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Published: June 19th 2014
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Old Bridge
Probably built on the foundations of a Roman bridge by the Artuqids Hasankeyf, Southeastern-Anatolia, Turkey
17th June, 2014
“The birds they sing at the break of day Start again I seem to hear them say Don't dwell on what has passed away Or what is yet to be” Leonard Cohen
Today I swam in the Tigris river. Refreshing and fast moving.
Today wars seem to often revolve around oil. Tomorrow they seem set to revolve around water. The Middle East endures with a multitude of ideological, ethnic, religious and pan-national tensions, conflicts and associations. The politics of water already plays a major role in relations between Iraq, Syria and Turkey. In 1990, Turkey started construction of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (also known as GAP) to dam sections of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers north of the Syrian/Turkey border. Syria and Iraq, otherwise often in dispute themselves, formed an alliance to oppose Turkey over the loss of control of their waterways. They watched with apprehension the construction of the Ataturk Dam and the planning of a system of 22 dams on these two rivers within Turkey.
Hasankeyf is an ancient town located along the Tigris river in southeastern Turkey, and has a
history going back to 900 BC. It was declared a natural conservation area by Turkey in 1981. Previously mainly Armenian and Arab, a steady and significant Kurdish immigration from surrounding villages in the last 20–30 years, plus the effects of the Armenian and Assyrian Genocide, has meant that Kurdish people form the majority of the city centre today.
With a history spanning nine civilizations, the archaeological and religious significance of Hasankeyf is very considerable. The construction of the Ilisu Dam, now underway, will mean that a great deal of the city's historical treasures will be inundated and destroyed (the rock being quite soft), including ornate mosques, tombs and cave churches. Initially backed by a Swiss-led financial consortium, with Turkey set to provide 30 million euros for moving the historical heritage of Hasankeyf higher up from the valley floor, a number of moves by the World Monuments Fund and others led to suspension and then cancellation of the project under foreign financing.
However Turkey is now financing the dam itself. It has become a “project of honour” for the Turkish State, and is set to be completed by 2017. Already a 'new' Hasankeyf is being constructed higher up the
valley slopes, with the whole town poised to be relocated. Compensation for loss of property and livelihood is a moot point. Yasin, aged 47, married with three children, owns a local restaurant and a house in Hasankeyf. He claims that he will get only half the value of his properties from the government, leaving him with no livelihood in what will be a non-tourist attractive new Hasankeyf. So he will move to Gaziantep and take a bank loan to start a new restaurant. Others will not have such options: Urgen runs the Hasankeyf Motel. After collecting whatever compensation he might be entitled too, there is little point in building a new motel (nor could he afford it) in the new Hasankeyf. Unless of course the old underwater Hasankeyf becomes a dive destination!.
Locals speculate as to why UNESCO has not declared the area World Heritage given that it fulfills 9 or the 10 crieteria (with other declarations around the world fulfilling much less). The answer could be political given the Kurdish population and their standing in the Turkish real-politic.
Hasankeyf is a small place, and while poised for major tourism it is still a quiet place where people
are genuinely friendly and open. Tourism is mainly internal (Turkish) and the seasons are spring and autumn. Meanwhile (a case of the left hand either oblivious to the right hand or plain stupid) considerable renovation work, at government expense, is currently underway on the monuments and edifices of Hasankeyf, including the historic old bridge that is thought to go back to Roman times (when there was a strategically located Roman garrison here). In light of the dam proposal this seems a bit nuts.
Tomorrow I will again swim in the Tigris river – before it is no longer possible to do so at Hasankeyf.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasankeyf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_politics
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Turkey
Progress is not always good. Sounds like we'd better get to this section of the world before 2017. Negative and positive impacts out of all choices. Politics, wars and decisions all impact the locals around the world.