The Turkish Government says its plan for the so-called Ilisu Dam, in the mountainous southeast of the country, will be a vital catalyst for development in a neglected region.
BBC report
A huge international consortium of engineering companies is lined up to start construction.
A British engineering company, Balfour Beatty, is one of several international firms involved in the construction plans.
The contractors and the Turkish authorities say this project will be a model of environmental and social care.
They promise that as the dam is built across the valley of the River Tigris, and a deep reservoir builds up behind it, the 15,000-20,000 people who will be forced to move home will be carefully resettled.
Compensation will be offered. The historical monuments and ruins of earlier ages will be documented or even rescued.
And, as for fears that the dam will become an international flashpoint - with the countries downstream, Syria and Iraq - receiving less water, officials pledge that the design of the dam will make it impossible to hold water back, and anyway Turkey would never want to.
The archaeological impacts of the Ilisu dam
The jewel in the crown of archaeological sites in south-eastern Anatolia is about to be lost forever under 300 square kilometres of water. Both the past and the present will be devastated, as undocumented ancient sites are flooded and thousands of ethnic Kurds evicted.
At the heart of the Ilisu dam project is the flooding of Hasankeyf, a centre for Kurdish culture. It is the largest town which would be destroyed by the dam. Today it is home to over five thousand people. Some families still live in the man-made cave dwellings in the cliffs and hills around the town.
But the key to Hasankeyf lies in its past. Remains date back 10,000 years. Here, in Upper Mesopotamia, the world of the Middle East met the civilisation of Anatolia, and brought about a flourishing of cultures that survive today in countless ruins and monuments. The ancient city was occupied by nine major civilisations, stretching from the Assyrians through to the Ottomans. Each period has left its own unique mark upon the city. Untouched by tourism, artefacts are discovered daily. Mosques, castles, a twelfth century palace, a citadel, a monumental bridge, and much more that has barely been studied, testify to a magnificent history. Thousands of astonishing cave dwellings, lived in through the ages, are tucked into the cliffs and hills around the city.
Some of the cave dwellings in Hasankeyf which are still inhabited and which would be submerged by the waters of Ilisu
Many perceive the destruction of Hasankeyf as part of a wider scheme of ethnic repression of Kurdish people by the Turkish state.
As a holy site, Hasankeyf is extremely important. It holds the tomb of the holy Imam Abdullah, grandson of Cafer-I Tayyar, the prophet Mohammed�s uncle. Around 30,000 pilgrims visit the tomb each year. Women pray for fertility here and the sick come to be healed. Nearby is the Mausoleum of Zeynel Bey. For the surrounding villagers, Hasankeyf has a unique and priceless appeal. As one local villager said:�How much would I be prepared to accept [in compensation] to see Hasankeyf drowned? It is an absurd question. No amount of money could compensate for the destruction of the town.�
The Ilisu dam will flood the entire valley, leaving almost no trace of Hasankeyf�s long and glorious history. Turkey has not applied to UNESCO to designate the town a site of world importance, and the government has shown little interest in a city whose ancestry it does not consider �Turkish�. Yet the Turkish Ministry of Tourism produces a guide to south-east Turkey that acknowledges the �rich history and cultural heritage� of the region, and Hasankeyf�s particular significance.
As long ago as 1978 the entire town was given special archaeological protection by the Turkish Department of Culture, although very little excavation work has since been carried out. Now this special protection has been swept away by Turkey�s passion to �develop�. If the Ilisu dam goes ahead, this treasure trove, largely unexplored and unexamined, will be lost forever.
An extensive survey and excavation of Hasankeyf is urgently needed. One expert estimates that 50-60 years of work remains to be done. A group of Turkish archaeologists from the METU Centre for Research and Assessment of the Historic Environment (TACDAM in Turkish) is officially in charge of archaeological work at Hasankeyf. In 1998 a special protocol was signed between TACDAM, the Ministry of Culture and the State Hydraulic Works, agreeing a salvage project for the site. But TACDAM admit that so far only a fraction of the total area to be flooded has been explored.
Their website pleads: �If necessary measures are not implemented, the cultural heritage of the region will be destroyed without having even been documented �there is an urgent need to undertake rescue projects�. German, American, French and Italian universities are involved. Yet it is obvious that the team have little hope of carrying out more than a tiny fraction of the work required before the site is flooded.
If traditional archaeological surveys are not enough, what can be done? Proponents of the dam have put forward the idea of recreating Hasankeyf on a CD-Rom. If only it were that simple. Balfour Beatty, the British company which wants to help build the dam, has another idea. They say that they could keep the top of the citadel in Hasankeyf above water level while the rest of the city is flooded � A pity, then, that no-one will be around to see it, in the middle of a giant reservoir.
And what about the other unique historic remains, which are of more significance than the citadel? Balfour Beatty has suggested physically moving certain buildings � but moving the ancient cave dwellings is clearly not an option. At no point has this giant company shown a true understanding of the historical and cultural importance of Hasankeyf. For all their ideas, the dam will cause irrevocable loss to the world of archaeology and to Kurdish people everywhere. Nothing will be able to make up for depriving future generations of this magnificent religious, cultural and historical site.
One local resident summed it up to researchers from the Kurdish Human Rights Project:
�Civilisations are the common goods of all people. Their remains should be protected by all of us for all of us,� he said. �Destroying Hasankeyf would be a loss for humanity as a whole.�
In the end, just one simple idea is enough save the archaeological treasures of Hasankeyf � the cancellation of the project.
As another commentator told the researchers, �It is illogical, both economically and morally, to argue that the destruction of a town with nearly 10,000 years of history is justified by a project with a projected life span of 40 years.�
What must be done
A group of Irish and British archaeologists is already petitioning the government to reconsider its position on granting export credit to the project. They are calling for a new independent assessment of the dam, full consultation with the people to be affected, and a detailed consideration of the cultural heritage which will be destroyed by the project, via a panel of indigenous representatives and national and international experts. Contact the Ilisu Dam Campaign for details.
Details of the Turkish state�s excavation work at Hasankeyf:
http://www.metu.edu.tr/home/wwwmuze/ilisu.html
The Ilisu Dam, the World Commission on Dams and Export Credit Reform
