Help 1000's of Ilisu Dam-affected people in Turkey

Dear Supporters,

KHRP has been closely monitoring and reporting on events in the Ilisu dam area and bringing the fate of Ilisu and Hasankeyf to the world’s attention.

Following the success of past demonstrations, which in 2002 resulted in Britain’s withdrawal of funding for the controversial project, KHRP organised a protest in March outside of AKBANK’s London Headquarters. It was part of a series of demonstrations that took place in front of the European branches of Turkish banks AKBANK and Garanti bank in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Essen and Hannover, organised to highlight the banks’ recent decisions to pledge financial support for the dam’s construction along the Tigris River, although the project continues to severely flout international law. In addition to bringing light to the issues, these demonstrations show solidarity for those living in the town of Hasankeyf and other towns in the region which would be flooded if the dam is to be completed.

The project was concerned to hear of recent reports that both the villages of Keçeli (Bizinka) and Palamutlu (Xerbekar) –- villages previously destroyed by the Turkish military in the 1990’s and which stand to be flooded by the Ilısu Dam reservoir if construction of the hydro-electric dam goes ahead — were burned down. Pictures taken from the north side of the Tigris River show the devastation caused to the villages which, although no longer continuously inhabited, are sources of livelihood for local farmers and herders. The villages were later visited by representatives of KHRP’s partner organizations, İnsan Hakları Derneği (the Human Rights Association of Turkey, İHD), Göc-Der, and Mazlum-Der. According to reports from local villagers, Turkish soldiers halted their attempts to extinguish the fire leaving it to rage on without intervention from the local fire station. ‘This latest development rings alarm bells for a number of reasons’, said KHRP Chief Executive Kerim Yildiz, ‘not least of which is the fear that Turkey, in its bid to see the Ilısu Dam project through, is ready to flout basic human rights and resort to its past extreme and deplorable tactics of village burning, so heavily employed at the height of the armed conflict in the 1990s.’

Concerns remain about the plight of those who will be displaced by the dam, with numbers estimated at 55,000 people most of whom are Kurds.

As the news of renewed construction on the dam reaches us, including the illegal expropriation of land, KHRP is increasingly concerned about the irreversible damage that will be caused if the dam is completed. KHRP is determined to prevent this from happening; unfortunately, we lack the funds, so please help us to support these people’s rights. Donate today.

Thank you

KHRP