Berlin, Jul 7 2009 | CounterCurrent/Gegenstroemung et al. The governments of Germany, Austria
and Switzerland
today officially
announced their withdrawal from the Ilisu project on the Tigris river
in Turkey.
Turkey's
efforts to build the controversial dam have thus failed for the second
time.
Environmental and human rights organisations have welcomed the decision
as a breakthrough
in their campaign to stop the project and to push for higher standards
for export
guarantees.
"The
withdrawal of the guarantees is a huge success for all groups who have
been
tirelessly campaigning against the project in the involved countries",
says Heike
Drillisch of the German Ilisu Campaign CounterCurrent. For more than
ten years
non-governmental organisations continously provided conclusive evidence
that
the Ilisu project fails to meet international standards, eventually
leading up
to today's backing out by the European governments. "Ilisu has become a
symbol
of failed export politics. With Ilisu, governments, banks and companies
have
learned their lesson the hard way. After insisting for years that the
project
would fulfil World Bank standards, they have finally accepted that the
project
cannot be brought in line with international standards and has huge
negative impacts
on the cultural heritage, ecosystems and people in the region. After
Ilisu,
governments will hopefully stay away from even considering the funding
of
similar projects in the future."
The loss of
public guarantees renders the loans void which had been provided by
European
banks. The Turkish government now lacks both an essential part of the
financing
as well as the European technology needed for the construction of the
dam. In the
wake of the financial crisis, both losses will be hard to compensate. Turkey's
economic output recently dropped a record 13.8 %. In addition, the
non-governmental organisations already announced their intent to
continue to
monitor the project, so that potential lenders will face great
resistance.
For the
campaigns in Turkey
that demand the stop of the project, the withdrawal of the Europeans
means new
hope. "Our efforts to save the cultural heritage and the means of
existence of
the people in the Tigris valley will
continue
in an even larger alliance", said Ercan Ayboga from the Initiative To
Keep Hasankeyf
Alive. "The government has lost all legitimacy to carry the project
out. For
the first time, we have the chance to actually stop the project."
Since 1998,
the Turkish government has tried to implement the project with
international participation.
After a first attempt failed in 2002 due to unresolved environmental
and social
problems, the governments of Germany,
Austria and Switzerland
granted export credit guarantees in March 2007. As the project did not
meet
international standards, they attached approx. 150 conditions on
resettlement,
environment, cultural heritage and transboundary issues to the
guarantees.
Non-governmental organisations criticized the conditions as not
sufficient.
They specifically pointed out that all conditions including a full
environmental
impact assessment, realistic plans for the resettlement and the
protection of
the cultural heritage, the participation of the affected population and
an
agreement with the neighbouring countries need to be fulfilled before a
decision on the guarantees is taken. However, as not even these
conditions were
fulfilled by the Turkish authorities, the guarantees were now
terminated retroactively.
