The ILISU 'damn' Project
excuse the working copy, updateing as you read : 09 November, 2005

  
   
 
    The Ilisu : damn project is one of 20 Turkish developments to increase its power, GAP
(South Eastern Anatolian Project)
  • Europe wanting to increase its power wants Turkey in the EU and so generally supports the damned projects.
  • The exploited > the general environment by careless raising of consumerism and > the local environment and the Kurdish people.
  • The Kurdish people have been at armed odds with the Turkish establishment since 1984 and the Ilisu dam is more than just another jibe at them.

The purpose of this website is
to encourage the viewer to query

  • the sense for the Ilisu dam and the whole GAP project and
  • Europe's support for Turkey as a EU member given it appers only to based on the EU wanting more power.
  • the danger of more power over the external environment rather than more power within ourselves to live with the environment and each other.
  

TURKEY (Turkie)

The Ilisu dam will create a catchment area that falls within 5 provinces of that part of Kurdish homelands in South Eastern Turkey, namely Diyarbakir, Mardin, Batman, Siirt and Sirnak, which have a total population of 2.9 million. 90% of the inhabitants are ethnically Kurdish and 10% are Arabs and Turks.

The Ilisu dam will be built between Mardin and Sirnak at the village of Ilisu on the Tigris River (Kurdish : River Dicle).
The Kurdish name for Ilisu is (Ghermav) meaning - warm water or hot spring

I am not sure of the exact location of Ilisu (Germav), but I think it is the district of Mardin on the westernside of the River Tigris (Dicle)

The relief map below, if showing the whole resevoir, must denote Ilisu by the sothern-most point. This 'location' has been transfered by me to two large maps :

  • politcial, or regional map and
  • relief map, large, <ilisures2.jpg >(880Kb)
 
 
    
   
 
    I have been unable to locate 
I'm now making personal 		    the exact position of Ilisu after some 20-30 hours of internet search.
 contact with others involved in the Ilisu damn project.		    
    As well as numerous campaigns to have this project abandoned for political reasons, there is a archaeological disaster

in the drowning of the ancient City of Hasankeyf, near the center of the proposed 78,000 acre resevoir

more pictures of Hasankeyf

 

Note: The (political) maps for South East Anatolia see multimap,
show the proposed resevoir, not the current river Tigirs (Dicle).

A politicians 'dream' map. Thanks Multimap?

    
             
    GAP restricts water
to Iraq and Syria

 

The daming of the Tigris will affect Iraq whilst those on the Euphrates, Syria and Iraq. I have seen a report stating the Turks have stoped 80% of the flow of the Euphrates already.

Syria and Iraq are relatively dry places and can ill afford restrictions. With Turkey in the EU and Iraq under American control Syria voice will be shouted down..

The law both locally and international requires riparian owners (owners of river beds) not to interfere with the water that flows across their land in any way that would adversley affect their 'neighbours' downstream.

    
             
    The general environmental impact will be
  • the increase in conveineint consumer products at the expense of fertile land.
  • the dispalcement of 100,000's of people to concentration towns
    • these people will now want coneinet consumer goods having been deprived of their way of home and way of life. (song about Ned Ludd to go here. Look at the effect on the indigeonous peoples of North America and Australasia - they often drink themselves into oblivion due to the chronos depression they suffer.
  

Other sites'
ILISU documentation
All links working on 5th August, 2005

Berne Declaration
> Ilisu campaign, Switzerland

Environmental Defense,US
European River Network
> Ilisu campaign
Export Credit campaign
> ECA-Watch

Friends of the Earth UK

heureka.clara.net/sunrise/ilisu.htm
> Keith Parkins

lisu.org.uk
International Rivers Network
ITV Channel 4
> Mark Thomas’ Ilisu page

Kurdish Human Rights
Kurdish Media

    
             
    This is a human thing about caring not about competing. True if we don't compete to the best of our abilty we won't survive as an individual or a race. But the competition against each other is bringing bloodthirsty savagery on many peoples and undermins the abilty of the integrarted flora and fauna to support the diveristy that is the backbone of our life support system.  

Here's a view of
Environmental damage
from one of the few people how can really see
this world,
Commander Eileen Collins onboard Discovery

Thursday 4th August 2005

Linked with the International Space Station, orbiting 352km (220 miles) above the Earth, she described how widespread environmental destruction on Earth could be seen from the shuttle.

"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation,"

"It's very widespread in some parts of the world. We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used."

In her conversation from space with with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, she said her view from space emphasised how Earth's atmosphere must be protected too.

"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air - we need to protect what we have."

Clip Extraced from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4745963.stm
Published: 2005/08/04 19:06:28 GMT : © BBC MMV