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SHAME on Kurds who allowed Hasankeyf to be DESTROYED

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Re: Hasankeyf oldest city in the entire world is on Kurdish

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Aug 09, 2018 12:26 pm

Turkish monuments wheeled out of town before flood ‘washes history away’

The Artuklu Hamam, a 540-year-old bathhouse, is removed before the construction of a new dam

Turkey has started moving historic buildings out of the southeastern town of Hasankeyf before a dam is completed that will leave the area 60 metres under water.

Shamefully Kurds are allowing this to take place

The 540-year-old Artuklu Hamam, a traditional Turkish bathhouse, is the latest building to be moved, on wheels and fully intact, to a new site two miles away. Draped in Turkish flags and guarded by heavily armed special forces soldiers, it joins the 15th century Zeynel Bey tomb, which was moved in May last year, in New Hasankeyf.

In all, six monuments will be moved to the new site before the waters of the Tigris submerge what is left of the old town. Hasankeyf’s 3,000 residents are also being moved to new apartment blocks.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/monu ... -tn7cx0xzn
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Re: Hasankeyf oldest city in the entire world is on Kurdish

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Re: Hasankeyf oldest city in the entire world is on Kurdish

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Sep 11, 2018 1:12 am

Plunder in Hasankeyf continues

The Turkish state continues to plunder the 12,000-year historical city of Hasankeyf.

Yet another tomb of the historical site was dismantled and moved to another place.
Hasankeyf, which has a history going back 12 thousand years, will soon disappeared, flooded by the Ilisu Dam, one of the most controversial project in the area.

The important historical site has undergone heavy destruction, while some other historical artifacts are moved to new places.

The tomb in Imam Abdullah Zaviyesi site was moved to the new Arkeopark: 37 hydraulic jacks and an SPMT vehicle with 256 wheels made the work.

The operation of transfer was supervised by police and gendarmery. Murat Dağdeviren, Deputy Director General of the State Hydraulic Works (DSİ), gave the following details about the operation of transfer: "We will carry 5 more works in Hasankeyf, and we will continue the operations here."

He added that: "There is a Girls' Mosque, there is Süleyman Han Mosque , There is Koç Mosque, there is Al-Rızık Mosque, there is a middle gate, and here we will continue to carry on important architectural pieces, some of which will be preserved in place. We are working to protect the fillings we have made in Dicle Valley and at the same time to protect the caves, it continues in the same way. "

The Minaret and the outbuilding part of the Imam Abdullah Zaviyesi will be moved in the days ahead.
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Re: Hasankeyf oldest city in the entire world is on Kurdish

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Sep 11, 2018 1:21 am

12th-century monastery moved from historical site in Northern Kurdistan

A small Islamic monastery, also known as zawiya, in Hasankeyf dating back to the 12th century was relocated Monday to a new site to prevent it from flooding when a new dam opens

A 256-wheeler flatbed truck moved the shrine part of the 850-ton ancient Artuqid-era religious school for one-and-a-half hours, to a cultural park in the district of Hasankeyf in the Batman province.

The first part of the zawiya was carried some 2.4 kilometers away from its original spot.

The relocation of the ancient structure followed the move of 540-year-old Zeynel Bey Shrine and a 13th-century Turkish bath, or hammam, in the same ancient district of Hasankeyf.

The minaret part of the zawiya is expected to be relocated during the week.

Speaking to reporters, Murat Dağdeviren, deputy director-general of State Hydraulic Works (DSI) termed the relocation of the zawiya "historic".

Dağdeviren said the relocation of the zawiya was more critical than the previous ones due to some asymmetrical features on the structure.

"We need to do more sensitive transportation," he added.

The zawiya was reconstructed to adapt to the Ayyubids era, while it was also restored in the Ottoman and Republic eras.

Hasankeyf, 32 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Batman, was declared a conservation area in 1981.

As Hasankeyf has been declared a conservation area WHY is it not protected from the vile Turkish invaders

There are nearly 6,000 caves around the town that contain the remnants of Christian and Muslim worship, as well as a Byzantine fortress.

https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/2018/ ... -se-turkey
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Re: Hasankeyf oldest city in the entire world is on Kurdish

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Sep 20, 2018 8:11 pm

Hasankeyf Museum in Northern Kurdistan to feature ancient artifacts
Museum in SE Batman province ready to highlight artifacts excavated from early ages of civilization

Some of the most compelling treasures from the early ages of civilization will soon be open to tourists at Hasankeyf Museum in Northern Kurdistan's Batman province.

The museum, located in Batman's Hasankeyf town, includes historical artifacts that were excavated by archaeological teams as part of the Ilisu Dam -- part of the Southeastern Anatolia, or GAP Project

Built on 60,000 square meters, the museum will display artifacts dating back to the paleolithic, neolithic, chalcolithic, bronze, iron and medieval eras at the exhibitions.

While the objects will be displayed in chronological order, visual animations related to the periods they belong to will give visitors the feeling of “living in the period” they are walking through.

