Euro funding for dam withdrawn
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Şafak Timur
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Temmuz 08, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - The European consortium involved in the Ilısu dam project in southeastern Turkey denies for the last time funding for environmental and cultural reasons. Environmentalists rejoice but the government says it is determined to complete the dam.
Germany, Switzerland and Austria said Tuesday they were pulling the plug on financial support for the Ilısu dam in southeastern Turkey, leaving environmentalists anxiously waiting for Turkey to announce its cancellation of the project.
The Turkish Environment Ministry, however, has stated one more time that it is determined to complete the project. The three countries' export guarantee agencies said Ankara failed to meet a number of conditions they had set for awarding 1.2 billion euros worth of loan guarantees, which were frozen in December.
"Despite some significant improvements, the requirements in the areas of the environment, cultural heritage and resettlement could not be fulfilled within the contractually stipulated time frame," a joint statement said. German International Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said that their critical view of Ilısu was correct from the beginning. "If protection of people, the environment and culture can’t be guaranteed, then the delivery and credit guarantees must be ended," he said in an e-mailed statement, reported Bloomberg news agency.
However, the Turkish Environment Ministry in a written statement Tuesday said the ministry was determined to complete the project. The ministry described the decision as a "political" one, saying that Turkey fulfilled all the criteria necessary to start construction.
The ministry said there was also a joint experts committee decision to release the credits for the project, especially on resettlement, environment and finance. The experts committee was charged with monitoring the fulfillment of the criteria. The ministry said a new page was now open in the construction of the dam.
The dam project is part of the plan to boost prosperity in the Southeast, long troubled by ongoing clashes between security forces and the outlawed-Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
However Erkut Ertürk, the Hasankeyf campaign coordinator of the Doğa Association, one of the leading critics of the project, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that the ministry’s statement was doubtful because the reports from the experts committee, who were in the field in May, are not released to the public yet.
The committee’s reports were sent to the relevant countries and the decision of the consortium came afterward, he said. "It would not be possible to break such a huge contract without any concrete evidence or for mere political reasons," he said.
Environmentalists and critics of the project, talking to the Daily News, said it is now Turkey’s turn ultimately to stop the project, which would flood the ancient city of Hasankeyf within the borders of the southeastern province of Batman. "I am so happy and excited. As European countries realized that Ilısu is a devastating dam project, it is one more time that proved we are right," said Diren Özkan, the coordinator of The Initiative to Protect Hasankeyf. "Now we expect the same from Turkey," she added.
The Ilisu project calls for damming the Tigris River and building a 1,200-megawatt power station as part of a $32 billion irrigation plan for impoverished provinces in Turkey’s southeast. Turkey planned to relocate antiquities and monuments from Hasankeyf, the region’s only surviving city built during the Middle Ages, with roots dating to the Assyrians. Critics of the project, which would create a 300-square-kilometer lake, include Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2006. The dam would destroy 400 square kilometers of river habitat that includes species such as the Euphrates soft-shell turtle.
Some Hasankeyf residents, defending the development of tourism in the area rather than leaving it under dam water were also happy about the decision. "Ninety percent of Hasankeyf residents do not want the project, those who want it, want it because of their own interests. We will continue to struggle to make Hasankeyf included on the World Culture Heritage list as it has deserved for a long time," he said. "We became happy, but we will keep struggling," he said. The mayor of Hasankeyf, Abdulvahap Kusen said as well that they praised the decision. They are not against the dam, but they are only against that Hasankeyf would remain under dam water, he said.
180-day extension expires
German, Swiss and Austrian institutions earlier announced they were withholding their financing because the Turkish government had failed to fulfill the criteria by December 2008. The agencies later suspended the loans and gave Turkey a 180-day extension, which expired Monday.
"The decision of the consortium is a great success for the campaigns in both Turkey and Europe," said Ulrich Eichelmann, from the International NGO Campaign on Export Credit Agencies, or ECA-Watch. According to Eichelmann it is the first time in the world that countries have pulled out of existing contracts for social, ecological and cultural reasons. The decision has Turkey left with less money and technical capability, he said.
The Turkish Environment Ministry, however, has stated one more time that it is determined to complete the project. The three countries' export guarantee agencies said Ankara failed to meet a number of conditions they had set for awarding 1.2 billion euros worth of loan guarantees, which were frozen in December.
"Despite some significant improvements, the requirements in the areas of the environment, cultural heritage and resettlement could not be fulfilled within the contractually stipulated time frame," a joint statement said. German International Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said that their critical view of Ilısu was correct from the beginning. "If protection of people, the environment and culture can’t be guaranteed, then the delivery and credit guarantees must be ended," he said in an e-mailed statement, reported Bloomberg news agency.
However, the Turkish Environment Ministry in a written statement Tuesday said the ministry was determined to complete the project. The ministry described the decision as a "political" one, saying that Turkey fulfilled all the criteria necessary to start construction.
The ministry said there was also a joint experts committee decision to release the credits for the project, especially on resettlement, environment and finance. The experts committee was charged with monitoring the fulfillment of the criteria. The ministry said a new page was now open in the construction of the dam.
The dam project is part of the plan to boost prosperity in the Southeast, long troubled by ongoing clashes between security forces and the outlawed-Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
However Erkut Ertürk, the Hasankeyf campaign coordinator of the Doğa Association, one of the leading critics of the project, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that the ministry’s statement was doubtful because the reports from the experts committee, who were in the field in May, are not released to the public yet.
The committee’s reports were sent to the relevant countries and the decision of the consortium came afterward, he said. "It would not be possible to break such a huge contract without any concrete evidence or for mere political reasons," he said.
Environmentalists and critics of the project, talking to the Daily News, said it is now Turkey’s turn ultimately to stop the project, which would flood the ancient city of Hasankeyf within the borders of the southeastern province of Batman. "I am so happy and excited. As European countries realized that Ilısu is a devastating dam project, it is one more time that proved we are right," said Diren Özkan, the coordinator of The Initiative to Protect Hasankeyf. "Now we expect the same from Turkey," she added.
The Ilisu project calls for damming the Tigris River and building a 1,200-megawatt power station as part of a $32 billion irrigation plan for impoverished provinces in Turkey’s southeast. Turkey planned to relocate antiquities and monuments from Hasankeyf, the region’s only surviving city built during the Middle Ages, with roots dating to the Assyrians. Critics of the project, which would create a 300-square-kilometer lake, include Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2006. The dam would destroy 400 square kilometers of river habitat that includes species such as the Euphrates soft-shell turtle.
Some Hasankeyf residents, defending the development of tourism in the area rather than leaving it under dam water were also happy about the decision. "Ninety percent of Hasankeyf residents do not want the project, those who want it, want it because of their own interests. We will continue to struggle to make Hasankeyf included on the World Culture Heritage list as it has deserved for a long time," he said. "We became happy, but we will keep struggling," he said. The mayor of Hasankeyf, Abdulvahap Kusen said as well that they praised the decision. They are not against the dam, but they are only against that Hasankeyf would remain under dam water, he said.
180-day extension expires
German, Swiss and Austrian institutions earlier announced they were withholding their financing because the Turkish government had failed to fulfill the criteria by December 2008. The agencies later suspended the loans and gave Turkey a 180-day extension, which expired Monday.
"The decision of the consortium is a great success for the campaigns in both Turkey and Europe," said Ulrich Eichelmann, from the International NGO Campaign on Export Credit Agencies, or ECA-Watch. According to Eichelmann it is the first time in the world that countries have pulled out of existing contracts for social, ecological and cultural reasons. The decision has Turkey left with less money and technical capability, he said.