Hasankeyf and ilisu dam
A controversial project to build a dam in Turkey has re-emerged, four years after it collapsed when major backers pulled out.
The dam - which would be the second largest in Turkey by volume of water - is to be sited on the upper Tigris River, in the Kurdish south-east of the
country.
The Turkish government says the project, planned for more than two decades, will provide much-needed hydro-electric energy and jobs in a poor
region.
But opponents believe it will devastate the area's environment and cultural heritage, as well as displacing more than 50,000 people.
Among hundreds of sites to be flooded would be the ancient town of Hasankeyf, considered an archaeological treasure and home to at least 3,800
people.
British construction firm Balfour Beatty and Swiss bank UBS, part of the European-Turkish consortium involved, pulled out amid international
concerns about the project's social and environmental impact.
A new consortium has now been formed, headed by Austrian firm VA Tech Hydro, but its applications for export credit guarantees from the Austrian,
Swiss and German governments have not yet been decided.
NGOs in several countries are appealing for the guarantees - given by governments to protect firms from risk in big overseas infrastructure projects -
not to be granted. Heike Drillisch, spokeswoman for WEED, a German NGO campaigning on environmental and development issues, said the project
"clearly violates all the international standards the export agencies have".
But, she said, campaigners fear the decision will be made on political grounds, with European countries keen to access the Turkish market and build
good relations with Ankara.
Maggie Ronayne, an archaeology lecturer at the National University of Ireland, Galway, who has studied the area around Hasankeyf since 1999, has
condemned the dam as a "weapon of mass cultural destruction".
At risk is not only Hasankeyf - thought to date back 10-12,000 years and bearing evidence of Assyrian, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk Turk and Ottoman
civilisations - but potentially thousands of sites yet to be discovered, she says.
She calculates only 20% of the area to be submerged has been surveyed by archaeologists, with the government's own estimate only at 40%.
Although Hasankeyf has been protected under Turkish law since 1978, the area has been largely inaccessible because of years of conflict between
government troops and Kurdish separatist forces.
Ms Ronayne, who has been working with the charity Global Women's Strike, warns that the region's many poverty-stricken women will be those to
suffer most, because they may not receive compensation and will struggle to care for their families if displaced.
At stake is also the cultural heritage of the ethnic Kurdish people, she said, as well as ancient Muslim and Christian sites.
                                                                        Land mines in Turkey
In 2003, the Turkish government signed the Ottawa Convention, which prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines, and
started the implementation in March 2004.
According to the convention, Turkey must clear all its minefields by 2014.
But to date, Turkey, which is thought to have some 935,000 landmines in its border regions, has only managed to destroy 10, 638 landmines.
The majority of the mines were planted by the military on the 600-km-long Turkish-Syrian border in an effort to prevent illegal immigration and infiltration of
the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), the report said.
According to the Istanbul-based Turkey Without Landmines Initiative, at least 68 civilians including 22 children were killed and 152 others injured by landmine
explosions in 2005.
In 2006 145 people have been mines victims in southeastern Turkey. 39 people died and 106 injured. 31 of the victims are children.
The Ottawa Convention, which entered into force in 1999, binds all its members to destroy all anti-personnel mines in its stockpiles within four years and to
remove and destroy planted landmines within 10 years.
http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/106109/turkeys-landmines-still-in-place
This pictures have ben taken in January 2008 in
Istanbul Okmeydani Jewish cemetery. This is
remaining part of the destroyed cemetery.
Jewish Cemetery in Istanbul
                                                                    The illegal refugees in Turkey
According the refugees coordinator of Humen Rights Agenda (a human right association in Turkey)
Mr. Orcun Ulusoy,  410 refugees have died and 402 have been missed in Aegean sea
between 1994-2007.
82 refugees died and 102 have been missed in 2007.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/dec/10/turkey.greece

http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/101739/police-cover-up-in-okeys-death
                                                                                                                                                  

ISTANBUL,  (Reuters) - Thirteen illegal immigrants, found dead in a field on the outskirts of Istanbul on Wednesday, suffocated in a packed truck, Turkish police said.
The truck was carrying 138 illegal immigrants through Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, local official Dogan Azat told the state-run news agency Anatolian.
The bodies were dumped in a field on the outskirts of the European part of the city, Azat said in Istanbul's Kucukcekmece district.
Turkey is a major trafficking route for illegal immigrants trying to enter the European Union from southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union. They are often
transported in overcrowded vehicles.
Television images showed a hilly rock-strewn area cordoned off by police near a narrow two-lane road. Security officials were carrying large bundles into a forensics
vehicle.
"Our investigations are continuing," a police officer, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
Media reports said the majority of the dead were Pakistani, but no other details were immediately available. (Reporting by Thomas Grove; editing by Stephen Weeks

December 10, 2007
ANKARA, Turkey - A boat carrying illegal migrants sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast and at least 43 died, an official said Monday.

