Beginning in early May, thousands of Turks signed petitions, participated in demonstrations and posted to social media in support of the campaign “Olives Are Life!” (Zeytin Hayattir!) The name and slogan belonged to the leading campaign, one of many, against a government proposal to amend a 1930s “olive law” and protect olive groves in the country. Faced with stiff opposition, the government withdrew the amendment on June 13. Turkey's olive lobby seems to have won the battle, at least for the time being.

Both political opposition and olive sector players considered the proposed bill, which would have allowed the construction of non-olive oil-related industrial facilities in olive groves to the possibly significant detriment of the groves and olive growers and their enterprises. Opponents had feared that the bill's passage would lead to the destruction and replacement of the groves with mines, industrial projects and housing schemes if they were deemed to be in the “public interest” despite causing serious damage to Turkey's olive oil production.

The strongest voices in opposition came from Ayvalik, a picturesque Aegean town that is included on UNESCO’s tentative list of World Heritage centers. The town’s recent addition to the list is almost entirely based on its olive culture. The organization calls the town's olive groves a “component of the natural character of Ayvalik.”

Yalin Tuzmen, a city planner and conservation expert from the Ayvalik municipality, told Al-Monitor that there are some 2 million olive trees in and around Ayvalik. In Ayvalik itself, a well-preserved 19th-century industrial port town, the main thoroughfares have an almost natural, stream-like flow from olive groves to the harbor, from which oil and olive oil soap were once shipped. This is perhaps one reason for UNESCO's recognition of the Ayvalik Industrial Landscape.