FightING ILISU DAM  - SAVE HASANKEYF AND TIGRIS VALLEY

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Press Release of the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive on the final approval of german and austrian government (27.03.07)

 

Cultural destruction and displacement with German and Austrian assistance!

 

27.03.2007: Press statement of the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive on German and Austrian approval of export credit guarantees for Ilisu dam

 

The German and Austrian governments have announced on 26 March 2007 that they have finally approved the export credit guarantees for the building of the Ilisu dam in the Kurdish settled areas of Turkey. This decision of the two countries has greatly appalled us, the representatives of 72 organizations from the affected area.

The Ilisu dam will flood the more than 10,000 years the old city Hasankeyf on the Tigris, which is under archaeological protection and is ranked as a world cultural heritage by experts, forever under the tides of an enormous artificial lake. Beyond that the dam leads to an enormous ecological disaster and to the displacement of at least 55,000 people.

Germany and Austria argue that Turkey has now committed to measures which go “far beyond practice practiced so far with dam projects”. We strongly object to this:

· We, the people affected by the dam, were hardly informed about the project. Our inquiries and offers to talks were not answered. On the contrary: The governor of the province Mardin called dam critics even “assistants of terrorists”. We filed a complaint against this defamation.

· The most important cultural treasures in antique Hasankeyf are supposed to be dismantled and reconstructed in a newly created “cultural park”. Thus they are allegedly to be saved. We deem this to be mere window-dressing. Renowned scientists from Turkey and Europe explain that such a project is technically impossible. The buildings consist on the inside of bonding agent and not of stones. Therefore they cannot be transported. And how does one want to save for example parts of the rock castle, which are to be flooded by the water? How does one want to shift the unique 6000 caves? Beyond that in the surroundings of Hasankeyf further 300 archaeological places will be flooded. Excavations could be started at only fourteen of these sites so far.

Therefore we consider the decision of the governments from Germany and Austria an enormous act of destruction of an irreplaceable world cultural heritage. Unique documents  of our history and our culture will be destroyed forever. We resist against this. We appeal once more to Germany and Austria, to all human beings, scientists and politicians in Europe and the whole world: Do whatever you can, so that this irresponsible dam project will nevertheless be stopped!

We want a development in our region without cultural and ecological destruction, a

development, which serves the people and does not displace them. We want to determine our future ourselves!

 

Ercan Ayboga

Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive

27.03.2007

Diyarbakir/Türkei