Dozens of associations, groups, academics, journalists from the UK wrote to Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP to express their concer about the future of Hasankeyf.

The 12,000-years site is going to be flooded when the Ilisu Dam will become operational.

Peace in Kurdistan Campaign is among the promoters of the initiative.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

“Dear Foreign Secretary,

The Ilisu Dam: a critical juncture

Over the past two decades, we have written to your predecessors on numerous occasions (most recently on 10 June 2019) to express our grave concerns over the adverse environmental, social and geopolitical impacts of the Ilisu Dam on the River Tigris in Turkey, which is now nearing completion.

You will recall that in 2001 the UK construction company Balfour Beatty, which had been seeking UK export credit support for the project, withdrew from the project after parliamentarians, experts and non-governmental organisations had expressed their opposition. Since then, other EU companies have also withdrawn due to environmental, human rights, cultural heritage and other concerns.

Despite this strong international opposition, mirrored domestically, the Turkish government has now commenced filling the reservoir of the controversial Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River in the Kurdish Southeast of Turkey without giving any official warning to those still living in the area. Neither the state agency responsible for the dam, the State Hydraulic Works (DSI), nor any other governmental institution has made a statement on the flooding of the reservoir, although the DSI has informally acknowledged that it has initiated a ‘test filling’.

Photos shared on social media show how a road along the Tigris River just upstream of the dam is already under water and satellite photographs (attached) reveals that the reservoir is now several kilometres long.

Around 80,000 people in 200 settlement sites will lose their livelihoods as a result of the dam, threaten them with impoverishment. The Tigris is the last major river in Turkey (and probably also in the Middle East) that is largely free-flowing. It is home to a rich biodiversity with endemic and threatened species.

Once filled, the reservoir will also drown the 12,000-year-old town of Hasankeyf, a site of international historical and cultural importance whose flooding would be a loss not just to the region but to humanity as a whole. Hasankeyf and the surrounding Tigris Valley fulfil 9 out of 10 the criteria for listing as a UNESCO world heritage site, according to independent researchers. The threat posed by the Ilisu Dam project to Hasankeyf prompted the World Monuments Fund to list the city on its 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the world.

The dam was planned without proper consultation with downstream states, in contravention with international customary law. Even today, 13 years after construction began, there is no agreement between Turkey, Syria and Iraq on downstream flows as required under international customary law; this despite expert reports suggesting that operation of the dam, in conjunction with a further planned project at Cizre, could reduce the flow of the Tigris during dry years to a trickle. There is a very real fear that the project could seriously jeopardizing the water supply of major Iraqi towns, and put agriculture downstream at risk. The UNESCO site of Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq would be threatened with drying out due to reduced downstream flows. The potential for the dam to exacerbate existing regional conflicts, not least over water, is thus severe, a threat recognised by the FCO under previous administrations.

At a time when the jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan is calling for a resumption of the peace process between the PKK and the Turkish Government, the filling of the reservoir is a provocation to the local Kurdish population, whose opposition to the dam is widespread.

In the interests of peace, international law and sustainable development, we would therefore urge you to use your good office to underline to the Turkey Government the extent of international concern over the project and to urge that the filling of the reservoir be put on hold pending:

- a mutual agreement with Iraq and Syria guaranteeing sufficient downstream water flows to safeguard water supplies, agriculture and ecosystems (notably the Mesopotamian Marshes) in Syria and Iraq;

- the outcome of a broad, participative, inclusive and transparent discussion with representatives of affected communities, both within Turkey and regionally, aimed at evolving policies for the sustainable and equitable use of the Tigris.

We look forward to your response and remain available for any further information.

Yours sincerely,

The Corner House

Peace in Kurdistan

Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive

The Mesopotamia Ecology Movement

Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) UK

Kurdish People’s Democratic Assembly, UK

Maxine Peake, actress

Julie Ward MEP

Dafydd Iwan, LL.D., B.Arch., Past President, Plaid Cymru

Hywel Williams MP

Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Cambridge University

Dr Felix Padel, anthropologist, Oxford University

Dr Camilla Power, University of East London

Dr Derek Wall, Goldsmiths College, University of London

Ian Lawrence, General Secretary at Napo

Christine Blower, NEU International Secretary

Tony Burke, Assistant General Secretary, UNITE

Matt Nathan, Campaigns Director, Freedom for Ocalan Campaign

Stephen Smellie, Deputy Convenor, UNISON Scotland

Doug Nicholls, General Secretary, General Federation of Trade Unions

Mick Wheelan, ASLEF General Secretary

Alan Mardghum, Secretary of Durham Miners Association

Manuel Cortes, General Secretary TSSA

Steve Sweeney, International Editor, Morning Star

Bill McKeith, Executive member, Oxford Trade Union Council

Father Joe Ryan, Chair of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission

Dr. Isabel Käser, SOAS

Rahila Gupta, writer and journalist

Barry White, NUJ member

Emily Apple, journalist, writer

Jonathan Bloch, writer

Dr Sarah Glynn, architect and academic geographer

Paul Scholey, Morrish Solicitors

Dr Thomas Phillips, University of Liverpool

Bruce Kent, peace activist, CND

Christopher Gingell, Ecologist and Archeologist

Henry Brooks, Kurdistan Solidarity Cymru

Les Levidow, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC)

Saleh Mamon, CAMPACC

Margaret Healy

Aodh O'Halpin

Trevor Rayne, writer, FRFI

Sarah Parker, writer and activist

John Hunt, journalist

David Morgan, journalist