Demonstrators Protest Turkish Dam

Demonstrators Protest Turkish Dam



March 2007 - Environmental and 
human rights activists today demonstrated at the Brandenburg 
Gate that once separated East and West Berlin to show their 
opposition to the planned Ilisu dam on the Tigris River in 
Turkey. 
The environment and human rights organizations were protesting 
the grant of an export credit guarantee to the German 
engineering company Zueblin by the German government to cover 
tunnelling work on the Ilisu hydroelectric power plant worth 
almost 100 million euros. 
"On today’s International Day of Action for Rivers, I appeal 
to Chancellor [Angela] Merkel and the German government not to 
guarantee the funding for the Ilisu dam," said human rights 
campaigner Bianca Jagger, who has opposed the Ilisu project 
for seven years. 
"I hope Zueblin will reconsider their decision to be a partner 
in the construction of the dam and follow the example of the 
British company, Balfour Beatty which withdrew from Ilisu in 
2002," said Jagger, the former wife of Rolling Stones' lead 
singer Mick Jagger. 
Environmental and human right activists occupied the 
Brandenburg gate today. 
The Ilisu hydroelectric power project on the Tigris River is 
the largest planned dam project in Turkey. The dam will create 
a reservoir of 313 square kilometers, will flood more than 90 
villages and the ancient town of Hasankeyf, and affect up to 
55,000 people, mainly ethnic Kurds. 
"We have occupied the Brandenburg Gate to show the people here 
in Germany what their government is currently planning in 
Turkey," said activist Matthias Dittmer. 
"We have a couple of hundred years of history here in Berlin. 
The submergence of Hasankeyf would destroy a 9,000 year old 
history," Dittmer said. 
According to Turkey’s projections, the 1,200 MW hydroelectric 
project will contribute to meeting the country’s increased 
energy demand and stimulate the economy of the province of 
Anatolia. 
In addition to the actual construction costs of roughly 1.2 
billion euros, the project costs of about two billion euros 
include some 800 million euros to be spent on resettlement and 
the protection of cultural assets and the environment. 
For the population affected by the construction of the dam, 
measures such as income support, transfer of land of equal 
value, and construction of new villages with modern houses and 
infrastructure are planned, the German government said. All 
plans and measures are modelled on the internationally 
acknowledged standards set by the World Bank. 
Some of the historical treasures in the 10,000 year old city 
of Hasankeyf will be inundated if construction of the Ilisu 
Dam is completed. 
The cultural monuments of Hasankeyf are supposedly to be 
protected by a new law to be passed in the near future that 
will make it possible to rescue and relocate the works of art 
of the town to a new cultural park. 
But the activists are not persuaded that the dam will be good 
for the region. They say there is no acceptable resettlement 
plan, and conditions in the region make a just resettlement 
unattainable. 
"The people in southeast Turkey have experienced enough grief 
with mega dams," says Ercan Ayboga from the Initiative to Save 
Hasankeyf. "Practically everyone in our region opposes the 
Ilisu project." 
"We affected people want to have a say in our future and do 
not want the Turkish or the German government to decide what 
is good for us," Ayboga said. 
International Rivers Network policy analyst Ann Kathrin 
Schneider said, "This project violates international standards 
and international law. The German government will share 
responsibility for the environmental and human rights impacts 
of this dam." 
"The project hurts international standards and international 
law," said Heike Drillisch of the environmental and 
development organization WEED. "In Germany it could be never 
built." 
Turkey is considering sending 5,000 soldiers to guard the 
Ilisu project area for the "security of the construction 
work," according to the Kurdish press agency Firat. 
The Swiss government agreed in December to underwrite the 
export risks of firms taking part in the Turkish dam project, 
but only if international standards are fully met, according 
to the Swiss newspaper "Neue Zürcher Zeitung." 
The Swiss authorities gave the go ahead to the Export Credit 
Agency to guarantee the export risks of Alstom Switzerland, 
Maggia, Stucky and Colenco to provide goods and engineering 
services worth US$184.6 million. 
But nongovernmental organizations warned that the project 
would damage the ecosystem and possibly lead to a dispute with 
neighboring countries Iran and Syria over water supply. 
They handed a petition with 37,000 signatures to the Swiss 
government demanding that the guarantee request be rejected. 
The Swiss government said it had reached its decision after 
ensuring that international environmental standards would be 
met. 





 

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