Wax sculptures will also attract visitors by demonstrating the lifestyles of people living thousands of years ago on the Tigris River.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Faruk Bulent Bayguven, district governor of Hasankeyf, said that the museum will shed light on the history of the region.

Bayguven said that the museum will also display historical artifacts from different provinces of the region -- including Batman, Mardin, Siirt, Sirnak and Diyarbakir.

"When the artifacts start to be exhibited, our museum will be flooded by visitors. The museum will make a great contribution to the tourism of Hasankeyf. The artifacts in this museum will bring visitors from all over the world,” he said.

Bayguven said that the two-storey museum will be opened soon, without giving an exact inauguration day.

Hasankeyf, 32 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Batman, was declared a conservation area in 1981.

There are nearly 6,000 caves around the town that contain the remnants of Christian and Muslim worship, as well as a Byzantine fortress.

https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/hasan ... ts-3441574

Hasankeyf, 32 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Batman, was declared a conservation area in 1981 and Turkish scum are destroying it X( X( X( X( X( X(
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Re: Hasankeyf oldest city in the entire world is on Kurdish

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Sep 25, 2018 1:13 am

Hasankeyf Museum to feature ancient artifacts

Please click to enlarge
993

Some of the most compelling treasures from the early ages of civilization will soon be open to tourists at Hasankeyf Museum in southeastern Turkey’s Batman province.

The museum, located in Batman’s Hasankeyf town, includes historical artifacts that were excavated by archaeological teams as part of the Ilisu Dam, part of the Southeastern Anatolia, or GAP, Project.

Built on 60,000 square meters, the museum will display artifacts dating back to the paleolithic, neolithic, chalcolithic, bronze, iron and medieval eras at the exhibitions.

While the objects will be displayed in chronological order, visual animations related to the periods they belong to will give visitors the feeling of “living in the period” they are walking through.

Wax sculptures will also attract visitors by demonstrating the lifestyles of people who lived thousands of years ago by the Tigris River.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Faruk Bülent Baygüven, district governor of Hasankeyf, said the museum will shed light on the history of the region.

Baygüven said the museum will also display historical artifacts from different provinces of the region, including Batman, Mardin, Siirt, Şırnak and Diyarbakır.

“When the artifacts start to be exhibited, our museum will be flooded by visitors. The museum will make a great contribution to the tourism of Hasankeyf. The artifacts in this museum will bring visitors from all over the world,” he said.

Baygüven said the two-storey museum will be opened soon, without giving an exact inauguration day.

Hasankeyf, 32 kilometers southeast of the provincial capital Batman, was declared a conservation area in 1981.There are nearly 6,000 caves around the town that contain the remnants of Christian and Muslim worship places, as well as a Byzantine fortress.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hasank ... cts-137143
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Re: Hasankeyf oldest city in the entire world is on Kurdish

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Oct 11, 2018 9:47 pm

Turkish hydroelectric dam will leave hundreds homeless

HASANKEYF, Turkey (Reuters) - Hundreds of people displaced by a huge dam in southeast Turkey fear they could go homeless because resettlement laws prevent them from moving into a new government-built town above the rising Tigris River waters.

The Ilisu dam, which Turkey planned to fill this year, will generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity but has been criticized for water shortages it will create downstream in Iraq and for the tens of thousands of people it will displace in Turkey.

For hundreds of residents of the 12,000-year-old town of Hasankeyf and its neighboring village of Kesmekopru, both of which will be submerged, housing laws may also block them from finding new homes on the nearby mountainside.

Those regulations bar unmarried adults and people with addresses registered elsewhere from claiming home ownership in the new site, residents and town officials told Reuters.

Two Hasankeyf residents affected by the laws, siblings Fatime and Hizrullah Salkan, have filed legal petitions to find new homes when the waters rise and they are forced from their houses - built next door to each other by their parents.

Fatime, 44, is not married and her 47-year-old brother, a father of four, switched his address to a neighboring province while seeking work there five years ago, meaning they both fail to meet requirements for being rehoused.

"They told us everything would be perfect - that everyone would own a house, there wouldn’t be any problems," Hizrullah said. "But now we are doomed to be migrants."

Also uprooted by the dam waters will be Hasankeyf's ancient tombs, minarets and monuments, which are being transferred to a tourist park.

Ahmet Akdeniz, president of the local cultural association, said he supports the dam and the new settlement site, and expects Hasankeyf's antiquities to be more easily accessible at their new location. But the home ownership restrictions, he said, are a disaster for hundreds of residents in Hasankeyf.

"Whoever wrote these laws is brainless," he said. "They'll have to change them. There won't be anywhere for these people to go."

Asked whether steps were being taken to address the needs of people deemed ineligible for new housing, the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry, which is overseeing the Ilisu Dam project, said local authorities had planned to make some homes available for sale but "there is no demand".

Other state bodies, including the Environment and Urbanisation Ministry, which issued the home-ownership laws, declined or did not respond to requests for comment.

