Zeugma - The "Turkish Pompeii"
WolfWolf
Anatolia Project (GAP) and the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) have
organized an ambitious international emergency rescue project at Zeugma
during the summer of 2000. The Roman city is remarkably well preserved
beneath thick layers of hillwash, which almost completely obscure its former
grandeur. It is not surprising that many have labelled Zeugma the "Turkish
Pompeii!"
Multinational teams of archaeologists and specialists have come to Zeugma to
join forces with their Turkish colleagues. This rapid response team is
composed of rescue and specialist archaeologists and conservators working
together following a common strategy. The aim of the project is to record
and to understand better the sectors of the ancient city due to be inundated
around October 2000, following the completion of the massive Birecik
Hydroelectric Dam.
http://www.zeugma2000.com/zeugma.html
Zeugma is the name given to the site of two towns located on opposing banks
of the Euphrates. This fertile river valley has been occupied since
prehistoric times and from antiquity, provided a natural boundary between
the Eastern and Western worlds. It is said that Alexander the Great with his
army crossed over the great river at this strategic point. One of his
successors Seleucus I Nicator (312-281 BC), founded the twin towns naming
them Seleucia and Apamea after himself and his wife.
In the first century AD, the towns passed under Roman rule. A legionary
garrison, the Legio IIII Scythica was established here to protect what was
the only permanent bridge across the Euphrates for several hundred
kilometres. For 200 years the towns constituted an important trade link
between the Roman and Parthian empires. By AD 200 the city's military
importance and vibrant commercial life made it one of the great cosmopolitan
centres of the Roman Empire. At its peak, the city may have had a population
of 50,000 - 75,000. On the west bank, the city extended over approximately
2000 hectares (4942 acres ) where high-ranking Roman officials, army
officers and wealthy merchants built great courtyard houses containing fine
works of art.
http://www.zeugma2000.com/history.htm
REAL
WolfWolf wrote:
> Under the auspices of the Turkish Ministry of Culture, the South-eastern
> Anatolia Project (GAP) and the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) have
> organized an ambitious international emergency rescue project at Zeugma
> during the summer of 2000. The Roman city is remarkably well preserved
> beneath thick layers of hillwash, which almost completely obscure its former
> grandeur. It is not surprising that many have labelled Zeugma the "Turkish
> Pompeii!"
Even though Turks were not even in the region then! They were in Central Asia.
WolfWolf's own article that he posted shows the truth.
WolfWolf wrote:
> British Archaeology
> ISSN 1357-4442
> Issue no 55, October 2000
> NEWS
>
> Mosaics retrieved from flooded Roman city: British team rescues Roman Zeugma
> from rising waters of Turkish dam
"rescues" is the word! Rescued from the Turkish dams that Turkey uses to destroy
humanities cultural heritage for the sake of Turkey's Kemalist policies.
> A team of British archaeologists played a major role this summer in rescuing
> inscriptions, mosaics and a wealth of other evidence from the
> Hellenistic/Roman city
WolfWolf's own article mentions it wasn't just a "Roman city" as WolfWolf the
Turkish grey Wolf claims but a Greco-Roman city! That is what Hellenistic means.
> of Zeugma in south-eastern Turkey, as about a third
> of the site was slowly inundated by the rising waters of the controversial
> Biricek Dam.
>
> Zeugma was founded by one of Alexander the Great's generals, Seleucus I
> Nicator, on the River Euphrates in about 300 BC, and became one of the great
> cities of the eastern Roman Empire. Abandoned sometime after the 10th
> century AD, the city was eventually buried under hillwash and was only
> rediscovered by scholars in the early 1990s when plans for the dam were
> already in place.
>
> The British team, led by Rob Early of the Oxford Archaeological Unit,
> uncovered evidence for different `zones' in the low-lying areas of the Roman
> town including a wealthy residential suburb and industrial quarters. Of
> particular note was a townhouse that seems to have belonged to a
> high-ranking military officer. The artefacts from the house included a
> helmet and spears, lamps and jewellery including a gold ring.
>
> Fine mosaics decorated the floors. In the dining room, one depicted three
> figures - `the three miserable women', as the excavators called it - similar
> to a design from Pompeii. A large double reception room contained images of
> fish and dolphins, part of which had been damaged and repaired at a later
> date.
>
> The town's industrial area contained a jumble of much smaller buildings. One
> contained an amphora full of reclaimed mosaic pieces, presumably for use by
> the town's building trade. Another contained what is thought to be a
> weaver's kit, while a third contained copper-coated lead weights and a set
> of scales identical in design to ones found in London. According to Mr
> Early, similar scales can be bought today in the nearby town of Saniurfa.
>
> Many of the Roman buildings were built over Hellenistic predecessors.
WolfWolf's own article mentions it wasn't just a "Roman city" as WolfWolf the
Turkish grey Wolf claims but a Greco-Roman city! That is what Hellenistic means.
