Officials repeatedly promise demolitions and inspections over the years, yet the bungalows remain. What began as “eco-tourism” now threatens Sapanca’s forests, water, and bird habitats — a small-scale portrait of how Turkey’s nature is being lost.

Among them: NEF-Kempinski, a $130m project promising 200 rooms and villas, and Lake Look, owned by businessmen linked to AKP. Both built on land once classed as first-grade protected.

Our investigation found that over 4,000 bungalows have been built, mostly without permits and many on protected land. In 2025, the government revised Sapanca’s conservation map, downgrading protections to legalise powerful investors’ lakeside resorts.

An hour from Istanbul, Sapanca was once a retreat of forests and a pristine lake. Now it’s a construction site. Its green valleys are covered by thousands of unlicensed bungalows and “tiny houses.”
✏️ @cemredemircioglu.bsky.social @cpshaw.bsky.social
📸 Özge Sebzeci
theblacksea.eu/investigatio...

Turkey was the worst offender in all of Europe.

Luxury hotels, power plants, and yacht ports: Turkey’s endless construction boom has turned fields and forests into concrete and asphalt, consuming an area larger than Istanbul’s Anatolian side in only six years.

theblacksea.eu/investigatio...

#GreenToGrey, a cross-border investigation - initiated by Arena for Journalism in Europe and NRK. 41 journalists & scientists from 11 countries. Using satellite imagery, artificial intelligence, and on-the-ground reporting, the investigation reveals the extent of Europe’s nature and cropland

✏️New investigation: UK-Turkish mining firms having a blast in Nigeria: Residents living beside Turkish-run quarries say they are under constant siege from falling chunks of rock, relentless dust, and deafening explosions that can strike at any hour.

theblacksea.eu/special-repo...

Aralık 2023'te 35'i çocuk 85 kişiyi taşıyan tekne Akdeniz'de kayboldu. Yolcuların akıbeti, kıyılara vuran cesetlere rağmen hiç kimsenin çözmeye yanaşmadığı bir gizem olarak kalmaya devam ediyor
@cpshaw.bsky.social @cemredemircioglu.bsky.social @orucvedat.bsky.social

theblacksea.eu/special-repo...

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Turkey's Escobar key to new cocaine drop-offs
Tonnes of cocaine “drop-offs” in the Mediterranean in recent years reveal an emerging business alliance between the Turkish mafia and the Colombians, Albanians, and Italians.
Story by @cecijan.bsky.social @irpimedia.eu
theblacksea.eu/special-repo...

Turkey's Escobar key to new cocaine drop-offs
Tonnes of cocaine “drop-offs” in the Mediterranean in recent years reveal an emerging business alliance between the Turkish mafia and the Colombians, Albanians, and Italians.
Story by @cecijan.bsky.social @irpimedia.eu
theblacksea.eu/special-repo...

In December 2023, four boats left Lebanon carrying Syrian refugees. One boat, carrying 85 passengers, including 35 children, never arrived.
🔗 Read our latest investigation by @cpshaw.bsky.social @cemredemircioglu.bsky.social @orucvedat.bsky.social, Jana Barakat
theblacksea.eu/special-repo...

A year-long investigation. Dozens of testimonies. Multiple countries.

New story coming Monday.

@cpshaw.bsky.social, @cemredemircioglu.bsky.social, @orucvedat.bsky.social, Jana Barakat.

The Black Sea will be at this year's @dataharvestarena.bsky.social to talk about growing business of outsourced war crimes investigations in Europe.

dataharvest25.sched.com/event/1zv18/...

#dataharvest25 #EIJC25

Avrupa Birliği, #PFAS üzerinde tarihi bir yasağı değerlendirirken, bu kimyasalları piyasada tutmak için savaşan bir endüstriyle karşı karşıya. Bazı Türk şirketleri de bu lobicilik mücadelesine dahil oldu.
#ForeverLobbying

theblacksea.eu/investigatio...

Avrupa Birliği, #PFAS üzerinde tarihi bir yasağı değerlendirirken, bu kimyasalları piyasada tutmak için savaşan bir endüstriyle karşı karşıya. Bazı Türk şirketleri de bu lobicilik mücadelesine dahil oldu.
#ForeverLobbying

theblacksea.eu/investigatio...

"The Poison of the Century": How #PFAS went from “miracle chemical” to global public health crisis

Lawyer Robert Bilott helped expose how 3M and DuPont concealed their devastating health and environmental impacts for decades.

#ForeverLobbying

theblacksea.eu/investigatio...

Unprecedented lobbying effort to sway the EU on PFAS “forever chemicals”

As the European Union considers a historic ban on #PFAS, it confronts an industry lobbying hard to keep them on the market. Some Turkish companies have also joined the fight.

#foreverlobbying

theblacksea.eu/investigatio...

THE GRUDGE: An ISIS execution. Visas to Europe. Conflicting testimonies. A failed universal jurisdiction case in Sweden. TBS investigates the rise & role of non-profit CIJA in outsourced war crimes prosecutions.

theblacksea.eu/special-repo...