"CITY" LIFE

Turkey briefly started filling the dam in June, but officials said it halted temporarily a week later after complaints from Iraq about reduced water flows in summer.

Like Hasankeyf, which it faces across the Tigris River, the village of Kesmekopru will be forced to evacuate once the dam’s reservoir fills properly.

But none of Kesmekopru’s more than 600 residents will be allowed to own homes in the new settlement site because it is not considered a neighborhood of Hasankeyf, according to village headman Metin Dezen.

When Dezen asked provincial authorities why his villagers could not move to the new site, they told him: "'You're village people, we can't give you a city,'" he told Reuters.

Asked about Dezen’s claim, the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said residents of Kesmekopru had been paid for the loss of their land and had not applied for new housing from the government.

For the approximately 20 families who have already moved from Hasankeyf to the new homes, however, their present living conditions do not resemble a city.

Although authorities have said construction is 94 percent complete, the streets are still full of construction vehicles, the tap water is brownish, the air swirls with dust, and the area is barren. A clump of pine trees planted on a ridge above the site are brown and dead.

Mazlum Cetin, 27, works as a local tour guide in Hasankeyf but moved to the new settlement site in April. He fears the local economy will worsen after the dam because tourists will not be as eager to see Hasankeyf's artifacts away from their historical location.

"In New Hasankeyf, people will just come and swipe their [museum entry cards] and see everything and leave,” he said.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/turkish-hydro ... ccounter=1
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Re: Hasankeyf oldest city in the entire world is on Kurdish

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Oct 20, 2018 2:38 am

Profiteering continues in Hasankeyf: 265 tonne iwan moved

The Imam Abdullah Zawiya’s iwan part has been moved out of Hasankeyf in the final phase.

The AKP continues to implement historical and natural genocide in Kurdistan.

As the moving of artifacts in Hasankeyf continues due to risk of flooding when the Ilisu Dam goes into commission, the iwan part of the Imam Abdullah Zawiya has been moved in the final phase. The 265 tonne iwan was loaded on a 48 wheeled SPTM vehicle to be transported to the archaeopark in the new Hasankeyf 3 km away.

The Middleburg Door called the Roma Door of the Hasankeyf Citadel was dismantled yesterday and will be picked up from the construction site today to be transported.

NATURE AND HISTORY DESTROYED

The AKP has been damaging nature and history in the name of profiteering in Hasankeyf. The trees that were moved before have dried up. The location the artifacts are moved to is closed for visits.
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Re: Nature/History destroyed in Hasankeyf lazy Kurds do noth

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Nov 14, 2018 2:17 am

In Turkey, a power play will leave ancient towns underwater
By Suzy Hansen

The nation’s plan to control its most precious resource includes a controversial dam that will drown some of its history

This story appears in the November 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine

Hasankeyf is a 12,000-year-old village carved into a plateau flanking the Tigris River. It looks like something out of a surreal fairy tale. Overlooking the town are caves crafted by Neolithic pioneers and the ruins of a citadel as old as the Byzantines. The settlement bears traces of the Romans. It’s the site of significant medieval Islamic architecture, including a bridge across the Tigris that established it as an important outpost along the Silk Road. Marco Polo may have crossed there on his way to China.

Hasankeyf is also an active town in south eastern Turkey, with markets and gardens and mosques and cafés—a place with a palpable feeling of historical continuity and survival.

Yet in 2006 the Turkish government officially began work on a giant dam across the Tigris River that will lead to the drowning of an estimated 80 percent of Hasankeyf and the displacement of its 3,000 residents, as well as many other people. The dam—the Ilısu—is now almost complete, and the flooding could start anytime in the next year.

Why would a country demolish one of its most mythic places? To improve the lives of the local people through modernization, the government says. But the massive project benefits the Turkish state too. Turkey has no native oil or natural gas sources. What it does have is water.

In the early decades of the 20th century, the Turkish Republic engaged in a series of state-driven modernization projects intended to develop its economy. The south eastern region—its inhabitants relatively poor, undereducated, and minority Kurds, Arabs, and Assyrians—were largely left out. In the 1970s the government proposed a remedy: a colossal dam project that would bring reliable electricity to the south east and irrigate the farmlands. The Turkish government would build 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric power plants across the Tigris and Euphrates river network, as well as roads, bridges, and other forms of infrastructure. The plan was dubbed the South eastern Anatolia Project (GAP, as the acronym goes in Turkish).

In Halfeti, located on the reservoir created by the Birecik Dam, tourists dine at Fırat Yüzer floating restaurant. People come to the lake to visit the town’s submerged remains and other flooded villages nearby, but water also covers the region’s fertile fields.

