We could not save Hasankeyf

The Hasankeyf Culture and Arts Festival was scheduled to be held next month in the southeastern city of Batman, where a trustee has been appointed to replace the mayor. The four-to-five-day festival has been organized for almost 10 years. Its aim was to draw attention to the ancient town of Hasankeyf, which will soon be under the waters collected by the Ilısu Dam. 

It is not difficult to guess that the festival will be cancelled after the appointment of the trustee. 

Prof. Oluş Arık, who conducted excavations in historic Hasankeyf between 1986 and 2002, said: "Hasankeyf is the only center where Iran and inner Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia and later Rome represented by Byzantium were all blended. There are open marks of this merge in trade, architecture and production fields. Hasankeyf is unique." 

Arık has expended much effort to stop the Ilısu Dam from submerging Hasankeyf in return for "some water and some energy." 

Unfortunately, he did not succeed. Neither did the volunteers in Hasankeyf, whose voices were heard more in the early 2000s. 

The Ilısu Dam, which will collect water as of 2017, was the death warrant of Hasankeyf. More than 5,000 caves, some of them still inhabited, historic mosque and church ruins, graves, historic bridges and 250 mounds will be underwater. Some 60,000 people will be displaced. 

In Arık's words, "There is an alternative to the dam, but there is no alternative to Hasankeyf." This small town is being demolished in front of our eyes. 

My association with Hasankeyf started in the beginning of the 2000s when, as I said, the volunteers had louder voices and the media was showing more interest in this unique historic heritage of Turkey. 

During the ...