By Rachel R Bernu | Project Leader
The May elections in Turkey have meant little have meant more conflict in the Kurdish region of Turkey, with over 3000 arrests and mostly unlawful detentions taking place. The re-election of the AK government, who has chosen to make the Ilisu Dam one of its centerpiece projects means that the project has had to redouble its efforts with the international community in putting pressure on the government to re-think the project.
Readers will remember that despite the withdrawal of European funding, the Turkish Government has announced that it will resume construction of the Ilisu Dam. The two professed goals of the South East Anatolia Project (GAP in its Turkish acronym) of which the Ilisu Dam is part, are harvesting energy and creating more irrigated farm land, thereby increasing employment rates and standards of living. However, studies of the future sites and experience from currently operating dams indicate that the project will be unable to achieve these economic goals. Furthermore, Kurdish villagers and farmers will be unable to benefit from any economic growth because they will be displaced from their homes to the shanty towns of nearby cities such as Diyarbakir and Hakkari, which already suffer from poor infrastructure, over-population, unemployment and poverty.
Neither the affected communities, nor the cities hosting those displaced, have been involved in any meaningful consultation about the dam project. Although the Turkish Government’s State Hydraulics Works Department professes local support, numerous fact-finding missions undertaken by KHRP and its partners in the region, have found that many villagers have not even been informed about the project, while others are adamantly against the project.
On 3-4 May 2011, a project representative attended the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) assessed Turkey's compliance with these rights and published recommendations. Last year, the project submitted a report last year to the Pre-sessional Working Group ahead of Turkey’s review, to draw attention to several significant areas where the Turkish government has failed to carry out its obligations under the ICESCR in upholding the rights of its Kurdish citizens, including concerns about the effect of large scale infrastructure projects on economic social and cultural rights in the Kurdish region of Turkey, and this year its local partners did the same.
During this time the Project representative also met with the Head of the UN Special Procedures branch and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and reiterated our concerns about the human rights implications of the project.
The Project is pleased that the Committee acknowledged in its report (released on the 20 May 2011) the serious problems with the Ilisu project as below:
' The Committee is deeply concerned at the potential impact of the Ilisu dam under construction, as well as other dams, on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights in the areas concerned, especially with regard to forced evictions, resettlements, displacement, and compensation of people affected as well as the environmental and cultural impacts of the construction of these dams. (art. 11, 12 and 15)
The Committee urges the State party to take account of a human-rights based approach in its infrastructure development projects, especially dams, and to undertake a complete review of its legislation and regulations on evictions, resettlement and compensation of the people affected by these construction projects, especially the Ilisu dam, in line with the Committee’s general comment No. 7 on forced evictions (1997).
Do you want to find out more?
Watch these two beautiful short films about the town of Hasankeyf and the impact that the dam will have on its inhabitants:
Life in Limbo by Sakae Ishikawa, 2009 -Excerpt 1.56 mins
Sinking History –Turkey by Mauro Colombo, 26.33 mins
What can you do?
1. If you a customer of one of the banks involved, please write individual letters to the management and ask them to withdraw from the project. You can also consider moving your account.
The following banks provide finance to the Ilisu project:
2. Help to raise awareness by informing your friends, acquaintances and work colleagues about the project.
3. Contact us for more information and write an article or letter for your local or national newspaper.
4. If you are visiting Turkey, go to Hasankeyf and see for yourself the beauty of the region that is at risk. Tourism is a viable option for the region and one that has not been fully explored or invested in by the government.
Links:
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