[Discov] Turkish dam will flood the site of ancient Hasankeyf (pics included)

[DAVIDE]

The Turkish Dam That 'Would Never Have been Permitted' in Germany


The German government, along with the Austrians and Swiss, pulled their support for a huge hydro-energy project in Turkey this week. The required dam would have flooded an ancient city and displaced more than 10,000 people. German papers praised the decision, asking why it took so long to make.
It was meant to be one of the most ambitious energy policy programs ever undertaken by the Turkish government, but on Tuesday, Germany, Austria and Switzerland withdrew their backing for the controversial Ilisu dam project. The governments of the countries said they would suspend loan guarantees to European construction companies participating in the mega project.
Construction of the 1,820 meter (1.1 miles) long and 135 meter (443 feet) high dam would have meant flooding the archeologically significant, ancient city of Hasankeyf on the Tigris River as well as the enforced relocation of more than 10,000 people.


The countries said the decision came after Turkey persistently violated cultural and social provisions that were part of the deal. "Our critical attitude toward Ilisu was correct from the beginning," said German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul of the center-left Social Democrats. "If the protection of people, the environment and cultural heritage cannot be ensured, then the supply and loan guarantee agreements for the dam must be terminated."
Others criticized the government for taking so long to quit the project. In a statement, the joint heads of the German Green Party, Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir, a German born to Turkish parents, said: "The announcement that Turkey will continue to build the dam without loans from German, Austria and Switzerland raises concern. Berlin must support Turkey in developing environmentally friendly alternatives to the dam."


Turkey wanted to build the dam in order to generate hydro electricity as well as to provide improved irrigation for farmers in the impoverished, predominately Kurdish southeastern region. Germany had previously said it would back the project with €190 million in Euler Hermes export guarantees. In December, Germany temporarily froze the credit and gave Turkey 180 days to fullfil a strict list of criteria. The deadline expired on Monday, and the German government felt Turkey had done too little. The mayor of Hasankeyf, Abdulvahap Kusen, also greeted the suspension of the loan guarantees and called for the city, which is more than 10,000 years old, to be declared a UNESCO world heritage site. The Turkish government, however, expressed its irritation over the decision and said it would push ahead with the project -- with or without support from abroad. Turkish Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu said the decision was a political one and that an existing agreement had been broken. The report by the expert committee, he noted, had not recommended suspension of the project.
The disagreement is part of a recurring trend: recently tensions between Turkey and Europe have been growing again. For weeks, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been critical of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy's positions on Turkey's EU candidacy. Both European leaders would like to see a "privileged partnership" for Turkey in lieu of full membership status. The Turkish president told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera earlier this week that Turkey had lost interest in "waiting for Europe."
On Wednesday, editorialists at German newspapers see the decision as less of a Turkey-EU schism and more of a victory for environmental and social activists. Editorialists praise the suspension of loan guarantees, arguing that the government in Berlin should not be supporting projects abroad that it would never permit at home.
The leftist Frankfurter Rundschau writes:
"By protesting vocally, a unique international alliance of non-governmental organizations, artists and environmentalists has successfully ensured that money for the controversial hydro-energy project on the Tigris River will be cut off. At the very least, the gigantic dam will not be built using German, Austrian or Swiss taxpayers' money. That may not be enough to stop the project but it will create problems for it. At the very least, the withdrawal of Western European loan guarantees will dampen the chutzpah with which aspiring EU member state Turkey has brushed off objections against the mega project over the years."
"But the history of the Ilisu dam should also be a lesson for the German government. A small but persistent grassroots movement has seen to it that the German government cannot quietly set aside ecological and social standards evidently applied at home, while providing export aid to German construction companies doing business abroad. In this David versus Goliath episode, David has seen to it that the brakes have been put on Turkey's megalomaniacal and failed energy policy -- and at the same time, halted German export policies in which there was a governmental double standard at work."
The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
"The city of Samosata, the center of the ancient Komagene empire, was flooded many years ago as a result of the construction of the Atatürk high dam. But the equally interesting city of Hasankeyf still has a chance of survival. Germany, Austria and Switzerland have withdrawn their loan guarantees for the construction of the Ilisu dam. ... The Turkish government is saying it fulfilled all the conditions placed on it by these countries and that the decision to pull their credit has been 'purely political.' But that's a dubious line. People who were forcibly displaced years ago are still awaiting compensation today. The sense of environmental consciousness is also growing in Turkey. Well-known artists like Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk have protested against its construction. Now Turkey wants to go ahead and build the dam on its own, but no one knows for sure how or with what money."
The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"It's a good decision. It's just bad that it came so late. In truth there shouldn't even have been years of debate over loan guarantees for the dam project. The cliff city of Hasankeyf alone is reason enough for never buildng the Ilisu dam. The planned dam would only be used for 60 years but it would destroy 10,000 years of human history. The German government's participation was essentially a blessing of the project. By imposing 150 conditions on Turkey for the loan guaranties, the government wanted to make the dam a model project. The first surprise came when European inspectors unveiled the fact that Turkey's adherence to these conditions had been a farce. The second was the reaction of governments in Berlin, Bern and Vienna to their own experts' devastating assessments. Ankara was systematically violating the conditions placed by the Europeans in order to protect the cultural heritage and prevent the displacement of people. Turkey had long been violating the terms of its contract, but it only did so because the Europeans allowed it to." "Now one has to suspect that the decision to withdraw from the project has more to do with growing public pressure than any principles. And that's why Germany's laws should be reformed. The government in Berlin cannot be allowed to let German businesses participate in projects abroad that would never be permitted in their own country."