> The
> discoveries suggest the pre-Roman town may have been more extensive and
> important than archaeologists had thought. One 1st century BC inscription -
> of a type put up in principal cities - depicted the local king Antiochus I
> of Commagene shaking hands with Apollo, and demanding the worship of his
> citizens. Antiochus submitted to Pompey in 64 BC bringing his kingdom into
> the Roman world. The inscription stone had been reused in a later building.
>
> Dozens of mosaic floors - amounting to some 600 square metres - have been
> retrieved from Zeugma in recent years and are now undergoing conservation at
> Gaziantep museum. Meanwhile the Turkish Government is considering proposals
> to turn the unflooded (and at present largely unexcavated) two-thirds of
> Zeugma into an archaeological park.
>
> http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba55/ba55news.html#mosaics
Very old news. In 2000.
The Last Days Of Zeugma
Saturday, 2nd of November at 7.30pm on SBS Television Australian
Eastern Standard time
http://www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?id=81
In 1994 the Australian archeologist David Kennedy raised the alarm
that the planned Birecik Dam on the Euphrates River in Turkey would
submerge the buried Greco-Roman city of Zeugma. The dam was announced
twenty years ago but it was only five years before its completion that
a handful of archaeologists attempted the impossible task of
excavating a city the size of Pompeii.
THE LAST DAYS OF ZEUGMA screening on SBS Television on Saturday,
November 2 at 7.30pm, looks at the extraordinary discoveries by a
group of archaeologists sponsored by the French government. This team
worked at a frantic pace for six months before the completion of the
dam to save some of the treasures which had been preserved for
centuries but would quickly be destroyed by the flooding.
Zeugma was founded in 300BC by one of Alexander the Great’s generals.
It was a Hellenistic city made up of two towns – Seleucia and Apamea –
on either side of the Euphrates. The deadline the archaeologists were
forced to abide by meant that they could not save any particular
monument. They concentrated on understanding the layout of the city.
As they worked fragments emerged – huge stone columns, imposing walls,
cornices with sculptured friezes – testifying to the quality of the
buildings which had created Zeugma. Where the temple, the stadium, the
marketplace and the theatre had once been was now revealed.
When time had almost run out the archaeologists reverted, in
desperation, to using heavy machinery lent to them by the dam
builders. For the last few centimetres they returned to spades and
shovels to clear the earth. What they found astounded and delighted
them – a Roman villa with 250 square metres of perfectly restored
frescoes and 750 metres of intact mosaic floors, all connected with
the legend of the God Dionysus. These priceless masterpieces which
came close to being lost forever are also invaluable sources of
information on the history of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East.
This discovery caused a sensation but did not delay the dam’s
construction which also displaced 30,000 people. The program questions
why the dam also had to mean the loss of “large parts of universal
memory” – the archaeological riches which could not be rescued in
time. “What seems indefensible is the destruction of the heritage of
humanity…what future can justify the sacrifice of memory?”.
===================
Aside from the destruction of Greek and Roman civilisation. The
Turkish government has also built and is attempting to build dams that
will destroy traces of Kurdish and Armenian Civilisation. The aim of
Turkey is to obliterate all trace of those who in the Turkish
government mind threaten their absurd claims that Turkey is the mother
race of all mankind.
\\\\\\\\
TANGLED ROOTS - By NICOLE POPE and HUGH POPE - The Overlook Press
A History of Modern Turkey -
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/p/pope-turkey.html
Every school-day morning a nearly identical ceremony takes place the
length and
breadth of Turkey. Children line up in school-yards from the gentle
Thracian
border with Greece to the steep mountains stacked up against the Iraqi
frontier.
In the massive concrete sprawl of Istanbul, in whitewashed
Mediterranean
villages, in the harsh towns of the Anatolian plateau and in hamlets
hidden in
the lush rain forests of the Black Sea coast, the voices of teachers
rise above
the excited chatter. When silence has been imposed, morning assembly
gets under
way, usually with the aid of a scratchy amplifier. Though not
officially
religious, the ceremony which ensues is part of a ritual
indoctrination in the
ideology of the Turkish republic founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk.
`I am a Turk! I am honest! I am industrious!' the children shout in
proud
unison, whatever part their ancestors may have played in Turkey's
jumbled mosaic
of ethnic groups, religions and migrations. The slogans are various,
but the
message is the same for the young would-be citizens of modern Turkey.
`O Great
Ataturk, I vow that I will march unhesitatingly along the road you
opened,
towards the goal you showed!'
Frowning down from an altar-like plinth is a black or gilded bust of
Ataturk
himself, the `Father of the Turks'. His expression symbolizes
something between
loving concern and implacable determination. The same deep-furrowed
brow will
follow the children through their lives: from omnipresent pictures in
finely cut
1920s business suits, from cast-bronze horses in military splendour,
from eerie
copies of his death mask moulded seamlessly onto walls. Ataturk's arm
is often
raised, pointing to the glittering future that so many of Turkey's
leaders have
pledged to their long-suffering people, a future that has never
arrived in quite
the shape in which it was promised.
