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Turkish Dam Controversy Continues

Berlin Threatens Project Pullout

The German government has warned Turkey that it may pull out of the construction of the massive Ilisu dam because of Ankara's failure to comply with the international standards called for in the contract. Berlin says Turkey hasn't done enough to protect the environment or the area's cultural heritage.

The German government on Thursday described as "unacceptable" what it called the Turkish government's failure to comply with the terms of a deal to build a massive and controversial dam and is reiterating its threat to suspend Berlin's participation in the project. If the government pulls out its export guarantees, the ambitious project could collapse.

The statement came as part of a response by the government to an inquiry from the Green Party, which has been pushing strongly against German participation in the project. The project entails the construction of the so-called Ilisu dam along the upper stretch of the Tigris River, which would lead to the flooding of ancient cultural treasures and displace as many as 50,000 residents. Critics have called it a miniature version of the highly controversial Three Gorges Dam project in China.

The government's response reiterated claims made in a recent study by a panel of experts that Turkey had failed to meet many of the 153 criteria that had been established as prerequisites for the project to receive German government-backed export guarantees. Though the government's letter notes that Turkey does have the right "to correct its shortcomings within a reasonable period of time," Berlin is still threatening to pull out of the project.

DER SPIEGEL

Graphic: The Ilisu Dam Project

Green Party head Claudia Roth called for Germany's immediate withdrawal from the project, telling the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that a failure to do so would make Berlin "complicit in massive environmental damage and the destruction of unique cultural artifacts."

Early last month, the German government moved to delay and possibly suspend the more than €100 million ($158 million) in export guarantees following the release of a report by a commission of international experts hired by European governments sponsoring the project. The report concluded that the Turkish government had failed to meet many of the 153 criteria that Turkey had been required to fulfill by the end of 2007. The experts also accused the Turkish government of ignoring most of the criteria, failing to adhere to international standards set for the project and not doing enough to protect the environment or the area's cultural treasures.

Turkey wants to build the dam in order to provide water supplies and electricity to the country's southeast. It's part of the South East Anatolia Project (GAP), which includes plans to build 22 major dams, 19 hydroelectric plants and dozens of irrigation systems in the region.

The Turkish government has promoted the project as one aimed at helping the region's ethnic Kurdish population, but the Environmental Defense Fund has warned that the majority of those displaced by the dam would be "ethnic Kurds who have long been abused by Turkish authorities."

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