The 50-foot boat sank in rough weather late Saturday off the coast of Seferihisar, a town south of the city of Izmir, said Gov. Orhan Sefik Guldibi. Six migrants were
rescued and hospitalized, mostly for shock.
Citing survivors, the Coast Guard said a total of 85 people were on board.


13 migrants die in a truck in Istanbul
Thursday, July 31, 2008
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=111302
Stories
                                               Honour killings in southeastern Turkey
influenced by conservative Islam, a young woman tries to take her life. Others have been stoned to death, strangled, shot or buried alive. Their
offenses ranged from stealing a glance at a boy to wearing a short skirt, wanting to go to the movies, being raped by a stranger or relative or
having consensual sex.
Hoping to join the European Union, Turkey has tightened the punishment for attacks on women and girls who have had such experiences. But
the violence has continued, if by different means: parents are trying to spare their sons from the harsh punishments associated with killing their
sisters by pressing the daughters to take their own lives instead.

Families of disgraced girls are choosing between sacrificing a son to a life in prison by designating him to kill his sister or forcing their daughters
to kill themselves.
Women’s groups here say the evidence suggests that a growing number of girls considered to be dishonored are being locked in a room for
days with rat poison, a pistol or a rope, and told by their families that the only thing resting between their disgrace and redemption is death.

Psychologists here say social upheavals in a region rocked by terrorism have played a role in the suicides. Many of the victims come from
families in rural villages who have been displaced from the mountains to the cities because of warfare between Turkey and a Kurdish guerrilla
group that wants to create an independent state for Kurds in southeastern Turkey.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=84215

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=46450
The mines are planted in Turkey's east and southeast borders.
Turkey Syria border 510 km. 615.149 mines
Turkey Iraq border 42 km. 75.115 mines
Turkey Iran Border 109 km 191.428 mines
Turkey Armenia border 17 km 21.984 mines
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                                                                    Kurdish seasonal workers
Thousands arrive in Ankara to live in stone age conditions in tent cities
More than 5,000 from Şanlıurfa arrive in Polatlı to gather onions. The workers settle in tent cities without water, electricity and basic infrastructure
DUYGU GÜVENÇ
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News Monday, August 20, 2007
Seasonal workers... a Turkish reality is in the limelight again, this time, with the recent increase in traffic accidents where dozens of them were
killed in separate regions of Anatolia... On the Şanlıurfa-Mardin road another 14 people died and 16 were injured while going to a farm for work
late Saturday. On August 7, 24 people died while going to gather hazelnuts in the Black Sea region. Most of them were children. All were in a
truck and were going to earn some money during harvest time.

If they had been able to reach their destination, they would have been faced with a new drama. Like the more than 5,000 people from Şanlıurfa
and Diyarbakır who arrived in Polatlı, a province 50 kilometers away from the capital Ankara, to gather onions. In fact, more are continuing to
come in colonies. They are now trying to survive under the burning sun, on a flat plain. Life is not easy for the seasonal workers who live with
their families in one-person tents for four to seven months a year. While the children play on the flat plains, the parents endure the burning sun,
picking onions from dusk to dawn.
The area allocated to them by the village headmen and landowners lacks in basic infrastructure: There is no school, no electricity, not even
running water. Seasonal workers earn their daily YTL 16 wage without any guarantee since they have to wait for a bumper harvest to get jobs.
“We will receive nearly YTL 16 for picking 50 kilograms of onions. I haven't worked since we came. At the end of three or four months, we might
make YTL 3,000 for three families if we are lucky. We came here 20 days ago and are biding our time doing nothing,” said 24-year-old Levent
Çelik.
Çelik has never gone to school in his life and this is not his first experience in the fields. He misses his village in Şanlıurfa since the villagers here
do not allow them to go to the village coffee houses at nights.
“For the last three years, I am traveling to harvest. This year we went to Kayseri first to gather chickpeas but it finished in three days. Since we
do not know the timing of onion harvest, we arrived here early and started waiting,” added Çelik.
However, the landowner, Öcal Öztürk rejected their claims.

