The people of Hasankeyf have for a prolonged period protested the Government’s plan to flood their historic town as part of an initiative to construct a new dam. Yet, their calls have fallen on deaf ears, with the Ilisu dam project given the go ahead – the town now months away from being entirely flooded as the first waters are released.
Hasankeyf is around a half-hour drive from Batman in south-east Turkey, sitting on the banks of the Tigris River.
The town is thought to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth – a hugely significant aspect for historians, archaeologists, scientists and everyone involved.
Dating as far back as 12,000 years, Hasankeyf contains thousands of caves and churches of historical importance.
All of these landmarks will soon be lost, however, with floodwaters expected to enter every crevice of the past.
Hasankeyf is currently being flooded – it will be but a few months before the settlement is submerge (Image: GETTY)
Some 70,000 people will be displaced (Image: GETTY)
Construction on the dam and its hydroelectric power plant started in 2006, though at the time it was though the global community pushback would be too strong for the Turkish Government to continue.
Now, however, Hasankeyf is just months away from destruction despite a fervent campaign from residents and environmental campaigners.
Residents were initially given until October 8 2019 to vacate, that date having been postponed.
When the waters flow picks up pace, it is thought it will take just a few months before the settlement is entirely submerged.
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Residents have been forced to leave their homes (Image: GETTY)
The Turkish Government has said the dam is vital to the development of the country.
It added that its construction is part of a larger network of dams aimed at reducing the country’s dependency on energy imports.
An influx of job openings will, it claims, help alleviate the relative impoverishment of the southeast region.
Opponents to the dam say its apparent benefits come nowhere near to the cost that will be incurred to local communities, not to mention its status as a world cultural heritage spot being lost.
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The dam straddles part of the Tigris River (Image: GETTY)
The town has hundreds of relics of historical significance (Image: GETTY)
The reservoir will stretch nearly 100 miles from Ilisu and displace more than 70,000 people.
It is also expected to wipe out endangered wildlife species and erase the splendour of Hasankeyf.
The town is, to all intents and purposes, a living museum; with architecture, both natural and man made, spanning the length of its past settlers – Neolithic, Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman.
One entrance to the town welcomes visitors through two elegant stone piers rising from the river – the remnants of a 12th century four-arched bridge.
It is noted for its natural beauty (Image: GETTY)
The destruction of the town has proved to be a multi-faceted issue, with history, the environment, politics and society poised to lose out.
In particular, the dam will be built in a Kurdish-majority area, to which they have complained is an attempt by the state to marginalise their ethnic group even further.
In terms of political tension, the dam will straddle rivers whose flow gradually enters Iraq and Syria.
These two countries have complained that water sources may be disrupted, which has in turn sparked fears of hardship and greater conflicts in the future.
Town’s people begin to leave their homes (Image: GETTY)
The dam’s history can be traced back to the 1970s, when Turkey launched a plan to develop its power sources to 22 dams and 19 hydrolytic dams.
The plan is the costliest in the country’s history, which seeks to “eliminating development disparities existing between the region and other parts of the country”, according to a summary on the website of the Ministry of Industry and Technology.
In 2009, European creditors withdrew from funding the project following a surge in protests from foreign environmentalist protest.