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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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INTRODUCTION / BACKGROUND |
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Ilisu Dam and Hasankeyf — a flyer by the European Ilisu Campaign, english, pdf, Sept. 2010
Ilisu Dam and Hasankeyf — a flyer by the European Ilisu Campaign, german, pdf, March 2010
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Information paper by the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive from September 2010
Ilisu Dam - impacts and resistance
The Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River is the largest dam and hydroelectric power plant planned by the Turkish government. It is a key part of a large scale regional development project, the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), in the Kurdish southeast of the Republic Turkey. 32 US Billions are foreseen for GAP which consists of 22 dams (planned capacity 7500 MW) on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the irrigation of 1,8 Mio. Ha. Land (export oriented agriculture is planned). To date 60 % of GAP has been implemented, but nothing has been improved for the regional people, rather they had to bear the social and ecological costs while the industrial centres in West-Turkey and big companies have the profit. The Ilisu Dam is planned to be built shortly before the Iraqi-Syrian border, would have a height of 138 m and flood 136 km of the Tigris and an area of 313 km². The 1200 MW and 2 billions Euro project has become one of the most controversial projects in the international finance community. In July 2010 the Export Credit Agencies of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, made an unprecedented step, by suspensing the credit guarantee due to the Turkish failure to comply with required conditions. However, the Turkish state and the companies found a new finance and continue with the project.
PEOPLE The Ilisu dam would completely or partially flood 199 villages and the antique city of Hasankeyf which are the homes of up to 78.000 people. Almost half of the affected villagers and further affected 30.000 nomads have no land or land titles. They would not get any compensation. For the other small villagers there is land neither for resettlement nor other in- come restoration measures. The most people would move to the next big cities where already several hundred thousands displaced people from the 90ies live in bad conditions. Their villages – totally 3500 – have been destroyed systematically by the Turkish Army in the war against Kurdish rebels. The affected people face a future in extreme poverty, the loss of their livelihoods and history, and the disruption of their village and family structures. After some years of relative stability in the region, the political conflict has heated up again since 2007. There can be not the mention of any serious participation. Surveys show that 80 per cent of the affected population opposes the project. Alternatives for energy and regional development proposed by us and other organizations and researchers in Turkey are not discussed.
CULTURE The Ilisu project is situated in Upper Mesopotamia, the “cradle of civilization”, hosting traces of dozens of cultures. Only the Ilisu project would affect up to 400 archaeological sites. The oldest village of human history, Hallan Çemi, has been submerged through another dam in 2003. The 12.000 year old town of Hasankeyf – inhabited continuously – with its unique mergence of historic cultural heritage in line with nature would be flooded by its reservoir. However, researches show that Hasankeyf fulfill 9 of 10 UNESCO world heritage criteria. Hasankeyf symbolizes the identity of the local people which have put Hasankeyf in the centre of their struggle.
NATURE The dam will destroy approx. 400 km2 of precious riverine habitat for many – partially endangered – species like the Euphrates soft shell turtle. The river stretches are very crucial for the whole ecology of the region. The regional climate would also change as it happened with the Euphrates River Basin where the traditional agriculture had to experience some serious negative impacts. As only some researches have been done in the Tigris valley till today we do not know really what we would loose. The water quality of the reservoir is expected to be extremely low, leading to massive fish extermination, and threatening people’s health. Further downstream the decreased water flow will affect the Mesopotamian Marshes in Iraq – one of the most important ecosystems worldwide.
INTERNATIONAL IMPACTS Turkey shares the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers with Syria and Iraq. Syria and Iraq rely extremely on these two rivers and could not have no any agriculture and water supply of urban centers. International convention and law requires that Turkey consults with Syria and Iraq, negotiate and come to an agreement before implementing any large projects at or on the Tigris River. Such an agreement is still missing and Turkey is not bound legally to any agreement. That’s why the Ilisu project is very problematic on international level. This situation threatens to increase already present tensions between Turkey and Iraq, and could even lead to serious “water conflicts”. In fact, Turkey used its dams to stop water flow into Syria in 1998. Even in times of peace, allowing a state to wield this powerful tool increases tensions between neighboring countries.
CURRENT STATUS The situation in the Tigris Valley is very serious although the project has been stopped twice in 2002 and 2009. In spring 2010 the construction of the Ilisu Dam has restarted. The finance comes from three Turkish banks with a credit guarantee by the Turkish government. This is a risky change in the finance of large dam projects in Turkey. The current consortium consists of four Turkish companies and the Austrian company Andritz.
PROTESTS In January 2006 founded, the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive currently brings together a coalition of 88 organizations: Affected municipalities, social, women and human right NGOs, professional associations and trade unions. It is one of the broadest environmental movements in the Kurdish provinces. We campaign to stop this project and for alternatives to be developed with the input of all relevant stakeholders at all stages with the aim of improving the socio-economic situation of people in the region, developing the cultural heritage and saving the environment. In that framework the affected people were informed about their rights, researches were done, many protests were held in the region and West-Turkey, a coalition with other anti-dam movements in Turkey is established – called „River Movements“ (www.akarsuhareketleri.org) – and relations to several human-rights/ecological organizations were developed on a national level. Many NGO’s in Europe have formed the European Ilisu Dam Campaign.
DEMANDS 1) The Turkish Government must immediately stop the Ilisu project and the involved companies and banks must withdraw from the project 2) Hasankeyf and the surrounding Tigris Valley must be declared a UNESCO world heritage site and an alternative social-ecological model of development needs to be implemented. 3) In Turkey the companies must develop higher criteria for their engagement in dam projects. 4) The Turkish Government must review principally its destructive and neoliberal water policies.
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