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ILISU BARAJINI DURDURALIM - HASANKEYF VE DICLE VADiSINI KURTARALIM |
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Hasankeyfi Yaşatma Girişiminin Internet sitesine hoşgeldiniz... |
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Almanya, Avusturya ve Isvicre hükümetlerine girisim üyelerinden mektuplar (07.03.2007) |
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Ministry of Economy and Technology Mr. Michael Glos Federal Republic of Germany
Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development Mrs. Heidi Wieczorek-Zeul Federal Republic of Germany
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier Federal Republic of Germany
Ministry of Finance Mr. Peter Steinbrück Federal Republic of Germany
(similar letter to Austrian and Swiss Governments)
Diyarbakir, February 7th, 2007
We call upon the ECAs and the European Governments to abide by the international laws and to immediately stop acting against their own institutional ethics and principles! We urge them to re-evaluate the Ilisu Dam Project in compliance with the standards and guidelines set out by the international agreements, and to stop denying us, the locally affected stakeholders, our right to be informed!
We request that the German, Austrian and Swiss governments and these countries ECAs abide by the international agreements (OECD and World Bank) during the decision making processes related to the IIisu Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant (HEPP) Project, and that they accordingly refuse to grant export credit guarantee for the Ilisu Consortium!
Insisting on not to share the relevant developments related to the Ilisu Dam project with the locally affected stakeholders 30 days prior to final decision, you are violating the OECD and World Bank criteria, by which you are legally bound and obliged to abide.
As set out in your letters and communication with us, you will be sharing the content of the agreements between you and Turkey and the conditions involved therein with public only after a final decision regarding the Ilisu Dam is made. As you are also aware, this is clearly in violation with our right to be informed. You insist to ignore the issues and concerns voiced by the locally affected communities and to keep the relevant decision making processes about their future as a secret from the local stakeholders. Unfortunately, these make it very clear in the eye of the people in the region and of the whole world that you have no intention to evaluate this project within a scientific framework and in compliance with the international law and relevant principles; and that you indeed disrespect them all.
We would like to inform you that we will be sharing our serious concerns about your unlawful and victimizing ethics and practices and the fact that you insist denying the affected stakeholders their right to be informed with the World Bank as well. We should remind you once again that, currently, we neither know the details of the 30 conditions that Turkey is obliged to fulfill for the final approval nor have any information about the relevant assessment procedures regarding this fulfillment.
A few months work is never enough to update and rewrite the EIA and RAP Reports according to scientific principles and guidelines, and then to re-evaluate those reports, both of which had been previously found to be grossly inadequate and unsatisfactory. However, the fact that the Turkish ministries and institutions already initiated the construction of the dam despite the lack of final approval for the credit, and that they indeed publicly announced transfer of 5000 soldiers to the project area shows the seriousness of the secret and unlawful agreement between Turkey and the involved international actors.
We would like to know the legal basis on which an agreement involving 30 conditions for the renewal and re-evaluation of the EIA and RAP reports could be formulated. Furthermore, we would also like to know the exact and explicit details of the relevant World Bank and OECD criteria that allow these agreements and conditions to be kept secret.
We have shared our relevant concerns with you many times. Yet, at the sake of undermining your institutional reputation, you have neither properly nor seriously addressed these issues; on the contrary, to our great surprise, you insisted to follow procedures that first and foremost violate your own institutional code of ethics and behaviour.
During your site visit to the region in August 2006, you were surprised at the great number of professionals, experts and NGO representatives who all attended meetings with you in order to voice and explain their opposition against the Ilisu Dam Project. You had asked us whether or not all of us were indeed from the affected areas or that we solely came to attend the meetings from outside of the region. We would like to repeat our answer: We are all professionals living and working in the affected areas, we are affected people, we are local stakeholders with whom you now refuse to cooperate. We, as the Associations of Archaeologists, Chambers of Engineers and Association for Immigrantsas the local representatives of the affected stakeholders who will be victimized by the Ilisu Dam and by these unlawful practices, in accordance with the ethics and principles set out by our professional background, would like to state that: -- According to a very limited and inadequate hearsay information we received as a result of our persistent efforts, we learned that the 299 tumuli, which have been proved to provide new information regarding the world history and science in recent excavations, were to be saved in 7 years, and that part of these secret conditions were about the salvation procedures for these historical and cultural assets. We do request detailed information regarding the relevant scientific procedures and techniques foreseen to be employed. It is our right to know about the progress Turkey has made in fulfilling these conditions; and it will be a crime for you to hide this information from us. --Similarly, we were never informed about the progress Turkey has made regarding the environmental and social impacts of the dam; and, we do request to be informed.
With our strong belief in our right to be informed as stakeholders, we urge you to decline this secret, and therefore, unlawful agreement with 150 conditions. We expect that you will initiate a new project evaluation process, which will be carried out within our knowledge and in strict compliance with scientific and legal standards and guidelines.
Best regards Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive
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