ISTANBUL- Energy-hungry Turkey started work on Saturday on a 1.2 billion euro (US$1.54 billion) power plant whose dam will bury part of the ancient town of Hasankeyf, drawing protests from environmental groups and academicians.
The Ilisu plant, with a planned power capacity of 1,200 megawatts (MW) to generate 3.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year, is part of a US$32 billion plan to develop the country's economically backward southeast and east.
Anatolian news agency said a Turkish-led consortium including German, Swiss and Austrian companies would built the plant with loans from Austrian lenders with full Turkish treasury guarantee.
Environmentalists and historians say almost all of the famous ruins that attract tourists to Hasankeyf would be buried in a dam for the plant on the Tigris river, which originates in Turkey and flows into Iraq.
The agency quoted unnamed officials as saying most of Hasankeyf would not disappear.
Hasankeyf was used by the Romans as a fortress to ward off Persians. The town was later destroyed by Mongolians and rebuilt in the 11th century by Seljuk Turks.
Anatolian quoted Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as telling a ground-breaking ceremony that the ruins would be moved to a nearby area.
"On one side there is a need for energy and a brighter future for Turkey and on the other side there is history and culture," said Erdogan. "We have to reconcile this somehow and find a common solution."
The project will create 20,000 jobs, Erdogan said.
Turkish energy ministry officials have said US$3.5 to US$5 billion of investment in power plants was needed every year to avoid an energy shortage in 2008 or 2009.
Turkey has about 39,000 MW of power capacity and nearly half of it uses imported gas. The government plans to lessen dependence on gas for electricity production.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