The GAP soon became controversial. Syria and Iraq, downstream from Turkey, protested that Turkey could deprive them of much needed water

In 1984 the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant separatist group—terrorists, according to Turkey and the United States—revolted against perceived injustices committed by the Turkish state, turning the south east into a war zone. Meanwhile, European banks withdrew funding and the World Bank denied loans because of ongoing multinational disagreements, inadequate environmental assessments, and concerns about the scope of resettlement and cultural heritage protection. Even within the Turkish government, enthusiasm for the GAP as a national pride project began to fade, according to Hilal Elver, who advised the Ministry of Environment in the 1990s and is now the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the right to food.

Indeed, by the 2000s it had become clear that the dam projects weren’t succeeding in their ostensible purpose. “They mismanaged the water, and it didn’t bring development and it didn’t bring peace,” said Elver, noting that the PKK and the government are still fighting.

Today electricity generated by 13 of 19 completed dams is mostly used elsewhere. Salination, a direct result of introducing water to poorly drained salty lands, has ruined precious farms. Income from the dams hasn’t trickled down to local municipalities or people. Thousands have been displaced. Most received monetary compensation and housing but not enough to replace long-held livelihoods.

The Ilısu Dam may be one of the GAP’s most destructive projects yet. It’s set to flood not only Hasankeyf but also 250 miles of river ecosystem, 300 archaeological sites, and dozens of towns and villages. Some of the artifacts will be moved to safer ground, but the dam will displace about 15,000 people and affect tens of thousands more. Ercan Ayboğa, an environmental engineer and spokesperson for the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive, says the number might be close to 100,000. “It’s a huge project imposed on the people of the region by the Turkish government,” Ayboğa said. It “has no benefits for the local population except profits for some companies and big landowners.”

So why does the Turkish government press on? After all, other countries, including the U.S., are reconsidering the benefits and risks of dam projects and even removing some dams to restore natural water flow and river habitats. And there are less destructive ways to generate electricity, such as solar power.

Many believe that the government’s goal is simply to control this natural resource, for Turkey’s domestic needs and for its security. Case in point: When the PKK’s leader, Abdullah Öcalan, found shelter in Syria, one of Turkey’s bargaining chips to get him back was that it could shut off the country’s water supply. Water “can be used as a weapon against Iraq and Syria,” said John Crofoot, an American part-time resident and founder of Hasankeyf Matters. “It’s leverage.”

Link to Full Article - Photos:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/maga ... sopotamia/
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Re: Nature/History destroyed in Hasankeyf lazy Kurds do noth

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon Nov 26, 2018 10:31 pm

Transportation of artefacts in ancient
Kurdish town continues despite court order


Turkish authorities are pushing ahead with the transportation of historic artefacts in Turkey’s southeastern ancient Kurdish town of Hasankeyf, which will be submerged by the floodwaters of the Ilısu damn, despite a decision from the country’s highest administrative court to cancel the tender for the move, independent news site T24 reported.

The tender for the move of Hasankeyf’s historic artefacts by Turkey's State Hydraulic Works was cancelled by the Council of State on Oct. 23. The country’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has begun an investigation, however no changes appear to have been made to the scheduled move, T24 noted.

The walls of a mosque and the minaret of another were removed for relocation on Monday in the 12,000-year-old ancient city located in Batman province, it said, with locals expressing their frustration at roads leading to the town being blocked off.

The two companies who won the tender for the relocation of seven ancient artefacts are to transport a small Islamic monastery known as the İmam Abdullah Zaviye, the Artuklu Bath, Er-Rızk Mosque minaret, Orta Kapı, Süleyman Han, as well as the Kızlar and Koç mosques.

Hasankeyf locals have already started to settle in their new houses built by the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ), which began the construction of 710 houses to accommodate the locals approximately two years ago.

The region affected by the Ilısu dam is dotted with unique historic sites dating back to ancient times. The Turkish government plans to move several of the 300 monuments from Hasankeyf, an important example of a medieval settlement, to the cultural park by the end of the year before they are submerged.

https://ahvalnews.com/hasankeyf/transpo ... ourt-order
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Re: Kurds need to STOP destruction of Hasankeyf

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon Nov 26, 2018 10:44 pm

Relocation in Hasankeyf accelerates

The AKP is refusing to recognize the Council of State verdict to cancel the bid in Hasankeyf and has ordered the acceleration of relocating the historic sites

The Council of State 13th Division ordered the cancellation of the bid to relocate 12.000 year old historic sites and artifacts in Hasankeyf, and the Culture and Tourism Ministry launched an investigation on the bid following the cancellation order.

Despite the Council of State order, the relocation efforts continued today in the historic district.

The Sultan Suleyman Mosque’s minaret stones were taken out and transported, and giant cranes were brought in to transport the Koc Mosque (Kizlar Mosque). The people protested when their power was cut off during removal of some power lines. The units decided to leave the power lines after the protests. The people also said they won’t leave their homes until the new Hasankeyf is built.

