Dam Is An Excuse

MILLIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen writes on the construction of new dams and why international consortiums are not supporting them. A summary of his column is as follows:
Last week it was reported that the largest Swiss bank UBS had withdrawn from its financial consultancy on the Ilisu Dam. The reason the bank gave for its withdrawal hinged on the allegations of various lobbies which have launched a campaign in Europe against this important project. The decision by UBS dealt a harsh blow to the dream of the Ilisu Dam's construction following the withdrawal of British engineering firm Balfour Realty and Swedish firm Skanska before that. The Ilisu project prepared in the 1990s proposed the building of a hydroelectric power plant and a dam on the Tigris River in the Sirnak province in southeastern Anatolia. Ilisu, which is one of the key projects of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), will the second- largest dam after the Ataturk Dam. Turkish officials identified a series of problems likely to come up during the construction of this dam, worth some $1.5 billion, and they took appropriate measures to address them. For example, studies were conducted to rescue the archeological ruins of Hasankeyf which would have been inundated, and research in cooperation with foreign academic circles was conducted. However, even as the British, Swiss, Swedish and Italian firms began working with Turkish companies, an anti-Ilisu campaign began bubbling all through Europe. This campaign focused on three points. The first point was that the dam would damage the environment and historical ruins in the region and would destroy the ancient cultural legacy. Secondly, it was claimed that 60-70,000 people living in the region would have to leave their homes, and their Kurdish identity was underlined. Thirdly it was stated that the quality of water that both Syria and Iraq get from the Tigris river would suffer. This campaign waged in various European countries and most notably in Britain is led by environmentalists, Kurdish and Arab lobbies and human rights groups. This campaign has created such pressure that these firms felt forced to withdraw. For example, UBS said that it withdrew after taking social and environmental influences into consideration. We can see that the Turkish response to these allegations do not satisfy these firms. However, clearly the protests against the Ilisu Dam also have a political dimension. That is to say, the issue isn't just environmental or social. From the beginning, it was claimed that thousands of Kurds would be made homeless. In an article published in British daily 'The Guardian', the same allegations are repeated for the Yusufeli Dam to be built on the Coruh River. This time, it is claimed that the victims of the dam will be Georgians. Those who have been successful in stopping the Ilisu project in its tracks are preparing to do the same for the Yusufeli project.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND