Turkey starts building dam that will wipe out Kurd city

[Grimmlok]

Ilısu Dam is one of the 21 dams of the Southeastern Anatolia Project of Turkey. Located on the Tigris River, it is the largest hydroelectric power plant of the project. It is estimated that the dam will create a reservoir with a maximum volume of 10.4 billion m3 and a surface area of 313 km2 creating a power capacity of 1,200 MW and is expected to produce 3,800 GWh of power per year. Construction started on August 5, 2006.[2]

The completion of the Ilısu Dam would cause the flooding of the ancient city of Hasankeyf - a city with more than 10,000 years of history. The Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP) states that:

The town is of particular cultural significance to the Kurdish people: the delegation found a widespread perception that the GAP project, and Ilısu in particular, is motivated primarily by a desire to destroy the Kurds as an ethnic group by destroying their most important cultural sites.[3]

According to the KHRP, between 50 and 68 hamlets and villages will be flooded affecting approximately 25,000 local people. An additional 57 villages will have their land partially flooded.

Many villages have reportedly been evacuated at gunpoint by the Turkish authorities, and in many cases houses have been burnt to the ground.

www.wikipedia.com

[strikeapose]

What a travesty. The loss of culture and history is irreplaceable. This reminds me of the Three Gorges Dam project in China, another disaster.

[Aella]

Damn. I'm familiar with the disgraceful treatment Kurds receive there, but I'm still vaguely shocked at the callous destruction of history.