The campaign worked to stop British involvement in the Ilisu dam and to highlight the wider implications of Britain's ethical foreign policy, sustainable development and its effect on peace and security in the region.

The Dam would have:

• made 30-78,000 Kurds homeless
• destroyed sites of major cultural and archeological significance
• created environmental disaster
• in conjunction with other Turkish projects affected the flow of water into Syria and Iraq

The British taxpayer was going to help fund this to the tune of £200 million given in underwriting to the construction company Balfour Beatty from the export credit guarantee dept.

The Ilisu Dam Campaign defeated:

• 3 multinationals
• 1 swiss bank
• 7 companies
• 1 torturing state
• the british government
• 7 Export credit agencies

"There have always been very strong human rights and environmental grounds why this project should not go ahead. Following Balfour Beatty's decision (..to withdraw from the project..) we now call on the UK government to confirm that it will not back the controversial Ilisu Dam"


Multinationals and eight governments are planning to build the Ilisu dam in south-east Turkey. Britain's New Labour Government is a key player.

The dam will force 25,000 people from their homes. Another 11,000 people will lose their farmlands and livelihoods. Most of them are ethnic Kurds. Many see the project as part of a wider strategy of ethnic cleansing. There has been no agreed resettlement plan and minimal consultation with the people.

The area around the Ilisu dam has been devastated by 16 years of armed conflict between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish State - a regime armed by the UK. More than 30,000 people have been killed and 3 million displaced. Despite the 1 September 1999 PKK decision to pursue a peaceful political solution to the as yet unresolved Kurdish question, many parts of the region remain a war zone.

The dam will . Imagine Turkey - or any other country - backing a UK government plan to flood Stonehenge? Hasankeyf's treasures will be lost forever.

The dam will destroy the surrounding environment. With other planned dams it will also control 50% of the downstream flow of the river Tigris into Syria and Iraq. Already analysts are stating that the future wars in the area will be fought over water. Turkey has already long threatened to block water flows to its downstream neighbours.

Turkey needs power but there are viable alternatives that have not been explored.