The morning ceremony over, the children who have so loudly proclaimed
their
Turkish identity chase each other noisily up to their classrooms. Most
have no
reason to challenge the way they are educated as Turks and know no
other way to
start the day. They pass slogans pinned to the wall such as `A Book is
a Friend
Who Will Never Cheat Me'. Indeed, school textbooks tell few outright
lies. Even
so, as they progress through their history lessons, Turkish students
are drilled
in a picture of their national origins and of the world around them
that is
quite different to that taught to a Christian child in Europe or even
to their
fellow Muslims of the Middle East.
These school history books of the Turkish republic are no idle
creation. They
are the direct descendants of four intimidating tomes produced by the
Ministry
of Education in 1932. Pretty colour pictures are now permitted, but
the words
are little changed. Rote learning is still the rule, and the line
between
reality and legend is sometimes blurred.
The Turks are taught that at the dawn of history their ancestors, led
by a
mythical grey she-wolf, started migrating outwards from the heart of
Central
Asia as the numbers of their people swelled and droughts dried the
traditional
grazing lands on the steppe. Some of them, they are told, even crossed
the
Bering Strait into the Americas, presumably becoming the American
Indians. In
his later, more deluded years, Ataturk himself adopted a bizarre creed
known as
the `Sun Theory', which depicts the Turks as the mother race of all
mankind.
`You're not really an American, you're a Turk,' Ataturk told a
doubtless
astonished American journalist one day in the Ankara Palas hotel. `The
Turks,'
he added for good measure, `discovered America fifty years before
Christopher
Columbus.' The proof of this assertion, he told the journalist, was
that the
Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean had obviously been named by
Turks,
especially since their capital was called Grand Turk. (The islands are
in fact
named after a fez-shaped cactus.) Ataturk might have been less amused
to find
that the only Ottoman Turks known to have reached the New World were a
boatload
of prisoners dumped in the American South who still call themselves
the
Melunjans, or `cursed souls'.
WolfWolf
news:3DB5F5BC...@hotmail.com...
>
>
> WolfWolf wrote:
>
> > Under the auspices of the Turkish Ministry of Culture, the South-eastern
> > Anatolia Project (GAP) and the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) have
> > organized an ambitious international emergency rescue project at Zeugma
> > during the summer of 2000. The Roman city is remarkably well preserved
> > beneath thick layers of hillwash, which almost completely obscure its
former
> > grandeur. It is not surprising that many have labelled Zeugma the
"Turkish
> > Pompeii!"
>
> Even though Turks were not even in the region then!
Turks are in Turkey.
Zeugma is in Turkey - hence "Turkish Pompeii"
Even an idiot understands that!!
WolfWolf
The European
REAL
WolfWolf wrote:
The Turks did not build it. Even an idiot TurkGreyWolf like WolfWolf who
pretends it is "The European" should understand that!!
Even your celebrated poet says so.
Tell us WolfWolf about the terrorist turkish Grey Wolves. Do they not belief
that a GREY SHE-WOLF led them to the the land of Anatolia?
"A great loss to the political life of Turkey."
Demirel about the death of the Nazi-sympathiser and former leader of the fascist
MHP and its Grey Wolves, Turkes
Grey Wolves
Region:
Middle East
Status:
Active
Established:
1983
Leader:
Abdullah Chatli ( killed in a 1996 car accident in Turkey)
Strength:
Unknown
History/Notes:
The National Movement Party ("Milliyetci Hareket Partisi", MHP, aka Nationalist
Action Party), founded by Alparslan Turkes
in the 1960s, like all other parties, was banned after the military coup of
September 12, 1980. The National Workers Party
("Milliyetci Calisma Partisi", MCP) was founded in 1983 as a successor to the
MHP, which as of 1992 is once again known as
the MHP. The MHP supports the government's military approach to an 11-year
insurgency by the Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) in southeast Turkey, and it opposes any concessions to Kurdish
separatists.
The unofficial militant arm of the MHP -- known as the Grey Wolves after a
legendary she-wolf that led captive Central Asian
Turks to freedom -- has been involved in street killings and gunbattles with
leftists. Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who
shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981, was a former Grey Wolf. The 1996
accidental death of the Grey Wolves'
leader, Chatli, brought to light the relations between Turkish mafia and the
government.
Stated Goal(s):
A significant pillar of the group's ideology is the creation of the Turan, the
Great Turkish Empire, including Turkish peoples in
the countries of the former Soviet Union.
