Turkey has embarked on a giant hydropower and irrigation project centred on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The 22 dams that comprise the project will help modernise Turkey's poorest region and increase the country's political leverage over water-poor Syria and Iraq downstream, but activists and some scientists oppose them on environmental and human rights grounds. Carolyn Drake visited two settlements: one already submerged, another awaiting the flood waters.
Hasankeyf is an...
more »Turkey has embarked on a giant hydropower and irrigation project centred on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The 22 dams that comprise the project will help modernise Turkey's poorest region and increase the country's political leverage over water-poor Syria and Iraq downstream, but activists and some scientists oppose them on environmental and human rights grounds. Carolyn Drake visited two settlements: one already submerged, another awaiting the flood waters.
Hasankeyf is an ancient settlement, dating back some 10,000 years with traces of the Assyrian, Roman, Byzantine, Artuqid, Ayyubid and Ottoman civilisations. The town is situated along the Tigris river in south-eastern Turkey, 65km upstream from the Syrian and Iraqi borders.n the past, many of its people lived in caves hewn into the cliffs above the river. Forty years ago, at the government's request, they were resettled in houses in the valley below.
Their lives have always been intertwined with the currents of the river. But the town, along with over fifty villages scattered along the banks of the Tigris, will within a few years be submerged under the floodwaters of the Ilusu dam. Thousands of people will be displaced and much of the area's unique archaeology will be lost forever. These photos aim to preserve the spirit of a place that is destined to disappear.
* In December 2008, insurers suspended their support for the Ilusu dam project amid concern about its environmental and cultural impact. Construction was suspended for a period of six months to allow for further evaluation.
« less