The relocation works in Hasankeyf are reported to have accelerated after the Council of State verdict.
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Re: Kurds need to have PRIDE and STOP destruction of Hasanke

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Dec 22, 2018 3:44 am

Mosque on the move: 600-year-old holy building is split in two and taken on a robot transporter to a new site a mile away to make way for a new dam in Turkey

A 15th century mosque in Turkey has been split into three parts and transported by self-propelled robots to its new home.

Construction workers had to break the walls apart which had been held together for hundreds of years so that they could winch the pieces of the mosque onto platforms for transport.

The final 2,500 ton part of the Eyyubi Mosque was taken out of the ancient town of Hasankeyf in Turkey's Batman province today after the other two sections were moved earlier this year.

The move comes as Turkey’s fourth biggest dam, Ilısu, is expected to submerge the ancient town of Hasankeyf under swathes of floodwater, according to Hurriyet Daily News.

Pictures show the final section of the mosque being hauled in its mile-long journey by powerful robots using more than 300 wheels.

The 4,600 tons of mosque has been relocated to the Hasankeyf New Cultural Park Field, a special site designated for the protected structures.

Along with the 610-year-old mosque other cultural artefacts are being removed to the site which was created in 2017.

A colossal stone work called the Zeynel Bey Shrine was moved using similar technology last year.

The Mayor of Hasankeyf Abdulvahap Kusen said: 'Works are continuing for the artefacts not to be damaged due to the [flood] waters. The ancient artefacts will come together in the Culture Park near the new residential area,' the Turkish daily reported.

The town of Hasankeyf was given protected status in 1981 and is home to nearly 6,000 caves.

In addition to the mosque there are other historic structures of Christian and Muslim worship, as well as an ancient Byzantine fortress.

The history of the town can be traced by across nine civilisations and is first mentioned in texts dating back almost 2,000 years before the birth of Christ.

Since 2009 Turkey's own banks had to finance the building of the dam after Société Générale, UniCredit and DekaBank pulled the plug on credit.

The European Banks advised the Turkish government they would have to meet certain criteria set out by the World Bank, which included environmental protections and resettlement, but the Turkish authorities failed to do so.

A Turkish flag proudly hangs from the old mosque as the glorious feat of engineering moves it through the broad roads to its new home

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -away.html

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Re: Kurds need to have PRIDE and STOP destruction of Hasanke

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon Dec 24, 2018 12:37 am

Disaster Flood in the Tigris – Made by a Turkish Dam

The Mesopotamia Ecology Movement (MEM) critized that the current state policies of the Turkish state aim to dominate fully nature with engineering and narrow economic approaches

Mesopotamia Ecology Movement and the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive released a statement reporting that one of the three spillway gates of the Dicle Dam at the Tigris River in Northern Kurdistan has broken on the evening of the 13th December 2018. Since then the water level in more than 200 km downstream river stretch increased up to 6 meters and flooded a big area of land along the river with hundreds of affected settlements. Fortunately nobody died, but the physical and agricultural destruction is enormous and unique for the last decades.

The statement by Mesopotamia Ecology Movement and the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive said the following;

“The Dicle Dam has been constructed for electricity, irrigation and drinking water supply in the north of the province of Diyarbakir with a height of 75 m and a volume of 595 Mio. m³ and is in full operations since 2000. Its reservoir has been filled so much after long and intensive rainfalls that the dam operator, the state owned energy company EÜAŞ, had to activate the spillway in order to release water from the dam reservoir. The result of the bursting of one of the three gates is the release of constantly 1600 m³ per second water. This will continue until the water level in the dam reservoir will fall 11 meters which is expected for these days. Considering that the annual average flow of the Tigris in this river stretch is less than 100 m³/sec the dimension of the flood is better understandable.

Before the construction of the Dicle and the upper Kralkizi Dam – also large – the Tigris had every 10-15 years such a high flow rate. The people along the Tigris organized live corresponding to these natural floods which have been cut with the operation of these two dams. Since 2000 people started to settle down in the former flooding areas of the Tigris River. As there were several hours for the warning by state authorities no people have been killed by the flood. But many thousands people spent the night outside with temperatures around zero degree. Among the affected areas is also the lower parts of the historical Hevsel Gardens in the city of Diyarbakir which belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Also the city neighbourhood Dicle, a number of cafeterias in the urban area, several fisheries, more than 15 sand querries and other business facilities have been destroyed partly or completely.

It is assumed that due to poor maintenance and lack of training of the dam personal the gate of the dam spillway has burst. The day after the chamber of civil engineers (IMO) of Diyarbakir stated that these two aspects may have contributed mainly to this disaster. In this framework for example the gates need to be replaced on time what is questioned. In the first days after the bursting of the gate, the risk was very high that the other two gates could experience the same and the upper Kralkizi Dam as well because the Kralkizi dam was also full and rains continued; luckily at a low level. The IMO criticized furthermore that “the DSI (State Hydraulic Works; responsible state body for water policies) did not take the right decisions when one week before the disaster the rain started. Because of economic reasons the dam reservoir has not been emptied at an early stage. Probably it was supposed the rain would stop soon.“ Since the disaster the dam site is controlled by the army and only few DSI employees are observed. Very limited information is shared.

