Mesopotamia :: Tigris walking journey
From Diyarbakır to Ilısu Dam near Dargeçit
following the Tigris river on foot.
Diyarbakır / Amed
Bozdemir / Mederıs
Kervanpınar / Arzuoğlu
Ambar
Bismil
Yukarısalat / Salat Ulya
Oymataş / Bediyan
Batman
Suçeken / Şikeftan
Hasankeyf
Irmak / Keferalp
Incirli / Derhaf
Yolüstü / Kedile
Palamut / Hırbakur
Güneşli / Şemsi
Kelekçi / Muval
Kayıklı / Mehina
Çelik
Yeni Ova
Yoncalı / Zivinga Celo
Kayıklı / Emara
Ilısu
Dargeçit / Kerboran
Completion of the Ilısu Dam will cause the flooding of the majority of the ancient city of Hasankeyf, whose history stretches back over 10,000 years. About 199 settlements (villages and hamlets) will be fully or partially affected by flooding as well.
This figure excludes vacant settlements, which will also be inundated. Three decades of conflict between the Turkish government and the PKK has resulted in the depopulation of many hamlets in the area, and so now their original inhabitants will never be able to return home either, in addition to the others who still live in the region.
In 2006, the Turkish government estimated that 61,620 people would be physically or economically displaced.
[2016]
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The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq and empties itself into the Persian Gulf.
In Sumerian mythology, the Tigris was created by the god Enki, who filled the river with flowing water.
In Hittite and Hurrian mythology, Aranzah (or Aranzahas in the Hittite nominative form) is the Hurrian name of the Tigris River, which was divinized. He was the son of Kumarbi and the brother of Teshub and Tašmišu, one of the three gods spat out of Kumarbi's mouth onto Mount Kanzuras. Later he colluded with Anu and the Teshub to destroy Kumarbi (The Kumarbi Cycle).
The Tigris appears twice in the Old Testament. First, in the Book of Genesis, it is the third of the four rivers branching off the river issuing out of the Garden of Eden. The second mention is in the Book of Daniel, wherein the prophet states he received one of his visions when I was by that great river the Tigris.
The River Tigris is also mentioned in Islam. The tomb of Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal and Syed Abdul Razzaq Jilani is in Baghdad and the flow of Tigris restricts the number of visitors.
HASANKEYF waiting life - TRAILER (english-hd version)
Credits
Italy 2009, 56', Hdv, documentary Directed by: Mauro Colombo Written by: Massimo Lazzaroni e Mauro Colombo Producer: Hagam Executive producer: Gianluca Gibilaro Producer in place Veysy Kocaman Art Director: Daniele Di Luca Music by: Marco Caielli e Andrea Sessa
With: Mehmet Tarhan, Suayp Basaran, Cemile Arl, Jiyan Kandemir, Aysun Kaya, Tuba Bicakci, A. Alim Altun, M. Sirin Gul, Abdusselam Ulucam, Abdulvahap Kusen, Sukran Kusen, Azad Tamkan, Tamkan family, Seker family. Sound post production: La Sauna; Sound record: Hasan Tunc; Research: Massimo Lazzaroni; Hasankeyf production assistance: Jillian Hopkins; Editing: Mauro Colombo; Color correction: Andrea Turri; Translation: Veysy Kocaman, Schioresc Emen; Translation consultancy: Pinar Okal Kelesoglu; Technical consultancy: Luciano Cefariello Editing assistance and title design: Francesca Costaldi; Technical supplies: Media 88.
With the support of: Manuel Benedusi, Luigi Bonacina, Lorenzo Bossi, Marina De Giovanetti, Dino De Simone, Mariangela Gerletti, Andrea Perotti, Stefania Radman, Cristina Ronzoni, Giulio Rossini, Donata Sbardellati, Stefano Soru, Beatrice Spozio, Fabiana Spozio, Raffaele Taranto, Marco Tenaglia, Angelo Zappoli Thanks to: Turkish Embassy, Cultural and Information Office, Batman District, Cultural Office, Kashir Travel, Osman Varol, Hassan Seker, Cemal Yilmaz, Sabahattin Demirtas, Ziya Sutcu, Andreas, Caner Tekin, Serdar Bekiroglu, Kadir Ilker Öztürk, Mehmet Sait Tune, Halit, Edip, Health presidium of Hasankeyf, Besir Tutus High School, Mario Agostinelli, Luigi Cipriano, Alessandro Pollio, Michele Sasso, Alfredo De Bellis, Mila Forlani, Gianpaolo Gelati, Mauro Gervasini, Alessandro Leone, Silvia Mastorgio, Silvano Lonardo, Fabio d'Addario, Marco Odorico, Valentina Polonio, Ezio Riboni, Lidia Romeo, Paola Sacchiero, Giuseppe Sangiorgio, Manuel Sgarella, Michele Todisco, Hendrick Wijmans, Barbara Zanetti, Filmstudio90, Cooperativa Sociale Totem.
Synopsis
Hasankeyf, south eastern Turckey.
An ancient village doomed to be submerged under 30 metres of water due to the building of a dam.
A river, the Tigris. 5000 inhabitants should go away, leaving their land, the land of their fathers, of their ancestors. Hasankeyf is an ancient village on the Tigris river, in the Mesopotamia of the Assyrian and of the Byzantine, the place where the central Asian and Persian cultures crossed with the Europeans. Today 5000 inhabitants, most Kurdish, live in Hasankeyf: a community that lives as suspended in time, since when, in the 195, the Ilisu dam project was born. The Ilisu dam in activity, once completed, would submerge Hasankeyf under 30 metres of water. But the life in Hasankeyf continues as nothing has to happen. The children play in the river, the men take care of the animals, the young ladies go every evening milking the ships on the shores of the Tigris, the small restaurants wait for the tourists that reach Hasankeyf during the year. There is not job in Hasankeyf. The perspectives of life are limited to the poverty of the village. No one wants to invest in a tourism economy if the village would still be flooded in few years. While somewhere else someone is deciding the sort of this place, a whole community lives in a limbo, with not enough news about his destiny and with a exhausting indecision about what to do. HASANKEYF, WAITING LIFE tell a story of a big conflict living the daily life, where the history collides with modernity, national interests with the local ones, the necessity of personal growth with the preservation of the own roots.