Lush, thick woodland and green tea fields coat the slopes of an idyllic valley, a slice of pastoral heaven near the Turkish president's familial home that will soon be gone.
A government-friendly company plans to extract 20 million tons of stone from a quarry in the northeastern town of Ikizdere for one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's latest development projects.
The locals are rising up in protest, challenging the government and its priorities in a region dear to the powerful Turkish leader's heart.
Critics argue that Turkey is sacrificing the environment as it develops, with forests among natural resources destroyed by companies close to Erdogan for profit.
Residents say their livelihoods and nature will be demolished by the quarry, which the company, Cengiz Holding, and Ankara say is needed for a new logistics port nearby.