THE TREASURE TURKEY WILL LOSE


The Turkish NGO Doga Dernegi claims this photo is evidence that the government in Ankara is proceeding with construction of the Ilisu dam project despite the fact that it hasn't fulfilled environmental and cultural protection conditions set by creditors in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.


Officials at the Turkish State Waterworks Authority claim the concrete wall in the Tigris River bed is a temporary bridge that will be removed when actual construction starts.


But a handful of organizations claim the structure looks more like a dam than a bridge.


And they claim that work being done across the river appears to be related to the future dam construction.



Once built, the dam is expected to flood parts of Hasankeyf. Once a great city of Mesopotamia, Hasankeyf still bears the marks of numerous civilizations that conquered it.



Romans, Arabs, Mongols and Ottomans all had their day in this city on the banks of the Tigris River.



Here, children play next to the ruins of an ancient bridge in the city.


The remains of the 12th-century bridge stand as a reminder of past civilizations


The resevoir of more than 125 square miles would submerge the entire lower settlement of Hasankeyf. Only the tip of this minaret would be visible.



Once in place, the dam will displace as many as 15,000 people who live along the Tigris River



Numerous caves carved out of Hasankeyf's limestone cliffs once provided shelter and storage space for locals.


Source: http://www.spiegel.de/international/...635054,00.html

[Phier]

Is it possible to build a damn anywhere in Turkey that wouldn't flood some ancient city?

[DAVIDE]

yes there are many parts of Turkey, in which there's not an UNESCO site or an archaeological one.
i have a question for you: if the ancient site was "islamic" and not pre-islamic, do u think Turkey will build a dam in there, flooding everything?

[DAVIDE]

TURKEY'S DAM CONTROVERSY

"We Will Lose a Real Treasure"


Designs for Turkey's Ilisu dam were finalized in 1982, but social, historical and environmental concerns have stalled development for decades. But this weekend saw the country's prime minister attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the dam, which is considered one of the world's most-controversial public works projects.
The ancient Turkish city of Hasankeyf is no stranger to conquest by distant powers. Nestled on the banks of the Tigris River, it still bears the mark of its successive rulers -- among them, Romans, Arabs, Mongols and Ottomans.
But now it's those reminders of a settlement that was established several thousand years before Christ's birth that Hasankeyf's 3,800 citizens fear will be lost. The ancient city lies at the heart of plans for a massive dam project that will provide water supplies and electricity to Turkey's southeast.

Over the weekend, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the project -- against the backdrop of 4,000 protestors who rallied against the Ilisu dam, which would forever submerge the town's archeological heritage.
"We will lose a real treasure," said Ercan Ayboga of the Initiative to Save Hasankeyf. Zeynep Ahunbay, a prominent activist for the preservation of historical sites in Turkey went even further, saying the ruins should be given UNESCO'S "world cultural heritage" designation.
Turkey says the €1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) Ilisu dam, one of 21 outlined under the broader $32 billion Greater Anatolia Project (GAP), will improve agricultural and social conditions by controlling flooding and improving irrigation.

A mini Three Gorges?


