Ataturk Dam

---

Day 9

Just a bit more recovered I woke up and it was time for breakfast. As I was still under influence of food poisoning I didn't want to have breakfast, but I was so weak that I had to eat and drink something. With some effort I managed to eat a bit and again it was time to continue.

Our next stop was at the Ataturk Dam

The Atatürk Dam is a zoned rock-fill dam with a central core on the Euphrates River on the border of Adiyaman Province and Sanliurfa Province in Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Built both to generate electricity and to irrigate the plains in the region, it was renamed in honour of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. The construction began in 1983 and was completed in 1990. The dam and the hydroelectric power plant, which went into service after the upfilling of reservoir was accomplished in 1992, are operated by the State Hydraulic Works. The reservoir created behind the dam, called Lake Atatürk Dam, is the third largest in Turkey.

Centerpiece of the 22 dams on the Euphrates and the Tigris, which all form the integrated, multi-sector regional development project of Southeastern Anatolia Project, known as GAP, it is one of the world's largest dams. The Atatürk Dam, one of the five operational dams on the Euphrates as of 2008, is preceded by Keban and Karakaya dams upstream and followed by Birecik and the Karkamis dams downstream. Two more dams on the river are under construction.

The initial development project for the southeastern region of Turkey was presented in 1970. As the objectives for regional development have changed significantly and the ambitions have grown in the 1970s, the original plan underwent major modifications. The most important change in the project was abandoning the Middle Karababa Dam design, and adopting the design of the Atatürk Dam to increase the storage and power generation capacities of the dam.

The rock-fill dam undergoes deformations that are regularly and systematically monitored since 1990 with different types of sensors. It is estimated that the central portion of the dam crest has settled by around 7 m since the end of the construction. Settlement of the dam crest up to 4.3 m has been measured since the start of the detailed geodetic monitoring in 1992. The maximum horizontal (radial) deformation measured is about 2.9 m.

Originating in the mountains of eastern Anatolia and flowing southwards to Syria and Iraq, the Euphrates and the Tigris are very irregular rivers, used to cause great problems each year with droughts in summer and flooding in winter. The water of the Euphrates River is regulated by means of large reservoirs of the Keban and Atatürk Dams. However, the waters released from the HEPPs of those dams also need to be regulated. The Birecik and the Karkamis Dams downstream the Atatürk Dam are constructed for the purpose of harnessing the waters released from large-scale dams and HEPPs.

Nearly 4,760 km2 of arable land in the Sanliurfa-Harran and Mardin-Ceylanpinar plains in upper Mesopotamia is being irrigated via gravity-flow with water diverted from the Atatürk Dam through the Sanliurfa Tunnels system.

The Atatürk Dam and the Sanliurfa Tunnel system are two major components of the GAP project. Irrigation started in the Harran Plain in the spring of 1995. The impact of the irrigation on the economy of the region is significant. In ninety percent of the irrigated area, cotton is planted. Irrigation expansion within the Harran plains also increased Southeastern Anatolia's cotton production.

10 towns and 156 villages of three provinces are located around the Lake Atatürk Dam. The lake provides a fisheries and recreation site. For transportation purposes, several ferries are operated in the reservoir. The reservoir lake is called "sea" by local people.

In 1989, the old town of Samosata, capital of the ancient Commagene kingdom located in Adiyaman Province, and all its history were flooded behind the Atatürk Dam. A new town with the same name Samsat was founded for the around 2,000 people dislocated.

The birthplace of the Ancient Greek poet Lucian was lost when the dam was created.

Since the entire GAP area was home to early civilizations of Hittites, Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Turks, and therefore rich in terms of historical remains, cultural heritage of the region was a concern. The subject of salvaging cultural heritages gained importance, particularly after inundation of Samsat.

The early Neolithic settlement of Nevali Çori, site of some of the world's most ancient known temples and monumental sculpture, was discovered during rescue excavations before the dam was completed. Nevali Çori was inundated by Atatürk Dam's reservoir.

About 90% of Euphrates' total annual flow originates in Turkey, while the remaining part is added in Syria, but nothing is contributed further downstream in Iraq. In general, the stream varies greatly in its flow from season to season and year to year.

One of the most important legal texts on the waters of the Euphrates-Tigris river system is the protocol annexed to the 1946 Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborly Relations between Iraq and Turkey. The protocol provided the control and management of the Euphrates and the Tigris depending to a large extent on the regulations of flow in Turkish source areas. Turkey agreed to begin monitoring the two border-crossing rivers and to share related data with Iraq. In 1980, Turkey and Iraq further specified the nature of the earlier protocol by forming a joint committee on technical issues, which Syria joined later in 1982 as well. Turkey unilaterally guaranteed to allow 15.75 km³/year (500 m³/s) of water across the border to Syria without any formal agreement on the sharing of the Euphrates water.

Mid January 1990, when the first phase of the dam was completed, Turkey held back the flow of the Euphrates entirely for a month to begin filling up the reservoir. Turkey had notified Syria and Iraq by November 1989 of her decision to fill the reservoir over a period of one month explaining the technical reasons and providing a detailed program for making up for the losses. The downstream neighbors protested vehemently. At this point, the Atatürk Dam has cut the flow from the Euphrates by about a third.

Syria and Iraq claim to be suffering severe water shortages due to the GAP development. Both countries allege that Turkey is intentionally withholding supplies from its downstream neighbors, turning water into a weapon. Turkey denies these claims, and insists it has always supplied its southern neighbors with the promised minimum of 500 m3/s. It argues that Iraq and Syria in fact benefit from the regulated water by the dams as they protect all three riparian countries from seasonal droughts and floods.

Syria's anger over the GAP project was a major factor in its decision in the mid 1990s to provide support to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey. Fed by discontent over the status of Kurds in Turkey, the PKK then grew into a major terrorist threat to the Turkish state.

---