotamia.
While the similarities of climate, terrain and natural vegetation bear striking resemblance to large areas of the western United States, the scale of intensive farming, forestry and grazing is quite different. As a result of several millennia of intensive land use vs. less than two centuries in the western US, few areas in Turkey could be characterized as “untrammeled by man.”
The rugged topography and history of intensive land use have resulted in a highly fragmented landscape that limits the free spread of fires (photos below), but the land is in transition. Roughly 7 million people live in 22,000 villages located in or near the forests, a drop of 800,000 in the last decade. As is the case in many Mediterranean countries, the decline in traditional land use results in a build-up of fine fuels and an increase in fire potential. Migration of people from rural areas to urban centers stands is in contrast to the influx of urbanites moving into the wildland urban interface of the western US. In recent years, rapidly increasing population and urbanization have increased the pressure on forests for recreational use rather than agrarian subsistence. This is particularly true in the southern and western coastal areas which are preferred by both, domestic and foreign tourists. Around 40 million visitors come to Turkey each year. This change has implications for wildland fuel dynamics and Turkey’s fire prevention program.