Dam construction site destroyed in the Kurdish East of Turkey!

On the 25th July, Wednes­day, more than 500 protest­ing peo­ple in the Kur­dish province Der­sim have destroyed the con­struc­tion site of the high­ly crit­i­cized Pem­be­lik Dam on the Peri Riv­er.

Since Sep­tem­ber 2012 local affect­ed peo­ple along the Peri Riv­er, a bor­der Riv­er of the two provinces Der­sim (Tunceli) and Elazig protest con­ti­nous­ly against the con­struc­tion of the 77 m high and 125 MW Pem­be­lik Dam on the Peri Riv­er. Since then they have pitched protest tents close to the con­struc­tion site of the dam which they refuse cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly. The affect­ed peo­ple crit­i­cize the state for destroy­ing the liveli­hoods of thou­sands of peo­ple through the con­struc­tion of the Pem­be­lik and oth­er dams on the Peri Riv­er and for exclud­ing them from any dam con­struc­tion activ­i­ties. Two oth­er dams have been built in the past and have result­ed in neg­a­tive impacts for peo­ple and nature in the whole val­ley. Although the protest con­tin­ues for so long and there is a big region­al and nation­al sol­i­dar­i­ty, no state offi­cial took into con­sid­er­a­tion the local peo­ple.

More than 500 peo­ple, affect­ed peo­ple and peo­ple in sol­i­dar­i­ty with them, gath­ered close to the dam in order to start a protest demon­stra­tion. It was one day before the start of the annu­al big Mun­zur Cul­ture and Nature Fes­ti­val which is the biggest cul­tur­al event in the province of Der­sim. After march­ing some kilo­me­ters they decid­ed to occu­py the dam con­struct­ing site although it is pro­tect­ed by many secu­ri­ty guards. These guards and dozens of sol­diers could not stopped the peo­ple although they fired in the air. The pro­test­ers over­came the gates and fences and then destroyed sev­er­al con­struc­tion machines and some build­ings by fire.

To date this protest is the most rad­i­cal one in the Kur­dish region of the Repub­lic of Turkey. In Der­sim for more than ten years there are protests by peo­ple against dams which are refused by more than 90% of the pop­u­la­tion. It con­sid­ers the dams as tools to destroy the wild nature, to dis­place peo­ple and to “paci­fy” the rebel­lious province Der­sim.

See one video of the protest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xcx01ZFg7M