“They came early not to lose the job. We provide everything they need. They have water, and grocery is sent to their tent-city and we provide
them with cooking gas,” said Öztürk at first but later accepted that they live in bad conditions.
“We cannot find wood to cook. We are sitting under the oil lamps at night, there are many flies, mice, and snakes around us. This country is
entering the E.U.,” said Cumhur Polat, a grandmother who looks after her grandchildren.
How do they come?
Every tribe has a sergeant, who arranges contacts with the landowners and village headmen and of course takes 10 percent of their income.
“I took 80 people to the area with a pickup truck about 10 days ago. I received YTL 1,500 as travel charges but later they will drop this amount
from earnings. My share is 10 percent from the whole,” said Şehmuz Bulut, a sergeant who is proud to lead a colony.
Bulut argued that he does not earn much since he is responsible for solving the problems of workers.
“I am the one who takes them to hospitals when they are sick since they don't have insurance. I pay for all their extras,” noted the sergeant.
Almost all are Kurdish and belong to the poor tribes and their sergeants complained about village heads for decreasing the payments.
Head of Polatlı Chamber of Agriculture and a farmer, Muzaffer Türkoğlu on the other hand lays the blame on the sergeants.
“The farmer pays YTL 50 per person but the sergeants only give YTL 10 to the workers,” said Türkoğlu.
Like Türkoğlu, landowner Öztürk said that they are the best ones to gather the onions.
No drinking water
The landowners placed the workers near water that is salty, murky, and smelly and this is the cause for most of the complaints.
“We cannot drink this water. This is water for their animals and even the villagers do not allow us to drink it. Their sheep are more valuable than
us,” said Cumhur Polat's daughter-in-law.
The villagers of Kirazcık, near the settlers, in turn complain about the workers
“They are contaminating our water arteries. Even our animals do not drink the water any more,” said 68-year-old villager, Ali Karapınar.
The workers transport drinking water from the village but use the dirty water for cooking, washing, bathing etc.
The mayor of Polatlı, Yakup Çelik also complained about the workers for annihilating the social cohesion in the town, in his statement to the
Anatolia news agency last week.
“It might be unavoidable to take some preventive measures because there are more than 5,000 people. It is difficult for us to solve the problem
alone. The government should deal with the problem urgently,” said the mayor. Çelik argued that the priority for them is health, clothing, and
housing.
No school during the harvest
While their fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers go to the fields, the children wait in the tinted area. They will continue to play in the fields when
schools start after the summer holiday.
The children quit school in May when their parents start a new task and return to school at the end of November although the new academic year
starts in September.
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August 8 2008, Turkish daily news
Seasonal workers from eastern and southeastern Anatolia who come to pick hazelnuts in the Black Sea province of Ordu have once again been
removed from their camps, as the Ordu governor has forbidden workers to put up tents en masse in the city center this year, news agencies
reported yesterday.
For more click the link below
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=112013
19 August 2008
Discrimination Adds to The Plight of Seasonal Workers.
The Human Rights Association investigates the conditions of the seasonal workers in the Black Sea provinces of Turkey. As if not enough that
they are discriminated economically, they are also treated as criminals.
For more click the link below
http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/109120/discrimination-adds-to-the-plight-of-seasonal-workers
30 August 2008
22  Kurdish seasonal workers from diyarbakir were injured in a car accident between Malatya and Diyarbakir while they were going back home
from from Duzce where they did Hazelnut harvest.
30 August 2008
2 brothers have been killed and 3 people have been injured in a fight in Polatli Ankara between Kurdish seasonal workers and their foremans.
06 August 2008
20 Kurdish seasonal workers have been injured in a car accident near Suruc between Sanli Urfa and Gaziantep while they were going for
Hazelnut harvest.
15 July 2008
3 child seasonal workers died in a car accident in Malatya and 30 people injured.
April 13 2008
A truck full of Kurdish seasonal workes from Urfa overturned in an accident in Afyon and 9 people died and 35 people injured. All of those died
and injured were from same family.
06 August 2007
29 Kurdish seasonal workers injured in a car accident near Adiyaman. A truck full of seasonal workers was taking them from Urfa to Giresun for
hazelnut harvest.
August 2007:  24 seasonal workers died in an accident near Sivas.
August 2007: 18 seasonal workers died and 13 injured
July 2007: 2 died and 35 injured Kurdish seasonal workers injured in car accident in Afyon.
February 2007: 10 Kurdish workers died and 42 injured in Ceylanpınar, Urfa.
November 2005: Train hit the workers truck, 10 died and 32 injure din Mersin. Mersin'de
September 2003: 3 cotton workers deid in Batman in a truck accident.
October 2002: 1 worker died 10 injured in truck accident in Kirikhan, Hatay.
Killed by gunshot while in police custody in Istanbul
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