The Ilisu hydro-electric power project is part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP). The site is situated on the Tigris river, about 65 km upstream of the Syrian and Iraqi border. With a planned capacity of 1,200 MW, Ilisu is Turkey's largest pending hydropower project. In September 1999, a fact finding team comprising three lawyers and a specialist in the social and environmental impacts of large dams visited Diyarbakir, Batman and Hasankeyf in south east Turkey on behalf of the Kurdish Human Rights Project. The purpose of the mission was to make site visits and to confer with elected officials, members of local organisations and those likely to be affected by the dam. Despite constant police surveillance and control, which severely restricted the delegation’s ability to conduct independent investigations as originally intended , recorded interviews were conducted with local politicians, lawyers, historians and a small number of project affected residents. The mission also attended a public conference ...
Table of contents
Foreword / 1
Introduction / 3
Section 1: The Ilisu Hydro-Electric Project / 5 1.1 Background / 5 1.1.1 The GAP Project / 1.1.2 The Ilisu Hydro-Electric Project 1.2 Key concerns / 6 1.2.1 Failure to Release Documents 1.2.2 Failure to Consider Alternatives 1.2.3 Environmental Impacts 1.2.4 International Water Rights/Downstream Flow Regime 1.2.5 Cultural Heritage/Hasankeyf 1.2.6 Lack of Consultation 1.2.7 Confusion over Numbers to be Resettled 1.2.8 Concerns over Compensation 1.2.9 Lack of a Resettlement Plan 1.2.10 Independent Monitoring
Section 2: Legal Provisions, International Agreements, Resolutions, Guidelines and Corporate Policies Relevant to the Project / 19 2.1 The Republic of Turkey, including relevant government departments / 19 2.1.1 Domestic laws 2.1.2 European law relevant to Turkey 2.1.3 International law and Turkey 2.1.4 UN Conventions and Resolutions and Turkey 2.1.5 Public international law and Turkey 2.2 Other states involved with the Ilisu project / 24 2.2.1 States party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 2.2.2 States party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 2.3 European Union member states / 26 2.3.1 Council Directive 90-313-EEC on the Freedom of Access to Environmental Information 2.3.2 EU Resolution on Indigenous Peoples and Development 2.4 States which are members of the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development / 26 2.5 States which are members of the World Bank Group / 27 2.6 Ex-lm Bank / 28 2.7 Companies involved in the project / 29 2.7.1 Union Bank of Switzerland 2.7.2 All companies - Relevant “Best Practice” Guidelines in the Hydropower Industry
Section 3: Findings of the Mission / 31 3.1 Water Wars / 31 3.2 The Cultural Impacts of the Project / 31 3.3 The Failure to Consult / 34 3.4 Resettlement / 36 3.5 Expropriation and Compensation / 42 3.6 Lack of a Resettlement Plan / 42
3.7 Independent Monitoring
Section 4: Conclusions and Recommendations
Appendices: 1. Ilisu dam and hydro-electric power project: Catchment area 2. Berne Declaration: Ilisu - A test case of international policy coherence 3. Antik Kent (Ancient City) Hasankeyf booklet 4. UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage 5. Map of Ilisu area 6. Legal provisions, international agreements, resolutions, guidelines and corporate policies relevant to the project 6.A. Turkish laws affecting the Ilisu project 6.B. European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 6.C. Universal Declaration of Human Rights 6.D. UN Declaration on the Right to Development 6.E. The Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic Religious or Linguistic Minorities 6.F UN Convention on the Non-Navigational Uses of Transboundary Watercourses 6.G International Labour Organisation Conventions #107 and #169 6.H UN Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1993/77 on Forced Evictions 6.I Council Directive 90/313/EEC on the Freedom of Access to Environmental Information (7 June 1990) 6. J OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Guidelines 6.K World Bank Operational Directives 6. L International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) 7. The Populated Units that would be under the Reservoir of the Ilisu Dam, 1990 8. Report: Ilisu Dam Project, 1997
FOREWORD
The Turkish government’s official publicity for the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) claims that the network of dams and power plans across south east Turkey will “dramatically change the social and cultural make up of the region”¹. To the many Kurds who have been displaced from their homes in recent years, this statement has a sinister ring to it.
In 1923, the establishment of the modern Turkish state under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk brought a new kind of nationalism to Turkey. All citizens were by definition “Turkish”: to define oneself as belonging to any other ethnic group was not only inconceivable, it was seen as an act in defiance of state authority.
Turkey’s fifteen million Kurds have suffered from various forms of oppression at the hands of the Turkish state over many years. In the late 1920s and early 1930s the state security forces of the newly established Turkish state used brutal methods, including mass deportations, to pacify the rebellious Kurdish south east of the country and to assimilate the Kurds into the Turkish population. In 1924, an official decree banned all Kurdish schools, organisations and publications. Use of the words “Kurd” and “Kurdistan” was forbidden and references to them were removed from Turkish history books. In June 1934, Law 2510 divided Turkey into three zones, (i) localities to be reserved for the habitation of persons possessing Turkish culture, (ii) areas to which persons of non-Turkish culture could be moved for assimilation into Turkish culture and (iii) regions for complete evacuation. At that stage, almost all Kurdish villages were renamed with Turkish sounding names. Parents could not register their children with distinctively Kurdish names. The Kurdish language was forbidden in written and spoken form. Kurdish folklore, music, traditional Kurdish clothes and colours and the celebration of the Kurdish new year festival Newroz have all been banned at various times.