The chamber of geology engineers (JMO) of Diyarbakir raised that a critical problem is that the Tigris in the upper 150 km stretch and several large tributaries are categorized only as a creek3. This status means that no areas of flood risk have been classified along the Tigris river which includes the urban area of Diyarbakir. If necessary flood risk plans would have been developed and corresponding measures against settlements and other constructions in the wetlands taken, thousands of people would have not been affected gravely. In its statement on the 17th December 2018, the JMO proposed a plan how to implement a better policy. It needs to be stated that profession organisations like JMO or IMO are not included in any planning or discussion on dam and water policies.

The Mesopotamia Ecology Movement (MEM) critized that the current state policies aim to dominate fully nature with engineering and narrow economic approaches. Further the MEM stated: „One day the nature will strike back, but in a harsh way. What we need is less extractivism and more harmony with nature. In the next days we will understand better the destruction. We think that with the mentality the state will be the source for more disasters. We need no large dams, but small solutions for water supply, developed and operated by local people which lead to much less consumption. The Tigris should not be used for electricity, rather the river ecosystem needs to be renaturated.“

The disaster caused by bursting of the spillway gate of the Dicle Dam shows how problematic and destructive the dam policies of the Turkish state is organized. It focus on maximum production of electricity and irrigation without taking into consideration peoples rights to land, livelihoods and basic services, balance and diversity of ecosystems and cultural heritage (Tigris within Turkish state is source of first human settlements). The state constructs and operates dams and related water infrastructures without any participation and transparency.

In this sense the worst case is the Ilisu Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant at the lower Tigris in construction. If constructed it will lead to grave social, cultural, ecological and downstream impacts and consequently is one of the most controversial dams worldwide. There is still time to stop construction of the Ilisu Dam which is equivalent to highest destruction along 136 km Tigris River and 250 km tributaries and even in the downstream river parts until South Iraq.”
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Re: Kurds wake up and save Hasankeyf from Turkish destructio

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Dec 26, 2018 10:34 pm

Ancient minaret to be restored in Hasankeyf

Ancient minaret of Suleyman Han Mosque in Northern Kurdistan (southeastern Turkey) to be restored in one month

Turkey is restoring parts of an ancient mosque after it was relocated to a new site.

The mosque was moved to save it from flooding when a new dam opened in southeastern Turkey.

The 611-year-old minaret of Suleyman Han Mosque is 36 meters high. Its restoration will take nearly a month.

The mosque could not be moved in one-piece so it was dismantled and each piece was given a number.

In the first phase, its minaret was transferred to a cultural park in the district of Hasankeyf in Batman province. Later, its door and fountain were moved.

Hasankeyf, 32 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Batman, was declared a conservation area in 1981

There are nearly 6,000 caves around the town that contain the remnants of Christian and Muslim worshippers, as well as a Byzantine fortress.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/turkey- ... yf/1349091
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Re: Kurds wake up and save Hasankeyf from Turkish destructio

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Dec 26, 2018 10:59 pm

Before the flood: Turkey's new dam set
to wash away past despite uncertain future


Villages and ancient sites will be flooded by Turkey's new Ilisu dam in 2019
In Iraq, it could also deepen a water crisis


Environment journalist Kieran Cooke investigates the giant Ilisu dam on the Tigris river in southeastern Turkey

Thousands of people will be displaced and have their livelihoods threatened. Some of the world’s most precious archaeological treasures will be lost forever. In Iraq, already dire water shortage problems are set to become even worse.

After years of delays and rumoured large cost overruns, within the next few months engineers will carry out final work on the Ilisu dam in southeastern Turkey, a short distance from the country’s southern border with Iraq and Syria, and start filling a 400km-long reservoir stretching back along the Tigris river.

Both locals, mainly Kurdish citizens of Turkey, and those living across the border, particularly in Iraq, are anxiously watching and waiting.

The 1,200 MW Ilisu dam, almost two kilometres wide and 130 metres high, is a centrepiece of what’s known in Turkish as Geneydogu Anadolu Projesi (GAP), or the Southeastern Anatolia Project.

Ankara says the dam is vital in order to bring development to one of Turkey’s poorest regions; it will supply power to homes, agriculture and industry and create thousands of much-needed jobs.

In a statement, the Turkish foreign ministry also says it will have environmental benefits by increasing supplies of clean energy and putting a halt to substantial quantities of greenhouse gas emissions.

And it says that campaigners have exaggerated the number of villages and residents that will be affected by the project.

Turkish officials have also sought to address concerns about the impact of the dam on Iraq's water supplies.

In June and October this year, officials said that plans to start filling the reservoir had been delayed in response to Iraqi concerns.

But many still have major concerns.

“The whole scheme is such a disaster, so terrible,” Ulrich Eichelmann, the CEO of Riverwatch, a Vienna-based NGO which for many years has been part of an international campaign opposing the Ilisu project, told Middle East Eye.