Location:
Turkey
Area of Operation:
Turkey, Mediterranean area
Terrorist Acts:
July, 1996 - assassination of Kutlu Adali, a prominent Turkish Cypriot
journalist critical of the Denktash regime and, more
generally, of Turkey's policies in Cyprus.
1996 - Abdullah Chatli, the leader of the Grey Wolves, was are responsible for
arson fires in Greece's islands.
Support:
Had ties to former Government of Nicaragua and possibly Cuba.
http://webhome.idirect.com/~mullen/TG_Grey_Wolves.htm
Why do you call youself WolfWolf? Grey Wolf?
Note: any of your denials may be taken as PROOF just like you judge others, you
will be judged yourself. Unless you are a hypocrite that is!
See the google link below for PROOF of WolfWolfs bizzare "denials are proof"
creed.
WolfWolf
Funny that it belongs to Turkey - hence "Turkish Pompeii".
> Even your celebrated poet says so.
Wrong, archaeologists coined that definition. Not poets.
Obviously beyond the horizon of infantile troll and slimy liar unREAL.
WolfWolf
The European
REAL
WolfWolf wrote:
How idiotic can you get? Below is my original post. See how WolfWolf has
twisted it.
=========
The Turks did not build it. Even an idiot TurkGreyWolf like WolfWolf who
pretends it is "The European" should understand that!!
Even your celebrated poet says so.
REAL
WolfWolf wrote:
> "REAL" <nospam...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:3DB6078D...@hotmail.com...
> Irrelevant!
>
> WolfWolf
> The European
Why are you posting this to SCG? When it has already been addressed in
SCTurkish?
You are spaming and trolling again.
REAL
WolfWolf wrote:
> "REAL" <nospam...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:3DB60318...@hotmail.com...
> Funny that it belongs to Turkey - hence "Turkish Pompeii".
>
> > Even your celebrated poet says so.
>
> Wrong, archaeologists coined that definition. Not poets.
> Obviously beyond the horizon of infantile troll and slimy liar unREAL.
>
> WolfWolf
> The European
Why are you posting this to SCG? When it has already been addressed in
SCTurkish?
You are spaming and trolling again.
How idiotic can you get? Below is my original post. See how WolfWolf has
twisted it.
=========
WolfWolf
Obviously interesting enough for Greeks to leave lots of spam in SCT....
Truely pathetic ... and that in the name of allegedly Greek culture!!
WolfWolf
The European
WolfWolf
Obviously interesting enough for Greeks to leave lots of spam in SCT....
REAL
Turkish dam controversy
By BBC World Affairs Correspondent David Shukman
The arguments are bitter, the issues complex but at heart the question
is simple: should Turkey build a vast new dam to generate electricity?
The Turkish Government says its plan for the so-called Ilisu Dam, in
the mountainous southeast of the country, will be a vital catalyst for
development in a neglected region.
A huge international consortium of engineering companies is lined up to
start construction.
Tell Tony Blair not to go ahead with this.
Abdul Kusen
Mayor of Hasankeyf
A British engineering company, Balfour Beatty, is one of several
international firms involved in the construction plans.
The contractors and the Turkish authorities say this project will be a
model of environmental and social care.
They promise that as the dam is built across the valley of the River
Tigris, and a deep reservoir builds up behind it, the 15,000-20,000
people who will be forced to move home will be carefully resettled.
Compensation will be offered. The historical monuments and ruins of
earlier ages will be documented or even rescued.
And, as for fears that the dam will become an international flashpoint -
with the countries downstream, Syria and Iraq - receiving less water,
officials pledge that the design of the dam will make it impossible to
hold water back, and anyway Turkey would never want to.
The town of Hasankeyf - and the valley - would disappear
Local opinion
With those points in mind, I set out for the region itself to find out
how local people are reacting to this plan. It was, after all, a
promise of the British Government's that those affected by the dam must
be consulted first. The answers I got from them were very clear.
Locals are against the dam
My first destination was Hasankeyf, a small but ancient town perched on
the banks of the Tigris. No one knows how long Hasankeyf has been
settled.
Some say there is evidence of habitation stretching back 11,000 years.
What no one disputes is that the town has seen waves of humanity - the
Romans, the Byzantines, the Persians, the Seljuk Turks, the Mongols.
And in the 14th century came the forerunners of the modern-day Kurds.
No wonder Kurdish people object to the planned dam so forcefully,
calling it yet another attack on their culture.
The town contains some remarkably beautiful relics. Town mayor Abdul
Kusen led me along the rocky paths that connect the site of an
abandoned mosque with a ruined castle.
Why not develop Hasankeyf as a tourist destination? That would be more
help than the dam
A local waiter
Around us were intricately-carved stone doorways and panels bearing
ornate Arabic inscriptions.
Across the river was a small tower, delicately-decorated with turquoise
tiles, which turned out to be a mausoleum to a mediaeval Muslim king.
The mayor explained that the new reservoir would flood the entire town.
