MEPs seek to stop Turkish dam project

MEPs will next week put pressure on the German and Austrian governments to withhold approval for a dam project in Turkey which they say will destroy an ancient cultural site.

German and Austrian MEPs will sign a declaration calling for the project to be halted while Feleknas Uca, a German left-wing MEP, will join a protest at the site next week (23 March) near the town of Hasankeyf.

But time is running out for campaigners as the committee which advises the Austrian government on the project reportedly gave its approval last Thursday. Vienna must now decide if it wants to give final sanction to the controversial project.

But the German committee advising Berlin has still not made up its mind on the project with environmental campaigners seeing divisions emerging between the different government departments which make up the committee, but a govern-ment official denied this.

The Ilisu dam project will go ahead when the Austrian, German and Swiss governments allow their export credit agencies to insure domestic firms involved in the project against non-payment by the Turkish authorities.

Campaigners say that up to 78,000 people, mainly ethnic Kurds, will be affected by the project through loss of income and resettlement while Hasankeyf, whose cultural heritage spans nine civilisations, will be submerged. And the dam could cause water flows into Syria and Iraq to dry up, campaigners say.

Those backing the project say there will be sufficient conditions attached to ensure these problems do not arise.

MEPs will next week put pressure on the German and Austrian governments to withhold approval for a dam project in Turkey which they say will destroy an ancient cultural site.