“In southeastern Turkey it will submerge thousands of years of history and in Iraq it threatens areas like the marshes in the south of the country, one of the greatest cultural and ecological sites on earth.

“To think this is happening in the 21st century is unbelievable.”

Ancient sites underwater

The town of Hasankeyf, about 80 kilometres upriver from the Ilisu dam, is 12,000 years old and one of the most ancient, continually inhabited settlements on the globe, once a staging post on the famed Silk Road.

When the dam’s reservoir is filled, much of Hasankeyf, along with some of its ancient monuments and Neolithic caves carved out of the banks of the Tigris, will be submerged under more than 30 metres of water.

Other villages and settlements along the river are likely to disappear.

Hasankeyf’s 3,000 inhabitants are being told to relocate to new houses being built above the existing town. Many locals have objected, saying not only their homes but incomes dependent on tourism are set to disappear.

“People that don’t have a past cannot determine their future,” a local member of the Save Hasankeyf Initiative campaigning group told DW, the German broadcaster, last year.

“They are not only destroying our past but also our future by taking away this as a source of income and heritage.”

The Turkish authorities disagree, saying the reservoir will bring new tourists to the area, among them scuba divers eager to explore submerged ruins.

They have also relocated several historic buildings and monuments. Earlier this month, works began to relocate the final section of the 600-year old Eyyubi Mosque to a new Hasankeyf cultural park above the waterline.

John MacGinnis, an archaeologist based at the British Museum in London, was part of an international team that worked for many years on an archaeological dig at Ziyaret Tepe, about 160 kilometres upstream from the Ilisu dam.

Most of the Ziyaret Tepe site, once known as Tushan, will be flooded when Ilisu’s reservoir is filled.

In ancient times – 2,800 years ago - the settlement was a provincial capital of the Assyrian empire, a kingdom centred on the so called ‘Fertile Crescent’ between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and, in its day, the greatest empire the world had ever seen.

“This whole area forms part of a region where civilisation was first established and there are so many sites to be investigated and so much material to be analysed and unearthed” says MacGinnis.

“The trouble is that much of the Assyrian building work was of clay and mud – that won’t survive under water and will be lost forever.

“From an archaeological point of view what’s happening is a disaster.”

Currency crisis

The area around Ilisu and its reservoir has become increasingly militarised, with allegations that the government is intent on using the dam in order to exert greater control over the local, mainly Kurdish, population.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has in the past accused opponents of dam projects of supporting the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey considers a terrorist organisation.

Ever since work began on the Ilisu scheme back in 2006, it has also been dogged by controversy and considerable delays.

Overseas governments refused export credits; in 2009 foreign companies withdrew from the project due to Turkey’s failure to meet various environmental and other contractual criteria and pressure from local and international NGOs.

With foreign banks refusing to back the scheme, Turkish banks have been pressured by the government to provide funding.

A crisis earlier this year in the Turkish financial market, with the value of the lira plummeting, caused delays and cost overruns to a number of giant, prestige projects undertaken by the Erdogan administration.

The cost of the Ilisu dam is officially put at $1.5 billion though observers say the final bill could be substantially higher; critics complain that the financing of the project and the way various contracts have been awarded has not been transparent.

'Hydro-hegemon'

Earlier this year, in the midst of the worst drought experienced in Iraq for 80 years, water levels on the Tigris in Iraq, downstream from the Ilisu dam, sunk to record lows.

For the first time in living memory, people in Baghdad found they could wade across the river. Water levels on the Euphrates also dropped dramatically.

A severe water crisis developed with agriculture in the south of Iraq particularly badly hit.

Together the Tigris and Euphrates supply more than 90 percent of Iraq’s water. Both rivers have grown increasingly polluted as pesticides and fertilisers used on irrigation projects both in Turkey and Iraq have flowed back into the river system.

Iraq was quick to blame Turkey for its summer water woes.

Academics writing about trans-boundary water conflicts meanwhile have used Turkey as an example of a "hydro-hegemon", citing the GAP project as a "prime example" of "large infrastructure enabling the capture of resources and significantly altering the nature of the competition over water to the advantage of the constructor".

Turkish officials however have stressed that they aim to ensure that the water is shared in an "equitable, reasonably and optimal" manner.

They also argue that the dam will allow the flow of water to be managed and controlled in a way that ensures it benefits both Turkey and its neighbours.

In the summer, Turkish officials said the government had agreed to delay filling the Ilisu dam in response to Iraqi concerns.

Fatih Yildiz, Ankara's ambassador in Baghdad, said the decision had been taken by Erdogan himself.

“As of this moment, Tigris waters are being transferred to Iraq without touching a drop of it in Ilisu,” Yildiz wrote on Twitter.

But hydrologists point out this was in many ways an empty gesture; in the summer months, when the announcement was made, there is little water available for filling.

Turkey is only likely to start its operations at Ilisu following the snow melt in the headwaters of the Tigris in springtime in the early months of the year.

