Forget about Hasankeyf dam; this is the people’s decision

Neither Tarkan nor Orhan Gencebay, nor Yaşar Kemal nor Sezen Aksu is enough to stop the national fume of Environment Minister in charge of energy and industry. For the minister, the ever growing petition campaign to save Hasankeyf that was launched by the Nature Association and Atlas magazine, are just about making a fuss. (www.kesfetmekicinbak.com/apps/proposal.app/view_m.php/5)

It is easy to understand his hatred towards those who think differently. Indeed, it is difficult to digest all this while being a 'boss'. We know that in one of his earlier statements the minister with the following remarks warned people standing against unplanned, unprogrammed and meaningless hydroelectric power plants to be built arbitrarily on the Çoruh, Tigris and Göksu rivers: “Turkey will use its resources and become less dependent on foreigners,” he said. “Is this why they have reservations or are they trying to prevent the development of our country? Let me tell you this: These power plants will be built. No one can stop it. This is the decision of the state and the government.” No further comment!

Contradictions one after the other

The Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government is intellectually unequipped on the topic of environment. The mindset of the party is nothing more than a development model of the 1960s. But they are aware of the succulent financial opportunities relating to energy deals. The Kyoto Protocol, as the first international agreement to slow climate change, was signed in 1997 and came into force in 2005. The Turkish government signed it earlier this year but won't fulfill the requirements of CO2 emission reduction before 2012, arguing national interests! Kyoto becomes ineffective in 2012. Even though juicy contracts determine the very national interest, the government sees no harm in sticking with a nationalistic discourse whenever they are trapped.

The minister claims the environment chapter will be opened this year with the EU. Let’s see if he can. The only thing he is unaware of is that as he continues negotiations with the EU, his ministry cannot brag about delicate issues such as Hasankeyf. The main opening benchmark for that chapter reads, “Turkey should represent a comprehensive plan to the European Commission to reveal the required financial sources, administrative capacity at the national, regional and local levels in order to apply the environment acquis through targets and time frame. This plan should be consistent with the start-up time of the acquis in coordinated efforts and with completion date of legal harmonization.” And of course, the seriousness of the action plan depends on the seriousness of the impact analysis conducted before.

Istanbul hosted the “Global Conference on Global Warming” on July 6-9. The objective of the conference was to introduce new solutions to combat global warming and to band all disciplines together. It is held in a different city each year. It not only brought together engineering and science on global warming, but also many other disciplines including ecology, education, social sciences, economy, business, politics and information technologies were coupled together.

Environment related subjects, including energy and environment policies, energy sources, energy transformation technologies, energy management and saving, energy security, sustainable development, renewable energy sources, green technologies, emission reduction, carbon tax, pollution control and measurement were discussed at the conference. Another objective was for the transformation of the decisions taken or discussed into policies in a political ground. The government’s sauciness on the issue of environment makes it easy to think that similar meetings are nothing but schizophrenic jokes.

The minister, before accusing everyone that objects to the Hasankeyf dam of being a traitor, should better lend an ear to former 'Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples', or Mazlumder, President Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu who visited the region in the past. “The Ilısu Dam Project will leave Hasankeyf and the ten thousand-year-old common heritage of mankind entirely submerged underwater, is a concern for all sensitive segments of the society, as well as it is for Mazlumder, and the damage it will cause is directly of interest to our association. Mr. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in a speech in Batman years ago, had said, ‘We cannot sacrifice the antique city that hosted about 40 civilizations to the Ilısu Dam. We are determined to open Hasankeyf as the cradle of world civilizations to global tourism’ and made all of us happy. But his approach today is thought-provoking. Besides, it is very obvious that the dam projects of the past caused more harm than benefits to their surrounding regions. This dam will make no contribution to the region economically or socially. It will force tens of thousands of people to leave their land and create social and psychological damage. Such a project cannot be reasonably justified. Under the guise of saving the region, the project of moving Hasankeyf is unrealistic. The only way to save Hasankeyf is to forget about the Ilısu Dam Project and to include the region in the UNESCO’s world cultural heritage list as was suggested by many” said Gergerlioğlu.

Hasankeyf is also important for Islam. According to experts, there are Koranic verses pointing out that people lived centuries ago and built stone houses and that we should learn lessons from these 'strong people'. In order to learn a lesson or two, conservation of the caves in Hasankeyf is critical, experts say.

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Data on Ilısu Dam:

· The Adnan Menderes government was in power when the Ilısu Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant came to the agenda in 1954;

· The dam will leave 80 percent of Batman’s historic town of Hasankeyf underwater, but its economic lifespan is only 60 years;

· The AKP government offered 1.2 billion euros in financial support for the project when it came to power;

· Despite fulfilling none of the total of 153 criteria required to start the dam, construction works began in March 2008, expropriation efforts were accelerated. But this stirred the withdrawal of Austria, Germany and Switzerland based credit institutions as the sponsors of the project. On July 7, the institutions canceled the contract. (http://www.serv-ch.com/de/ethische-grundsaetze/projekte-von-grosser-tragweite/ilisu-projekt-tuerkei);

· A government announcement insisted the project would continue.

Data on Hasankeyf:

· One of the ancient cities fulfilling nine out of the ten UNESCO world heritage criteria;

· For the species and historic sites to be affected by the project visit the Nature Association’s site: (www.dogadernegi.org/index.php?sayfa=hasankeyf)