But numerous contractors, including Swiss bank UBS and British firm Balfour Beatty, have pulled out of the project in recent years, citing social and environmental concerns.
The massive public works project is being promoted by Ankara as part of an effort to develop the impoverished Kurdish region. Still, the project is coming at a high cost for the region's residents. Once the dam gates are closed, an area of 313 square kilometers (120.8 square miles) will be flooded.

The flooding will displace at least 15,000 people. And though they are likely to receive some compensation from Ankara, a total of 50,000 will lose land or other property. Some NGOs have claimed the move -- in a predominately Kurdish region – is a direct attempt to rid the country of pro-autonomy Kurds. But Ankara is promoting the massive public works project as part of efforts to develop the impoverished Kurdish region. In addition, the project has created tensions in Iraq and also in Syria, where the river forms a 32-kilometer long border with Turkey. The drought-plagued countries have accused Turkey of monopolizing the river's water.
Yet despite criticism at home and abroad, Turkey is charging ahead with construction of the Ilisu dam. The dam's turbines are expected to generate 3,800 gigawatts of electricity per hour and the government in Ankara says it will represent a major Turkish contribution to the development of renewable energies. The appetite for energy certainly exists. According to Water Power and Dam Construction, an industry publication, Turkey's electricity consumption doubled in the 1990s and is likely to continue to rise.
The project has also drawn criticism in Germany, where the government in Berlin is providing export credit guarantees for construction of the dam. German construction giant Züblin is also a partner on the project. The German government is eager to avoid irritating its close partner, which is seeking membership in the European Union, but at the same time it must ensure that it isn't supporting a dubious project.

For its part, Turkey is taking pains to make the project more palatable to its opponents. Ankara has promised to save Hasankeyf's cultural treasures, with a plan in the works to move the historical buildings and reassemble them in an archaeology park. But experts like Ahunbay dismiss that pledge and describe it as "almost impossible." The ancient structures were built with such delicate stone that they would likely crumble if disassembled. Besides, Ahunbay argues, Hasankeyf is a unique natural monument that cannot be recreated in a park. Together with other opponents, she has filed a case to halt construction of the dam with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.








Berlin May Withdraw Backing for Turkish Project


The German government says it may suspend export guarantees needed for the construction of a massive dam in Turkey that could force the resettlement of tens of thousands.
Germany is considering suspending export guarantees for the planned construction of a controversial bridge in Turkey that would flood ancient cultural treasures and force the displacement of tens of thousands of residents.

Export guarantees that had been pledged to German construction giant Züblin totalling more than €100 million ($154.4 million) have been made subject to a "critical review" of the plans to build the Ilisu dam along the upper stretch of the Tigris River, a spokesperson for the German Foreign Trade and Investment Scheme said.
The German government moved earlier this month to delay and possibly suspend the export guarantees following the release of a new report by a commission of international experts hired by European governments sponsoring the project. The report concluded that the Turkish government had failed to meet many of the 153 criteria that had been established as prerequisites for the project to receive German government-backed export guarantees. Turkey had been required to fullfil those criteria by the end of 2007, but the experts have accused the Turkish government of ignoring most of them and of failing to adhere to international standards set for the project.

The panel said the project didn't go far enough to protect the environment or preserve the cultural treasures in the ancient settlement of Hasankeyf, which was established several thousand years before Christ's birth. It also criticized the planned resettlement of close to 55,000 residents living in areas that will be flooded by the dam, complaining that residents had not yet been provided with sufficient information or consultations about their relocation and that no agency had been set up to handle complaints. The Turkish government, the experts claimed, couldn't even provide an estimate of the exact number of residents who would be displaced.


"The Report Is Dynamite"


Germany -- along with Austria and Switzerland, which are also helping to finance the project -- had tied its export guarantees to international standards that were to be monitored by the independent expert commission.
"The report is dynamite," Ulrich Eichelmann of the organization ECA Watch, which monitors export credit agencies, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. "If they take their own experts seriously, then the Germans, Swiss and Austrians must immediately abandon the project."
German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul of the center-left Social Democrats has said she will "withdraw export guarantees if the agreed to measures are not applied."
Turkey wants to build the dam in order to provide water supplies and electricity to the country's southeast. It's part of the South East Anatolia Project (GAP), which includes plans to build 22 major dams, 19 hydroelectric plants and dozens of irrigation systems in the region. But the project has become a lightning rod for criticism, with critics describing it as a smaller version of China's Three Gorges Dam project.
The Turkish government has promoted the project as one aimed at helping the region's ethnic Kurdish population, but the Environmental Defense Fund notes that the majority of those displaced by the dam would be "ethnic Kurds who have long been abused by Turkish authorities." The area where the dam is to be located, the organization notes, has been "devastated by an armed conflict between Turkey's security forces and the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)." The organization also claimed that local Kurdish opposition to the dam has been repressed by the Turkish government. The government counters, however, that the project will give the area a desperately needed economic boost.