Only the highest parts of the ruined castle and the very top of the
main minaret would remain above the water level.
The carved designs on an abandoned mosque
"Please," he said, "tell Tony Blair not to go ahead with this, to lose
this special place."
I wandered around Hasankeyf seeking out local opinion. An old weaver
said his family had been settled for years and he did not want to move.
Two young waiters, who spend the summers working in the tourist resorts
of the Turkish coast, said the dam would be a big "mistake".
"Why not develop Hasankeyf as a tourist destination? That would be more
help than the dam," they said.
No one was as openly critical in public as they were in private. This
is not a part of the world where free speech is encouraged.
Decision time
Our movements were constantly monitored by a pair of plain-clothes
security men. When an armoured Landrover rumbled past, we were asked to
stop filming.
Yet it is in this atmosphere, more intimidating for those who live here
than for us, that the authorities are supposed to test local opinion.
Campaigners against the dam say there can never be a real assessment of
public opinion.
The British Government says it is "minded" to provide a financial
guarantee to allow the project to go ahead.
Critics say that would sound the death knell for Labour's ethical
foreign policy. Soon, British ministers must decide.
Turkish dam threatens ancient Roman city and mosaic treasures
By Suzan Fraser, Associated Press,
5/18/2000 04:20
BELKIS, Turkey (AP) Restoration worker
Mine Unsal is racing to salvage an ancient
mosaic depicting the mythological sea god
Poseidon as the waters of the Euphrates
climb a foot a day behind her.
The mosaic pool, which also features the
god Oceanus and a dozen colorful fish, eel
and shrimp, is just one of 14 mosaics that
have been discovered in the ancient
Roman city of Zeugma.
Those mosaics, and thousands of other
artifacts, could end up under water in as
little as two weeks if Turkey does not
delay filling the nearby Birecik dam.
Already the water is just 90 feet from the
site.
''Zeugma's mosaics could rival those of the
best museums of the world,'' said Mehmet
Onal, who heads the excavations 18 miles
north of Syria.
He wants the government to put off filling
the dam for a few months so he can
continue a dig that has uncovered 60,000
ceramic seals, elaborate Roman columns,
frescoes, a bronze statue of Mars and
3,700 silver and bronze coins.
''This is just a drop in the ocean,'' said
archaeologist Yusuf Yavas. ''We've only
excavated two villas and what we have
found is breathtaking.''
But Turkey appears unwilling to stop the
flooding, which is part of a
multibillion-dollar project to irrigate land,
alleviate Turkey's electricity shortage and
create jobs.
With the dam 97 percent completed,
delaying the filling would be difficult and
would cost $30 million per month, officials
say.
''I don't think that the country has the
luxury to afford a delay,'' said Yuksel
Onaran, general manager of Birecik A.S.,
the company building the dam.
Faced with mounting pressure, Culture
Minister Istemihan Talay has promised to
expropriate pistachio tree fields on the
upper terraces of Zeugma with donations
from Birecik A.S. Parts of the city spared
from the floods would be turned into an
outdoor museum.
Countless treasures, however, would still
disappear 50 feet beneath the river. ''A
third of Zeugma will be lost to the
Euphrates,'' Onal said.
But not everyone agrees on the
importance of the site.
''We're unlikely to learn anything new or
advance our knowledge of the Roman era,''
said Toni Cross of the American Research
Institute in Turkey. ''There are more
important sites.''
Zeugma, Greek for bridge, was once a
military outpost on the fringes of the
Roman Empire and at its height is thought
to have been bigger than Roman London
or Pompeii.
The ancient Greeks and Romans ruled
parts of Turkey for centuries, as did the
Byzantine Empire, leaving artifacts in
almost every corner of the country.
''Wherever you swing a pickax in Turkey a
historic treasure splashes out,'' Tourism
Minister Erkan Mumcu said.
Turkey devotes much effort to reclaiming
antiquities that have been smuggled
abroad, but with just under 4 percent of its
budget devoted to culture, many items are
left unearthed or unprotected.
At Zeugma, where excavations began in
October, Unsal covers the Poseidon
mosaic with an adhesive cloth the first
step before it is cut from the ground and
placed in the nearby Gaziantep museum.
Another dam, meanwhile, has immersed
the ancient city of Samosata, 45 miles
away, where valuable Bronze Age tablets
may have been lost. Construction of a dam
on the Tigris river threatens Hasankeyf, a
medieval city.
A few hundred yards from the digs,
Nahide Ozdemir cannot understand what
the fuss is about.
Her village, Belkis, is already
half-submerged and nearly everyone else
has moved away. She says her family has
not been paid a fair price for their home
and has nowhere to go.
''What do I care about the ruins,'' Ozdemir
said. ''I am so worried about what will
become of us.''
