Nuclear energy and collective memory in the shadow of electrification

Compared to previous years, the climate crisis has become a more prominent issue in Turkey, at least at the institutional level. This is particularly evident as Turkey prepares to host COP31 this year, one of the most critical stops on the global climate diplomacy calendar.

Against the backdrop of the climate crisis, we are witnessing a global push to rebrand nuclear energy as a green solution, framed around the expectations of decarbonization and “net zero” targets. Questioning the claim that nuclear energy is a solution to the climate crisis is directly a matter of justice, security and collective memory. It is also essential to achieving an energy transition that is just, ecological and genuinely clean.

Our central question is this: How much truth is there to this narrative? Or is the aim simply to manufacture consent?

We will examine the issue through recent data, the perspectives of climate justice and policy, as well as the social and visual memory of Türkiye’s decades-long anti-nuclear movement.

Speakers: 
Can Candan, Özgür Gürbüz

Moderation: 
Filiz Yavuz

About Can Candan

Can Candan is an independent filmmaker and academic whose documentaries and scholarship explore memory, power, and representation, with a focus on leveraging the power of cinema to make human rights violations visible. He holds a BA in Film and Video from Hampshire College and an MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University—the highest academic qualification in fine arts, comparable in standing to a PhD in other disciplines. He has taught at Temple University, Hampshire College, İstanbul Bilgi University, Sabancı University, and Boğaziçi University. He is in residence at Northwestern University’s Roberta Buffett Institute's Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program in the USA throughout 2026–27. He is co-editor of Kurdish Documentary Cinema in Turkey: The Politics and Aesthetics of Resistance (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016). He is currently working on a comprehensive Turkish-language book and a series of English-language articles on the history of documentary cinema in Turkey. His feature-length documentaries—Duvarlar-Mauern-Walls (2000), 3 Hours (2008), and My Child (2013)—engage with migration, human rights, social struggle, and the politics of everyday life. The films have received international recognition. He is currently developing Nuclear alla Turca, a feature-length documentary that examines the history and present moment of “the nuclear” in Turkey. His recent work extends beyond film into research-based visual practice. In 2026, his project Nükleer İbrahimlerin İzleri (Traces of the Nuclear Ibrahims) was presented in the exhibition Breaking Through a Dam at SALT Beyoğlu in Istanbul. The work traces the deployment of US Jupiter nuclear missiles in Turkey in the early 1960s. Alongside his academic and artistic work, he continues to be actively engaged in struggles for academic freedom, freedom of expression, and institutional accountability.

About Özgür Gürbüz 
He began his career in journalism in 1994 and has written articles on the environment, the economy, and energy for numerous media outlets, as well as producing and hosting radio programs. Currently a columnist for the BirGün newspaper, Gürbüz also worked for civil society organizations after leaving full-time journalism; he is one of the founders of the Ekosfer Association. Currently working as an independent consultant and energy analyst, Gürbüz is the author of a book titled Energy and Cows, as well as numerous published articles and analyses. Gürbüz is among the authors of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report. 

About Filiz Yavuz
Journalist and author. She holds a PhD in journalism. Her doctoral research examined media representations of the anti-nuclear movement in Spain and Türkiye. She is the author of “You Left Me in Akkuyu Pith without a ladder” (Beni Akkuyu'larda Merdivensiz Bıraktın), a book on Türkiye’s nuclear history and anti-nuclear struggle. She serves as a consultant for the documentary Nuclear Alla Turca. She is also a jury member of Ecolarship, Türkiye’s first ecology-focused postgraduate scholarship programme under the Heinrich Böll Stiftung.