The oppression of the early 20th century continues today. The speaking of Kurdish was forbidden at various periods until 1991 and as recently as April 1999 the Turkish Ministry of Interior Affairs banned state run news agencies, government departments and universities from using words such as ‘Kurdish problem’, ‘Kurdish people’ and ‘evacuated villages’: instead they were ordered to use politically-approved expressions such as ‘our citizens who are identified as Kurds’ and 'abandoned villages’. In practice, any overt expression of Kurdish culture is likely to be seen as subversive. The savage conflict which has raged between Turkish security forces and Kurdish guerillas in south east Turkey since 1984 has been the background for innumerable brutal human rights abuses on the part of the security forces, including village destruction, torture, extra judicial killing and disappearances. The situation in the Kurdish regions has been roundly condemned by the international community.
Set in this context, the proposal to flood the Kurdish town of Hasankeyf in south east Turkey, a site which is of key cultural significance to Kurds, and to submerge the homes and lands of an estimated 25,000 people, must be regarded with scepticism. The llisu project appears to many to be part of a wider political strategy aimed at eradicating the Kurds as an ethnic group, by both breaking up their communities and destroying their culture. The support of the international community, which now acknowledges its responsibility for ensuring respect for human rights worldwide, for such a project without first conducting a meticulous examination of its implications must be regarded as grossly irresponsible.
This report, based on a five day visit to the Diyarbakir and Batman areas in late September 1999, documents a wide range of human rights and environmental concerns which strike at the heart of the llisu dam proposals in their current form. Environmental issues, the absence of any scope for indigenous people to express a view freely on the consequences of the project and on their own future, both lead inexorably to the perception that this project is yet another nail in the coffin of Kurdish culture. In the light of the findings in the report, the proposals must be examined carefully by those involved in the planning exercise.
The conclusions of this report oblige all those involved, in Turkey and in the international community, to pause for thought before committing themselves to a project which threatens to infringe the rights of so many, in a region already notorious for its lack of respect for basic human dignity.
Kerim Yildiz Executive Director Kurdish Human Rights Project
¹ “Southeastern Anatolia and The GAP Region” brochure, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Tourism General Directorate of Information
Introduction
The Ilisu hydro-electric power project is part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP). The site is situated on the Tigris river, about 65 km upstream of the Syrian and Iraqi border. With a planned capacity of 1,200 MW, Ilisu is Turkey's largest pending hydropower project.
In September 1999, a fact finding team comprising three lawyers and a specialist in the social and environmental impacts of large dams visited Diyarbakir, Batman and Hasankeyf in south east Turkey on behalf of the Kurdish Human Rights Project. The purpose of the mission was to make site visits and to confer with elected officials, members of local organisations and those likely to be affected by the dam. Despite constant police surveillance and control, which severely restricted the delegation’s ability to conduct independent investigations as originally intended , recorded interviews were conducted with local politicians, lawyers, historians and a small number of project affected residents.
The mission also attended a public conference in Diyarbakir conducted by academics and government officials on the archaeological and historic significance of Hasankeyf, an ancient city which bridges the Tigris river less than 100 km north of the Turkish-Iraqi border. The current dam proposal will result in the loss of the city, which will be largely submerged in the Ilisu reservoir.
The report documents the findings of the mission, and explores the social impacts of the project, in particular the issues of environmental impact, forced relocation and the likely submersion of the site at Hasankeyf. More specifically, it raises the following questions: To what extent does the project involve violations of applicable Turkish law relating to forced relocation, housing and property rights?
To what extent does the project involve violations of international law, conventions and international declarations relating to environmental impact assessment, the international law of watercourses, and international human rights law, in particular expropriation, forced relocation, housing and property rights?
To what extent does the project involve violations of internationally recognised standards relating to large scale development projects, the treatment of minorities, forced relocation, and heritage sites, etc?
To what extent would participation in the project violate standards adopted by the companies involved in the project?
To what extent would involvement in the project violate any standards adopted by the export credit agencies which have been approached for financial support?
Section 1 outlines the project, its claimed benefits and the social and environmental concerns that have already been identified by NGOs and the project developers themselves.
Section 2 outlines the relevant national and international laws, agreements, resolutions and guidelines relating to long term development projects of this nature and the human rights implications of the project. It also reviews emerging “best practice” within the dam-building industry with regard to forced resettlement.
Section 3 reports on the main findings of the field trip.
Section 4 contains the conclusions and recommendations of the delegation, incorporating an analysis of the possible legal remedies to the legal violations precipitated by the project.
² See Section 3 for further details
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Kerim Yildiz
The Ilisu Dam
KHRP
Kurdish Human Rights Project The Ilisu Dam Kerim Yildiz
Pis Mien in the. Mtikina
A report on the implications of the Ilisu Hydro-Electric Power Project, Batman Province, South-East Turkey, following a fact finding mission to the region
For further information please contact the Kurdish Human Rights Project, Suite 319, Linen Hall, 162-168 Regent Street, London W1R 5TB, England, Telephone: +44 171 287 2772 Facsimile: +44 171 734 4927 e-mail: khrp@khrp.demon.co.uk Internet: http://www.khrp.org
The price of this publication (£5) covers printing and other costs associated with its production and distribution.
The Ilisu Dam A Human Rights Disaster in the Making
A report on the implications of the Ilisu Hydro-Electric Power Project, Batman Province, South-East Turkey, following a fact findin; mission to the region
November 1999
Kurdish Human Rights Project Suite 319 Linen Hall 162-168 Regent Street London W1R 5TB Tel: 020 7287 2772 Fax: 020 7734 4927 Email: khrp@khrp.demon.co.uk http://www.khrp.org
The Ilisu Dam: A Human Rights Disaster in the Making