Subject: Archeologists fight to save ancient treasures as dam water rises
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 7:40:24 PDT
From: C-...@clari.net (AFP / Jerome Bastion)
Organization: Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
Newsgroups: clari.world.mideast.turkey,clari.world.mideast+africa
BELKIS-ZEUGMA, Turkey, May 23 (AFP) - A Franco-Turkish team of
archeologists is fighting to save ancient treasures from the rising
waters of a new dam on the Euphrates.
In two weeks, an archeological dig at Zeugma will be flooded
along with a mass of treasures dating from the first centuries AD.
"Here we have a very complete ensemble of the only known
equivalent of Pompeii, the ancient city near Naples that was wiped
out by the eruption of the volcano, Vesuvius, in 79," said Florence
Monnier, of the French government research institute CNRS.
"It is very upsetting," she said of the flooding operation which
began at the end of April and will be completed in October. The
Birecik hydro-electric dam is part of a huge regional programme of
22 dams on the Euphrates and the Tigris.
"It is tragic to see all this heritage of humanity disappear,"
said Hakki Alhan, curator of Gaziantep museum, which will keep the
vestiges saved from the Zeugma site.
"We have about ten days left to dig," said Monnier, who arrived
as part of an emergency operation at the beginning of May. "And that
is if the river bank does not collapse under us," she said, amid a
decor of broken columns and the dust raised by mechanical diggers
and 30 workers drafted on to the site.
Because of a lack of time she is making drawings and taking
pictures of the frescos that entirely cover the walls of a vast and
rich villa uncovered 10 metres (30 feet) below ground. Only a small
part will escape the flooding.
"This is a fabulous site, at the crossroads of Anatolia and
central Asia," said CNRS archeologist Anne-Marie Maniere-Leveque,
adding that it was at the northern limit of the silk road to China.
She called it "one of the most beautiful discoveries of the past
50 years in the eastern Mediterranean."
She campaigned for years to try to save the site, taking part in
the removal of a dozen mosaics since last autumn.
She said the mosaics were unique, worthy of the great Italian
school of painting. "It would take a month to remove what is left of
this exceptional villa," she said.
At the moment archeologists are working to free a magnificent
48-square-metre (516-square-foot) mosaic depicting Poseidon
(Neptune) rising from the sea aboard his chariot.
The waters of the Euphrates are rising by 30 centimetres (12
inches) a day and are undermining the mud huts of the nearby village
of Belkis which are collapsing day by day.
The Turkish ministry of culture pleaded with the international
consortium charged with building and operating the Birecik dam to
delay the beginning of operations for a month, but the Turkish state
could not afford to pay the millions of dollars (euros) that the
delay would have cost.
The city of Apamee, on the opposite bank, has already been
flooded and we did not even have the time to take a look," said
Mehmet Onal, an archeologist with the Gaziantep museum, who has
been working on the site for the past eight months.
"We are also going to lose this site, although the dam could
have been built three or four kilometres (1.9 or 2.5 miles)
upstream," he said as he stood on depictions of Poseidon and
Thetis.
Turkish Culture Minister Istemihan Talay pledged recently to
classify sites that will escape from the water as a special
archeological zone.
Gaziantep museum is meanwhile set to rival the world's best
collections of antiquities, such as those of Antioch and Bardo in
Tunis. On display will be a unique bronze statue of the god of war,
Mars, said Hakki Alhan.
Subject: Turkey Hints at Increased Water Flow to Iraq and Syria
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 00:10:36 GMT
From: farhan_...@my-deja.com (Farhan Siddiqui)
Organization: @Home Network Canada
Newsgroups:
soc.culture.turkish,soc.culture.iranian,soc.culture.pakistan,soc.culture.afghanistan,soc.culture.uighur,alt.religion.islam
Turkey Hints at Increased Water Flow to Iraq and Syria
July 11 2000
Turkey is hinting that it may increase the water flow into the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers, according to sources cited by the Turkish Daily
News. This is welcome news to water-starved Syria and Iraq, which rely
on the rivers for their water supply. After years of focusing its
attention on Central Asia and the Caucasus, Turkey is looking closer
to
home. It is opening the door for healthier relations with Syria and
Iraq, and trying to shape the future of the Middle East.
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow south from the mountains of
eastern Turkey, through Syria and into Iraq, where they empty into the
Persian Gulf. Both rivers are crucial water providers, especially the
Euphrates, which irrigates much of Syria's cropland. However, Ankara
is
currently involved in the southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) - vast
developments scheme that will put at least 22 dams on the rivers -
which
may restrict water to Damascus and Baghdad.
Turkey has had its hand on the faucet for more than a decade, giving
Ankara a large amount of diplomatic leverage over Damascus. For
example,
the Euphrates drains the agriculture-heavy northern third of Syria.
About 40 percent of Syria's workforce is involved in agriculture,
which
amounts to 26 percent of its GDP, according to the CIA. In 1987, the
Turkish government guaranteed a minimum flow of 500 cubic meters per
second in return for a Syrian promise to curb Kurdish terrorist
groups.
