Last week, RedHack, the world’s first and oldest hacktivist hacker group dating to 1997, had claimed to compromise data of the Turkish Electricity Transmission Corporation (TEİAŞ) in a move against the cutting of 6,000 olive trees in the Aegean town of Yırca, Turkey to construct a power plant.
After breaching the company website, the hacker group tweeted,
“We dedicate this action to the villagers of Yırca, to those who resist in Validebağ, and to those who know that there are things more important than money and status in this life.”
And to testify their act, they posted the following video on 14 November,
The ministry, however, refused to accept any kind of data compromise though it did concede that the company’s website was attacked.
Turkey’s Ministry of Energy has denied that RedHack hacktivists have written off debts worth 1.5 million Turkish Liras, according to a statement from the ministry.
“Our system doesn’t allow a bill to be deleted permanently. The original copies of bills are stored at TEİAŞ. The debt that is allegedly written off was collected on Oct. 27,” the ministry statement said.
Responding to the ministry’s statement, a spokesperson of RedHack said, “They always give an impression that it didn’t hurt. Their system was messed up, and passwords were made public, and people have deleted numerous files and bills and changed details on the system. Our main aim was to prove to them that their system can be compromised and they are not untouchable,” according to Daily Dot.
According to Al-Monitor, Kolin Group, one of biggest conglomerates of Turkey with close political alliances, had destroyed down around 6,000 olive trees, which were the means of sustenance for about 400 Yirca villagers. The trees were mostly 85-100 years old and the company had uprooted them despite the ongoing debate in the court over the land and an on-site 52-days protest.
The Council of State had ordered the company to stop its activities after 10 hours, but by then the grove was already massacred.
“The trees are gone, and we are now waiting for the final decision of the court before making up our minds as to what we can or cannot do next,” said the head of the Yırca.
The groves provided livelihood to many villagers who found it as an alternative to hazardous coal mine jobs.
“Some of us may end up going to bed hungry at night, but we won’t go underground to work in the mines risking of our lives,” said the village head referring to an explosion in the nearby coal mine last May that killed 301 miners.
The spirit of villagers, though dampened by the destruction of their groves, did not die. They planted about 100-110 olive saplings two days later.
The hacker group had assisted Turkish activists in past as well. The group owned up the blame of tweeting anti-government messages during the Taksim Gezi Park protests, when authorities announced an investigation last year.
“The AKP is going to conduct an investigation. We have posted all tweets and hacked thousands of people’s computers. Don’t take on the innocent ones, we are here,” Redhack tweeted.
“All accounts that retweet Redhack, write about Redhack, or organize the resistance, were hacked by us.”
