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A view of the Ilisu River passing through historical Hasankeyf town. PRESS PHOTO

Standing against pressure from the international community, Turkey insists on completing a dam project that will erase major historical sites and displace thousands of people.

Despite the fact that Turkey is still insisting on completing the Ilisu Dam project on the Tigris River in southeastern Turkey, located in the Kurdish-populated areas of the country, financial institutions from Switzerland, Germany, and Austria announced on Tuesday, July 7, that they would withdraw their funds from the project.

The reason behind the decision, according to the announcement, is that the project would result in displacing some 54,000 inhabitants of the areas surrounding the dam, as well as covering and destroying the historical sites in the Hasankeyf town of southeastern Turkey. These reasons are in addition to the project's threat to the environment.

The Turkish government, on the other hand, has announced that it will not stop the project and is determined to complete it at any cost. The project is expected to produce some 1,200 megawatts of electricity.

"This dam will be constructed," said Waisal Arouglu, the Turkish Minister of Environment. "We have the budget as well as the capacity and ability to implement and complete the project."

The dam, if completed, would have negative environmental and economical effects on neighboring Iraq. Tigris is one of the two largest rivers in Iraq, both of which spring from Turkey. The Ilisu Dam would greatly affect the amount of water coming to Iraq through Tigris, and it would have significant effect on the water available for irrigation, thus harming the country's agriculture considerably.

The Iraqi government's official spokesperson, Ali al-Dabbagh, previously stated that the completion of the dam project would influence the farmer's needed amount of irrigation water.

The Iraqi government has previously requested that European countries not fund or support this project.

"The Iraqi government has submitted a formal appeal to those countries, to withdraw their support for the implementation of the project," said al-Dabbagh.

In December 2008, the funding countries announced that they would suspend the project for 180 days since it is not being implemented in compliance with international standards. However, now the period has passed and Turkey is intending to complete the project.

Iraq is currently facing a drought and is suffering from multiple environmental and agricultural difficulties. Therefore, the country's Council of Representatives, as well as some government institutions, has put pressure on Turkey to increase the amount of water coming into Iraq through the Euphrates River.

Besides the economic and environmental issues related to the project, the concern regarding the harm to the historical and archaeological sites in Hasankeyf town as well as the humanitarian issue related to the displacement of the inhabitants of the surrounding areas are two other very controversial issues surrounding the project.

Kurds, and especially the inhabitants of Hasankeyf, are significant opposers to the construction of the dam, since they will be affected directly by the project. They would lose their residence and hometowns, become displaced, and would also lose their historical and archaeological sites, which are the main components of their past and pride.

Many Kurdish and even Turkish writers have written about the project and highlighted its negative aspects in order to raise the international community's awareness about it and to encourage the international community to direct its efforts to persuade Turkey to stop working on the project. Despite all the protests and pressures from inside and outside Turkey, the country's government still insists on completing the dam construction project.