However, neither side followed the deal to the letter. Syria supported
the Kurds for another decade, and Turkey let the river level drop
whenever it needed more water.
Iraq depends less upon the water, but three years of drought have
dropped river levels by about 45 percent, according to Agence
France-Presse. Iraq's economy is based on oil, but around one-third of
the Iraqis depend upon agriculture for their livelihoods.
Considering increased water flow is a substantial diplomatic gesture
for Turkey, which is experiencing one of the hottest and driest
summers
on record. But Syria is in a power transition, and Iraq is slowly
coming
out of its isolation. Turkey sees an opportunity to take charge as a
regional hegemon.
The death of Syrian president Hafez Assad, and his son Bashar's
accession, gives Turkey the chance to reshape its relations with its
southern neighbor. Ties have steadily improved since 1998, when Syria
expelled suspected terrorist Abdullah Ocalan under threat of war. A
new
leader - and a reportedly inexperienced one at that - offers an
excellent opportunity for Turkey to bring Syria in line with its own
views.
Turkey has no doubt seen the increased signs of cooperation between
Baghdad and Damascus: numerous high-level visits and a refurbished
Russian-sponsored oil pipeline reaching from Iraq to the Mediterranean
via Syria. Ankara needs to manage the relationship between Syria and
Iraq, and hopefully cut out Russia completely.
Iraq, too, is in transition as it continues to reestablish diplomatic
ties with its neighbors and oil export sanctions continue to fall
away.
Here, too, Turkey wishes to engage Iraq if possible. Their current
relations are poor; Turkey is a staging point for the U.S./U.K.
enforced
no fly zone over northern Iraq. But the two were major trading
partners
before the Gulf War and share the same animosity toward their Kurdish
minorities. The leadership of both nations has made cautious
statements
recently about re-developing ties.
Turkey can be generous as it manipulates water flow, but the method
speaks volumes by itself. Ankara has the ability to severely hurt the
economies, and even the internal stability, of Syria and Iraq. Good
relations are preferred, even profitable for both sides. But by
signaling its intentions with water, Ankara is making it clear that
Damascus and Baghdad must conform to its rules in any new
relationship.
Subject: URGENT ACTION!
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 18:44:37 +0100
From: "SHEIKH" <kurdish...@yahoo.com>
Organization: (Posted via) GTS Netcom.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.kurdish
URGENT ACTION! URGENT ACTION! URGENT ACTION! URGENT ACTION!
Dear Supporters of the Ilisu Dam Campaign,
We would like to make an URGENT REQUEST. As of today we have a real
possibility of STOPPING THE ILISU DAM – with your support.
It will only take 10 minutes of your time, but your help will make ALL THE
DIFFERENCE.
THE ISSUE
Today, the government released a Report (prepared by the International
Development Select Committee, a cross-party government group) which states
that “COVER FOR THE ILISU DAM SHOULD NOT BE PROVIDED”. It says that the dam
has been “planned in contravention of international standards” and raises
concerns over the human rights, peace and security, and environmental
impacts of the project.
THIS IS A MAJOR DEVELOPMENT. AS MARK THOMAS SAYS, “IT’S POLITICAL DYNAMITE”
.
Look out for major coverage in the national press tomorrow.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
We can’t let the government try quietly to bury this report. This is
perhaps the best chance we’ll ever have of stopping UK involvement in the
Ilisu Dam. While we’re assured of getting great media coverage for the
report, the government will only feel its full effect if MPs all over the UK
start asking questions.
SO PLEASE SEND THE SUGGESTED LETTER BELOW (OR YOUR OWN) TO OUR LOCAL MP AND
ENCLOSE THE TWO PAGES OF THE REPORT I’VE COPIED FOR YOU BELOW.
>
> It will be much more effective if you write to your MP at his or her local
constituency office. You can get this by:
>
> CALLING 0207 2194272 AND ASKING FOR THE OFFICE OF YOUR LOCAL MP, WHO WILL
GIVE YOU HIS OR HER ADDRESS.
>
> IF YOU’RE NOT CERTAIN WHO YOUR MP IS, YOU CAN CHECK VIA THE WEB ON
http://www.locata.co.uk/commons
>
> TO MAKE A REAL IMPACT, PLEASE REQUEST A MEETING WITH YOUR MP TO DISCUSS
THE REPORT’S FINDINGS.
>
> IF YOU PREFER TO SEND THE LETTER VIA EMAIL, SOME MPs HAVE EMAIL CONTACTS
LISTED ON { HYPERLINK
http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/almsad.htm }http://www.parliament.uk/co
mmons/lib/almsad.htm
>
> PLEASE LET US KNOW WHEN YOU’VE SENT YOUR LETTER AND TO WHICH MP
>
> THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT – WITH YOUR HELP WE STAND A REAL
CHANCE OF WINNING!