Not all blame for the Iraqi drought and the catastrophically low levels of water in the Tigris can be attributed to the Ilisu dam.

Iran has also been building a number of dams on tributaries which flow into the Tigris, diverting water for its own agricultural schemes.

Iraq is particularly concerned about the construction in Iran of the large-scale Daryan dam.

Iraq has been in a state of war or under crippling economic sanctions for much of the last 30 years. It is still recovering after seeing about a third of its territory, including the Mosul dam, overrun in 2014 by Islamic State group militants, who have been in retreat since last year but continue to pose a threat to security.

Much of its infrastructure, including water systems, has been destroyed. Corruption and chronic mismanagement have also contributed to water shortages.

Climate change could make dams redundant

In the background is the prospect of climate change, with the whole region facing into a future in which temperatures are likely to climb and rainfall decrease, leading to further declines in river levels.

Iraq is considered to be the most vulnerable country in the Middle East to climate change.

Already much of the south of the country is drying out, including the famed marshes around Basra, home to a unique civilisation and a UNESCO world heritage site. Increased salinity is poisoning river systems and land.

Climate change could also have a severe impact on the Ilisu dam and the whole GAP project in Turkey.

“Dams are built based on certain projections about water flows and rainfall in their catchment areas,” said a climatologist who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivities involved in conducting research in the region.

“What if snow falls decrease in the Taurus and Zagros mountains in Turkey which feed water levels in the Euphrates and Tigris? What if temperatures continue to rise and evaporation in the reservoirs speeds up?

"Then all the dam building, all the flooding of lands, the displacement of people and the submerging of ancient civilisations – much of it will have been in vain."

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turk ... 1719363083
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Re: Kurds have some PRIDE save Hasankeyf from destruction

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Jan 08, 2019 3:04 pm

Kurdistan's 12,000-year-old city to be engulfed by Tigris

Hasankeyf,: Ancient city with unique flora and fauna is about to be destroyed by Turkish invaders

From the ancient citadel overlooking the valley, Ridvan Ayhan looks at the Tigris with a furrowed brow. The river that supported his family's town for generations will soon destroy it.

"My grandchildren will not see where I grew up, where I lived. They will ask me, 'Grandpa, where do you come from? Where did you live?' What will I do? Show them the lake?" asks Ayhan, readjusting the scarf over his face.

Hasankeyf, in North Kurdistan, has been inhabited for 12,000 years and is doomed to disappear in the coming months.

UNLESS KURDS PREVENT THEIR LAND BEING DESTROYED

An artificial lake, part of the Ilisu hydroelectric dam project, will swallow it up.

The dam, which will be Turkey's second largest, has been built further downstream the Tigris.

Ilisu is a central element of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), a land development plan to boost the economy of the long-neglected region, through hydroelectric energy and irrigation.

BUILDING A DAM:
    Turkey builds this on land stolen from KURDS
    A conservation zone with ban on construction
    Destroying 12,000 years of history
    For dam lasting less than 100 years
    Dam that is controversial and illegal
    Illegal as it gives Turkey the ability stop water flowing to other countries
    Every time you dig, you come across something from a different civilization
Confronted with the imminent flooding of their town and a hundred villages, the 3,000 habitants of Hasankeyf are divided.

While some are angry at the sacrifice being imposed on them, others are impatient for the economic benefits promised by Ankara.

Ayhan, who is retired, is steadfast in his opposition.

He dedicates all his time and energy to fighting against the dam as part of the "Keep Hasankeyf Alive" collective, which brings together campaigning groups and locally elected representatives.

Assyrians, Romans, Seljuks... the empires that washed over this region have left an exceptional heritage, not least the thousands of caves that were inhabited as recently as the 1970s and are a major tourist draw.

The Turkish government dismisses the criticism, arguing that everything has been done to save the monuments.

Turkey has no right to destroy Hasankeyf or the unique ecosystem that exists within the river valley

Flora and fauna only found within this one small part of the entire planet

In one lengthy operation last August, the 1,600-tonne Artuklu Hamam bath house was loaded onto a wheeled platform and moved down a specially constructed road to its new home.

Such relocation operations have transformed Hasankeyf into a construction site.

Busloads of tourists have been replaced by swarms of dump trucks and a crane that sits at the town's entrance.

In what is left of the old bazaar, the butcher, Zeki, sits among the morose-looking traders.

During the inauguration of the Ilisu construction site in 2006, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister, promised the dam would bring "the greatest benefit" to local people.

Part of this promise involves building a "new Hasankeyf" on the other side of the river, with spacious flats and an ultra-modern hospital.

But the construction work drags on. Currently it is a succession of small buildings separated by muddy roads, most of them unpaved.

Delays and financial issues have plagued the dam's construction -- a project first conceived in the 1960s -- "causing a lot of uncertainty in our life", he says.

In 1981, Hasankeyf was classified as a special
conservation zone with a ban on construction
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