Destruction in Turkey - What an Incredible Shame

The destruction of Turkey’s 12,000-year-old Hasankeyf citadel has moved a step closer as authorities have begun to collapse cliff faces around the ruins of the settlement.

The move, linked to the construction of a highly controversial dam about 50 miles downstream, is also expected to damage the rich ecosystem of the Tigris river basin.

[...]

The dam will raise the level of the Tigris at Hasankeyf by 60m, submerging 80% of the ancient city and numerous surrounding villages, including more than 300 historical sites that have still not been explored. Environmental engineer Ercan Ayboga of the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive warns that close to 80,000 people will be displaced. Many of them will lose their land and their livelihoods. Because of additional debts taken up to purchase new homes, thousands face impoverishment.

Germany, Austria and Switzerland withdrew financial support for the Ilisu dam in July 2009, citing concerns about the social, cultural and environmental impact. The Turkish government, arguing that the dam will help produce much needed energy and irrigation, has secured domestic financing of the €1.1bn (£1.02bn) project and is pushing ahead despite a pending court decision at the European court of human rights.

[...]

“The Tigris river basin is one of the last areas where a river runs freely in Turkey without having been dammed,” Ayboga says. “The dam will completely destroy the river banks. The microclimate will change due to the dam, a phenomenon we have already seen after the dams on the Euphrates. The biodiversity will suffer; the rich variety of plant and animal life will be severely diminished.”

[...]

While the environmental impact on Turkey will be severe, the effect on neighbouring Iraq is expected to be catastrophic.

[...]

Ayboga stressed that despite the controversies surrounding the construction of the Ilisu dam, all protests and public meetings were banned under the current state of emergency, declared just over a year ago.

“There has always been a serious lack of transparency and accountability,” he said. “But now the Turkish government uses the conflict in the region and the state of emergency to speed up the project and to silence all opposition. Many locals are scared to protest now.”

  Guardian

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.