GAP-Project / South-East-Anatolia 2007
20.-22. October
Celebrated as a millennium project in Turkey, yet perceived by its neighbours as a threat to their existence: the GAP project.
GAP is a massive development program in southern Anatolia, in the region of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, which stretches all the way to the Syrian border.
It includes 22 dams, 19 power plants and will affect 75 358 km2, some 9% of Turkey’s territorial area. Upon its completion it will provide irrigation for 1.64 million hectares of land. Over 4 million people had to be resettled in order to carry out the project.
During a visit to the Ataturk Dam representatives of the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works DSI presented the multiple benefits in terms of agriculture, the power industry, development for trade and tourism, etc. The equally abundant negative consequences and concerns about ecological problems (dam silting, soil salinisation, etc.), political issues (Syria, Iraq, Kurds) and social dilemmas were addressed during the hydroformance in Istanbul. The political delicacy of the project became painfully clear when the Overtures group was denied access to the weir, and thus to the dam itself, by the military in spite of existing written authorisation.
Even before that it was possible to gain an insight into part of the daunting problems. The visit to the Euphrates barrage Birecik (built with substantial involvement of German companies) revealed at least a small portion of the price. The Hellenistic settlement Zeugma, or Seleucia, was flooded here. In the year 2000 valuable archaeological finds from this prominent trade centre on the Euphrates were rescued from flooding by private initiatives, literally at the eleventh hour.
Participants
Curators: Juan Carlos Betancourt (Latin America), Serafine Lindemann (Germany), Marianne Maasland (Netherlands)
Artists: Kalle Laar (Germany), Rúrí (Iceland), Silver & Hanne Rivrud (Norway), Silvia Erdem, Genco Gülan, Orhan Cem Cetin (Turkey)
Filmmaker: Frank Sauer (Germany)
Photography: Mila Pavan (Italy)
Media: Sven Ricklefs (Bayerischer Rundfunk), Iris Rodriguez (free journalist)