>
> SUGGESTED LETTER TO YOUR MP:
>
> Dear ….. MP,
>
> RE: THE ILISU DAM PROJECT, SOUTHEAST TURKEY
>
> I would like to draw your attention to the enclosed report: International
Development Select Committee Report: Summary of Conclusions and
Recommendations’.
>
> I am deeply concerned about the Government’s proposed support for the
Ilisu Dam Project in Southeast Turkey via its Export Credit Guarantee
Department. The International Development Select Committee’s report,
released on 12th July, only confirms my belief that this project should not
receive UK government support.
>
> The report states that: “Cover for the Ilisu Dam should not be granted”
and says it has been planned in contravention of international standards.
>
> I would like to request a meeting with you to discuss my concerns and the
findings of the International Development Select Committee.
>
> Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your
response.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> The International Development Select Committee
>
> ECGD, DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES AND THE ILISU DAM
> July 2000
>
> Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations
>
> There is good reason for the expectation that relevant international
criteria should be met BEFORE a proposal is agreed and cover sought – it is
a sign of political will, institutional capacity, developmental commitment
and good faith. The shotgun wedding approach to export credit that we find
in the case of the Ilisu Dam does not in our view bode well for the
implementation of commitments but is rather the worst form of export credit
practice (paragraph 11).
>
> The Ilisu Dam was from the outset conceived and planned in contravention
of international standards, and it still does not comply. For that reason
cover should not be given (paragraph 11).
>
> We have no sense that ECGD and the United Kingdom Government have at any
point seriously considered what repercussions the construction of the Dam
will have on the prospects for peace (and thus genuine sustainable
development) and the rights of the marginalised in this region of Turkey
(paragraph 13).
>
> We are astonished that the Foreign Office did not raise any questions
about he proposed Ilisu Dam and its effect on human rights of those living
in the region. The large-scale resettlement of the population, many of whom
may well question the very legitimacy of the Government which moves them
from their homes, must surely demand some detailed analysis from the Foreign
Office. We would expect comments on the necessity of a genuinely
transparent, free and fair consultation process; discussion of the relation
between removal of communities and drift to the towns on the one hand and on
the other any conflict-related tactics and military strategy of the parties
to the conflict; certainly an analysis of the human rights of the affected
community and the extent to which the building of the Dam could possibly
infringe or affect them. We criticise the Foreign Office for failing to
raise these issues in detail with ECGD and DTI Ministers. More generally, we
recommend that the Foreign Office
> present an analysis to the ECGD of the human rights implications of every
project for which ECGD is considering cover (paragraph 15).
>
> ECGD should not provide cover for any project which infringes the human
rights of workers, local populations or other affected persons. Furthermore,
for projects in areas where there is persistent human rights violation, ECGD
should consider whether such abuses render compliance with other conditions
(for instance, local consultation) impossible. We recommend a clear
commitment from ECGD to respect and protect internationally agreed human
rights in all its activity and for the United Kingdom Government to press
within the ECGD for all export credit agencies to agree a human rights
policy (paragraph 17).
>
> We recommend that all projects in countries eligible for official
development assistance which ECGD considers for support be referred to DFID
for an opinion on the development effect and consistency with DFID’s country
strategy. It should not, however, be the case that DFID simply becomes a
rent-a-conscience for the rest of Whitehall. ECGD itself should also have
the expertise in house to assess the developmental impacts of proposed
projects and we recommend that ECGD ensure that appropriate social,
environmental and developmental experts are employed for this purpose
(paragraph 19).
>
> We recommend that ECGD blacklist companies convicted of bribery or
corruption, at least those found on the World Bank Listing of Ineligible
Firms (paragraph 21).
>
> If, once ECGD cover has been granted, the company is found guilty of
corruption or bribery, we recommend that cover be void immediately
(paragraph 22).
>
> We reiterate our recommendation that development objectives be included in
the ECGD’s Mission Statement (paragraph 25).
>
> The Government has said that it is waiting for a revised Environmental
Assessment Report and the Resettlement Action Plan before deciding whether
its conditions have been met and cover can be granted for the proposed Ilisu
Dam. We do not, however, believe that fundamental conditions met at the last
minute, and only as a result of export credit agency pressure, can be
treated seriously. Cover for the Ilisu Dam should not be granted. We join
the Trade and Industry Select Committee in urging the Government to provide
time for a debate in advance, rather than in the wake, of a Ministerial
decision on export credit (paragraph 26).
>
> The debate over whether the Ilisu Dam has, however, provided a welcome
opportunity to consider how issues of development, human rights, conflict,
corruption and conditionality are handled by ECGD. In all these areas we
conclude that improvements must be made. We look forward to the Review of
ECGD’s Mission and Status implementing our recommendations (paragraph 27).