Ancient Turkish town prepares to vanish under floodwaters
and ruins of a bridge take the breath away.
But within the next few years, this scene is likely to be no more, with the historic centre of Hasankeyf set to vanish forever under the floodwaters from the Ilisu Dam project.
Turkish officials argue that the dam’s hydroelectric plant will provide electricity and irrigation essential to the development of the Kurdish-dominated southeast. The historic edifices will be moved in a hugely ambitious programme that has parallels with the shifting of key archaeological sites from the Pharaonic era in Upper Egypt when the Aswan dam was built in the 1960s.
But some local residents fear the inundation of Hasankeyf will wreak untold damage on the region that will not be avoided purely by shifting the monuments to new areas.
“There is no going back,” said Arif Ayhan, a member of the Association for Trade and Tourism in Hasankeyf.
“The people could have been listened to, at least, and not ignored,” he added. “People here feel passed over by the state. It’s us who are the victims.”
Bazaar trader Mehmet Emin Aydin said: “We will try to fight as long as we can, so that the beauty and history of this city will not be destroyed.”
With the dam and hydroelectric plant now almost complete, the flooding process will begin on December 31 to create the lake that will eventually submerge Hasankeyf, said Anadolu news agency.
The drive to relocate historic monuments has already begun, with the authorities in May moving a 15th-century tomb on a wheeled platform from its location in the town to a new site two kilometres away in a painstaking five-hour journey.
The state has vowed to rehouse those uprooted by the project, with 710 new homes built in the upper parts of the town. But this is scant consolation for some locals. “I do not need anything from the state, just that they take their hands off beautiful Hasankeyf,” said local resident Ayvaz Tunc.