Brussels, 11/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - During a workshop at the European Parliament with the participation of German Green member Rebecca Harms and the Italian elected member of the United European Left/Nordic Greens Left Group, the chair of the parliamentary committee on development, Louisa Morgantini, British Green member Jean Lambert deplored the conditions in which the construction of a hydroelectric dam 138 metres high is to be built on the Tigris, in south-east Anatolia. The project, which would allow production of up to 3800 GW/h in electricity was designed without consulting the countries of the Tigris Basin, namely Syria and Iraq, although the project will have an impact on the flow of water to Iraq and Syria, the MEP notes, deploring the fact that the historic town of Hasankeyf will be swallowed up and that 78,000 people will be displaced if the dam is built.
In a press release, Jean Lambert recalls that the town of Hasankeyf is culturally important for many Kurdish people and is a rich treasure of Assyrian, Christian, Abassidian-Islamic and Osmanian history in Turkey. The town was awarded complete archaeological protection by the Turkish department of culture in 1978.