Mount Cilo, the agony of Turkey's second glacier: "Everything is changing here faster than expected."

Kemal Özdemir gazes up at the high, barren peaks of Mount Cilo in southeastern Turkey. "Ten years ago, glaciers covered that area," he recalls, under a cloudless sky. Then the man, a mountain guide for fifteen years, turns toward the stream carrying dozens of grayish ice blocks down a grassy, pebble-covered slope. "As you can see and hear," the guide notes, "there are blocks detached from the glacier in the river (...) And its very high flow rate testifies to the speed at which the ice is melting."

The glaciers of Mount Chilo, which reach a peak of 4,135 meters in Hakkari Province, bordering Iraq, are the second largest in the country, after those of Mount Ararat (5,137 m), 250 km to the north. But due to global warming, new sections of the mountains, once literally trapped in ice, are emerging year after year.

Turkey, which is suffering from heat waves and drought, even recorded a record temperature of 50.5°C on its territory on Friday in Silopi, 200 km as the crow flies from Hakkari.

"The melting is faster than expected. According to our research, we've lost nearly 50% of Mount Cilo's ice and snow cap in the last 40 years," Onur Satir, a geographic information systems specialist at Yüzüncü Yil University in Van (East), told AFP. "Some areas are melting faster than others, which tells us which ones need to be protected. But we have no way to cover the ice," he added, implicitly recalling how several Alpine glaciers have been covered with white sheets in recent years in an attempt to delay their death.

According to the United Nations, glaciers in several regions of the world will not survive the 21st century, threatening the water supply of hundreds of millions of people. Professor Satir explained that if the ice mass is significant, "the melting won't be too rapid. But once the ice has or has broken apart, it will melt faster."

The landscapes around Mount Cilo are a delight for hikers, many of whom flock to the mountain since the sound of guns has faded in recent years from the region, where fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have long challenged the Turkish state.

The ongoing peace process with the PKK, a group designated as terrorist by Ankara and its Western allies, promises to accelerate tourism in this area, which became a national park in 2020. However, melting ice is making some areas dangerous. In July 2023, two hikers were swept away by a boulder that broke away from a glacier. "You shouldn't walk on the ice," warns Özdemir, concerned both for the safety of hikers and the preservation of the glaciers. "This area is 40-50 km from the nearest town; there was no road before. But since it was built, more and more cars are arriving, and the increase in visitor numbers is accelerating the melting of the ice," says the 38-year-old guide, born and raised in the region.

Among the dozens of tourists fascinated by the landscapes, some refuse to acknowledge the reality of global warming in the rapidly evolving environment, despite it being scientifically proven.

"It's the natural evolution of the world," says Hasan Saglam, a 65-year-old doctor who visited Mount Cilo for the first time. "When we link it to climate change, industrialized countries come and tell us not to use fossil fuels and not to develop our industry," he fumes.

A United Nations report on global desertification estimates that 88% of Turkey's territory is threatened by the phenomenon: precipitation is expected to decrease by a third by the end of the century, while temperatures are expected to increase by 5-6°C compared to the averages recorded between 1961 and 1990.