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FightING ILISU DAM - SAVE HASANKEYF AND TIGRIS VALLEY |
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Welcome to the Homepage of the „Initative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive“ |
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FERN: EP-Ilisu workshop on Ilisu dam project |
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News Release 11 May 2006 Ilisu Dam project moves Turkey away from accession, delegates from Turkey say in European Parliament In a workshop hosted today by MEPs Rebecca Harms, Jean Lambert and Louisa Morgantini the European Parliament discussed the planned Ilisu dam project [1] in the context of Turkey’s process of accession to the European Union. The Ilisu dam is a hydroelectric project on the river Tigris in the Kurdish region of Southeast Anatolia. If built, it would dispossess up to 78,000 people and submerge the historic town of Hasankeyf [2]. It is expected that the dam would cause serious environmental pollution, health problems and curtail the downstream flow of water to Iraq and Syria. The region in which the Ilisu dam is to be build has been and continues to be characterised by ethnic conflict and human rights violations, making free and fair consultations with affected people virtually impossible. The planned dam achieved international infamy when it was first considered by European companies from 2000 and 2002 because of the serious economic, social, environmental and cultural concerns which ultimately lead to the collapse of the business consortium in 2002. Now the Ilisu dam is back on the agenda. In late 2005 three European export credit agencies [3] (of Austria, Germany and Switzerland) have received formal applications for export credit insurance from companies with contracts for the planned dam. Their decision is still pending. Non-governmental organisations in Turkey and Europe say that the project design of the Ilisu dam utterly fails to meet EU standards with regard to environment, human rights and cultural heritage and that various EU laws and policies, including the accession agreement between Turkey and the European Union, are being violated. Judith Neyer of the advocacy group FERN, who co-organised this workshop: “The European Union requires that any new investments in Turkey comply with the EU environment acquis. Turkey’s planned implementation of the Ilisu dam will move Turkey away from the acquis communautaire - with the help of European business and government funding. This is unacceptable, for as part of the accession process, the EU is required to press for and monitor progress in transposition and implementation of environmental legislation.” Delegates from Turkey argued that the Commission was not being sufficiently robust in its monitoring of the faltering progress Turkey has made towards meeting the Copenhagen Criteria and assimilating the EU’s environmental acquis. Osman Baydemir, Mayor of the regional metropolitan city of Diyarbakir said: “It is clear for everyone to see that the damage the Ilisu dam will cause for the region's cultural heritage runs counter to environmental and cultural policies of the European Union. The Ilisu dam project conflicts with Turkey's EU integration process. When will the Commission act on this? Will it live up to its responsibilities in this regard?” Kerim Yildiz, Director of the London-based Kurdish Human Rights Project warned: “A human rights ‘break clause’ within the Accession Agreement compels the Commission to suspend all negotiations. If invoked as a result of Ilisu’s failure to respect the human rights of those affected, Member States who provide public finance to the Ilisu dam through their export credit agencies would have to accept at least partial responsibility for the breakdown of the accession negotiations.” For more information (and to reach
Osman Baydemir and Kerim Yildiz) contact: Notes for the editor:
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