European Governments Pull Financing for Turkey's Ilisu Dam

The withdrawal is a major victory for environmentalists and human rights advocates who have campaigned for years to stop the 1,200 megawatt, two billion euro dam on the Tigris River in southeast Turkey.

The 10,000 year old town of Hasankeyf with its unique, historic, cultural heritage and hundreds of as yet unexplored archaeological sites would be flooded by its reservoir.

The 10,000 year old town of Hasankeyf on the Tigris River (Photo by Bertilvidet)

"We greatly welcome that the European governments finally take international standards for this project seriously," said Heike Drillisch from the German Ilisu Campaign CounterCurrent. "This is a great step forward for the protection of human rights, the environment and cultural heritage."

Due to repeated violations of the conditions of the export credit guarantees by Turkish authorities, the governments of Germany, Austria and Switzerland had put the contracts on hold for 180 days at the end of 2008. The deadline to decide on the final withdrawal is July 6, but the German government appears to have already decided against the project. As the three countries decide unanimously, this means that Austria and Switzerland also will back out.

This is the first time export credit contracts have been canceled on humanitarian, cultural and environmental grounds, and the anti-dam advocates say it increases the likelihood that the project will be canceled completely, as Turkey now lacks 450 million Euro and the technical know how to build the giant dam.

With the project's reputation is now diminished, it will be difficult for Turkey to find new sponsors, as the European banks providing finance for the project are expected to also withdraw.

"This is an important win for us. We will now increase our efforts to have the project revoked in Turkey as well," says Ulrich Eichelmann from the Stop Ilisu Campaign in Austria.

The Ilisu dam site is 65 kilometers upstream from Turkey's border with Syria and Iraq. If the dam is ever built, the diminished water flows and the deterioration of water quality would be felt downstream. The dam would could lead to unprecedented droughts in Iraq. Farther downstream, the decreased water flow would affect Iraq's Mesopotamian Marshes, one of world's most important wetland ecosystems.

Environmental and human rights organizations had repeatedly pointed out that Turkey violated conditions tied to the export credit guarantees and that environmental, social, cultural and geopolitical problems remained unsolved.

In violation of international law, the riparian countries were not consulted during the planning stage of the project. Although talks were begun, no agreement has been reached.

Ilisu Campaign CounterCurrent and the Swiss organization Berne Declaration had only recently been to the Ilisu region on the Tigris River to determine whether Turkey was fulfilling the European conditions.

"Our research showed that there is still no solution for the 60,000 people losing their means of existence nor for the salvage of the invaluable cultural heritage doomed by flooding," says Berne Declaration's Christine Eberlein. "On the contrary, Turkey has continued to expropriate farmers even during the ultimatum."

Neither land for resettlement nor other income restoration measures have yet been put in place. These people face a future of extreme poverty, the loss of their livelihoods and history, and the disruption of their villages and family structures.

Participation by affected communities in the project planning, as stipulated by international standards, did not take place. Surveys show that 80 percent of the affected population oppose the project.

The dam would destroy approximately 400 square kilometers of riverine habitat for many rare species like the Euphrates soft shell turtle.

The water quality of the reservoir is expected to be extremely low, the groups say, leading to massive fish extermination, and threatening people's health.

If the dam is not built, many people believe the ancient town of Hasankeyf and the surrounding Tigris River deserves to be designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Prominent artists like Nobel Prize winning writer Orhan Pamuk and pop singer Tarkan have joined the campaign to stop the Ilisu dam and make Hasankeyf a World Heritage Site.

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