World

The Ilisu dam: Part one - impact on culture and villagers, and Europe's role

The Ilisu dam, Turkey's second largest dam, is a controversial project the will flood the important historic site of Hasankeyf, and displace up to 80,000 villagers along the Tigris river in the predominately Kurdish southeast. Austrian, Swiss and German export credit agencies (ECAs) are providing risk guarantees to companies from those countries who are part of the 1.2 billion euro consortium contract. The ECAs say the complex agreement raises dam development standards for Turkey. But the magnitude of the dam's negative impacts, and Turkey's failure to meet agreed upon deadlines in the areas of culture, environment and resettlement, means the project is now in jeopardy. In part one of this three part video series, and accompanying FT Magazine article, Micah Garen and Marie-Helene Carleton explore the impact of the Ilisu dam on cultural history and Kurdish villagers.