Only two rooftops cross the vast expanse of a synthetic lake that has engulfed a Turkish city whose pre-Ottoman caves and ruins once attracted tourists from all over the world.
The dust that settles by the blows of the sites of structures around Lake Tigris describes the structure blocks of a new city with the logo, with an unfinished bazaar and roads that are paintings in progress.
But trader Abdurrahman Gundogdu wonders if the new edition of Hasankeyf in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast will regain the magic it had before Ilisu Dam wiped out the original city that was here for 12,000 years.
“I make one consistent with a penny of what he used to earn in the old town,” complained the 48-year-old man, in front of his empty shop full of jewelry but no one.
“There are local tourists but they don’t have to spend. “
– ‘Magnificent project’ –
The dam, which has been finished and filled with water since last year, is destined to bring electricity to an underdeveloped region that hopes to revive with much-needed jobs and investments.
“It’s such a beautiful project,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said excitedly, when he was still prime minister in 2009, and promised to build “a very fashionable city” in the old-fashioned position.
However, his dream has already created tensions with neighboring Iraq by restricting him to water.
And some of the city’s 3,000 citizens deploy the approximately 500 graves that had to be exhumated and urgently moved to the highlands last September.
Some families were devastated after not completing all the documents on time and seeing their deaths submerged.
The highly photographed pillars of the Old City Bridge have also disappeared, as have most of the countless caves humans have excavated on the river’s limestone cliffs for millennia.
“This is a very tragic event,” said Ridvan Ayhan, an activist who opposes the dam project.
“It’s nothing other people can digest. Suddenly, all your ancestors, all your past, history are underwater. “
– ‘No explanation why come’ –
The Turkish government needs to turn the synthetic lake into a tourist charm with boat rides, jet skis and paragliding.
The domain is found in herbal wonders like a “crying” cave that exudes moisture, waterfalls and valleys.
Some of the city’s original monuments, the 1,600-tonne Artuklu Hamam thermal baths and the remains of a 14th-century Ayyubi mosque moved before the water entered. There is also a new museum.
However, the region has fought even before the coronavirus has been anchored around Turkey’s limited global ability to carry out primary projects.
And some of the paintings of the new structure as well.
Residents reported that 3 new floating docks around the lake broke shortly after the final touch and reported unrest with the city’s water and electricity.
The government expects the tourist season to start better next year, when the pandemic simply disappears.
“Officials tell us that” will be Bodrum, Marmaris, ” said merchant Bulent Basaran, 50, referring to resorts on Turkey’s west coast.
“At the moment, I don’t see kindness because there are serious problems. “
Ayhan, the anti-dam activist, said with fear that it was “stupid” to wait for the return of tourists.
“If there is no history, there is no point in coming here,” he told AFP.
“The only other people who come, basically out of curiosity, to see how he disappeared. They come once, for this purpose. “
– Some other –
However, trader Basaran is less pessimistic about Hasankeyf’s long-term prospects, and expects things to be replaced within five years.
For many local tourists, the new lake offers the possibility to do something different.
Asiye Sahin, who was visiting with her husband and 4 young men from the town of Midyat, south of Hasankeyf, looked extremely happy before leaving for a boat trip.
“We’re excited. I’ve noticed the sea before, but I’ve never been hit in a boat,” he said.
There are ramifications of optimism among some residents.
Cetin Yildirimer, a 29-year-old former tour guide, held a boat with his new wife before the couple moved into one of the houses built for the city’s citizens.
He wondered if visitors would “find what they are looking for” now that the old city is submerged, but insisted that tourists “will surely come if there is no pandemic. “
“The old order has completely disappeared,” he said, “and now we are in the future. “
raz / zak / kjm / wdb