dsl/spiegel



Environmentalists Accuse Ankara of Early Start on Mega Dam


Turkey's Ilisu dam project in ancient Mesopotamia was already controversial due to the cultural sites it would flood. Now, though, environmentalists say construction has gone ahead in violation of conditions set by project-backers Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The agreement was clear: Turkey had to fulfill a list of strict environmental conditions laid out by Germany, Austria and Switzerland by next week's deadline. Otherwise, the trio of countries might cut funding for the controversial Ilisu dam project in eastern Turkey.
Now, though, environmental groups are complaining that the project has gone ahead even before meeting the criteria. And they say they have pictures to prove it.

"The information we are receiving from the area reveals that construction work has already started on the bank of the Tigris River," Erkut Erturk, the "Stop the Ilisu Dam" project coordinator at the Turkish organization Doga Dernegi said.
The photographs obtained by the group (see image) on Tuesday show that "bulldozers and shovels have begun the destruction of 10,000 years of world heritage to make way for the Ilisu dam," he says. The construction work would be in violation of the terms imposed by Germany, Austria and Switzerland as a condition of their funding.
Environmentalists have long decried the project as a miniature Turkish version of China's Three Gorges dam. In addition to environmental concerns, they have also highlighted the displacement and cultural destruction it is expected to cause.

Conflicting Reports


According to the Turkish daily Hurriyet, an official with the Turkish State Waterworks Authority claims that a concrete wall in the riverbed is a temporary bridge being used by construction vehicles to cross to the other side of the river in order to "speed up construction of facilities around the dam, such as residences and roads," that will be removed when the actual construction starts. But the paper also quotes a construction engineering expert who says the structure looks like part of a dam, and not a bridge.
Information, however, has been contradictory. A spokesperson for Austria's Österreichische Kontrollbank, which is participating in the project, said his office had been informed by officials that the construction was a temporary bridge that had been built to help local citizens and that it was not part of the planned dam construction. "Nothing has changed in the position of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in regards to the project," Peter Gumpinger told the Austrian daily Die Presse. But Ulrich Eichelmann of ECA Watch, an international watchdog of export credit agencies, described Kontrollbank's position as "ridiculous." Although the structure in the Tigris River was temporary in nature, he said it was clearly related to dam construction.

An "Affront"


Earlier this week Claudia Roth, the co-chair of Germany's Green Party and a longtime critic of the massive infrastructure project, called the development an "affront" and urged her government to immediately abandon its support for the controversial €1.2 billion project. The German government is planning to provide €100 million in export guarantees for the dam project. However, Berlin has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from providing credit for the dam if Ankara didn't meet the cultural and environmental conditions. Funding commitments from Austria and Switzerland are even higher.
The European countries are seeking safeguards for the cultural and environmental treasures in the area, a part of ancient Mesopotamia that is home to the city of Hasankeyf, whose ancient structures many groups believe should be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. There are also concerns about the displacement of as many as 15,000 in the impoverished Kurdish region.
The Turkish government has promoted the project as one aimed at helping the region's ethnic Kurdish population, but the Environmental Defense Fund has warned that the majority of those displaced by the dam would be "ethnic Kurds who have long been abused by Turkish authorities." Turkey wants to build the dam in order to provide water supplies and electricity to the country's southeast. It's part of the South East Anatolia Project (GAP), which includes plans to build 22 major dams, 19 hydroelectric plants and dozens of irrigation systems in the region.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported Tuesday that the three countries are continuing to negotiate behind the scenes in the hope of saving the deal, despite repeated violations of their stipulations by Ankara.
Ongoing talks, though, have irritated the dam's critics. Doga Dernegi officials said the European countries would be "accomplices in the elimination of world heritage" if they continued to provide credit backing for the massive project. And the European organization WEED said any move to delay the deadline for Turkey would be a "declaration of bankruptcy on the part of the Europeans."