Less haste

The Ilısu construction site (source: DSİ)

While the Ingathering last weekend at Hasankeyf was a fantastic experience for all involved, there was also some sobering news: A worker at the Ilısu Dam site lost his life in an industrial accident on Sept. 5. We of course offer our condolences to his family; while we are unquestionably against the Ilısu project, any loss of life is a tragedy.

However, we are also concerned that this could be a first sign that the government is overreaching in the accelerated program for Ilısu (and in general for expropriation to faciltate HEP and other infrastructure projects) and perhaps also in its new incentive package for the Southeast.

Ilısu construction workers (source: DSİ)

Experts and friends of Hasankeyf alike have long protested that there remains no real plan (nor sufficient time) for protection or relocation of the town's cultural assets. Hearing of a site death in a landslide less than a week after diversion of the Tigris began, we are again reminded of this.

Whatever lies ahead for Hasankeyf and its residents, we would like to hope that the authorities are acting with all due consideration, and fully weighing up the options before acting...

If the opposite is the case, it will not be for the first time, but it will be a further tragedy.

--Helen

A city to inspire young leaders and innovators

Necdet Talayhan and friends in the Salahiyye Gardens

This weekend the people of Hasankeyf and their out-of-town guests demonstrated in miniature what Hasankeyf could become – a peaceful and visually inspiring retreat for spiritual reflection, cross-cultural understanding, and innovative thinking.

The second Hasankeyf Ingathering, held September 6-9, was organized jointly by Doğa Derneği, Hasankeyf Matters, and Nature Iraq with the help of various other voluntary organizations, local businesses, and individuals working across political and linguistic boundaries. 

The people who participated in the Ingathering, both adults and children, are as important as the events themselves. 

In the canyon on the way to Karaköy

Daytime hikes, coordinated by Hasankeyf Matters, included tours of the Lower City led by local archeologist Necdet Talayhan and a seven-hour trek to Karaköy Village and back, led by Abdul Kadir Faresoğlu Ayhan. Thanks also go to local merchant Arif Ayhan and Abdul Kadir Can, a local mountain climber and amateur fisherman, for help in arranging a special kelek tour on Sunday. 

Sulyon artists on the move in Hasankeyf

Nature Iraq coordinated the participation of 15 artists and environmentalists from Iraq (both Iraqi nationals and expatriates from Canada, Germany, Lebanon, and the Netherlands). Members of Sulyon – a Kurdish arts organization from Northern Iraq – performed an interpretive dance revisiting Mesopotamian legends of survival in the face of global flooding and environmental destruction. We are grateful to Hasankeyf Has Bahçe for the space provided for performances and to Batman Gazetesi for their help with the children’s art workshops conducted by Sulyon during their stay in Hasankeyf. 

Doğa Derneği sponsored the participation of Muğla University Professor Dr. Adnan Çevik, who spoke about the important insights into Islamic architecture and science provided by Hasankeyf’s Artukid and Ayyubid archeological treasures. For example, in Çevik’s view, to fully comprehend the genius of the Artukid inventor ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari (el-Cezeri) you have to visit Hasankeyf and trace the canals that deliver water to the Citadel. 

What do you see in Hasankeyf? 

How many young Turkish inventors might be inspired over the coming years by exposure to the innovations and practices on display throughout this open-air museum of medieval Islamic arts and technology?

Professor Çevik’s excellent monograph, Hasankeyf Medeniyetlerin Buluştuğu Başkent, has been published by Doğa Derneği and Atlas magazine.

Special thanks go to Zeki Binici Hoca, of Hasankeyf Elementary School, and Hasankeyf Mayor Abdulvahap Kusen for arranging the meeting space for Professor Cevik’s seminar.

Stayed tuned to this site and our Facebook page for more photos and comments about last weekend’s activities in Hasankeyf. If you would like to be part of the next Hasankeyf Ingathering or if you have a group interested in spending a long weekend here, please contact us at hasankeyfmattersATgmailDOTcom.

--John

2nd Hasankeyf Ingathering, 6-9 September 2012

Water – Gardens – City

Let’s meet in Hasankeyf, an ingathering of civilizations.

This is an open invitation to anyone, children and adults, interested in Turkish culture and history, to join us, 6-9 September (Thursday-Sunday), as we walk, talk, and laugh, thinking of ways to preserve and sustain the city’s living heritage.

There’s hardly a better place to step back, unwind, and observe up close the vital connection between human society and the natural environment that feeds our towns and cities.

Why Hasankeyf? Cosmopolitan in some ways, Hasankeyf is also a small village. Most residents speak three languages – Arabic, Kurdish, and Turkish. The ancient city’s archeological treasures capture the ebb and flow of different civilizations in the region. The valleys surrounding the village are unspoilt and offer stunning vistas as well as hosting a wealth of flora and fauna. The village itself is home to a warm and welcoming population and traditional ways of life.

Morning activities focus on life and work in Hasankeyf. For example, visitors can:

• Pick fruit and discover hidden palaces in the Salahiyye Bahçeleri
• Accompany a shepherd into the fields 
• Apprentice with a textile weaver 
• Tour the river on a traditional Hasankeyf kelek
• Explore the old mosques, churches, schools, and markets inside the medieval town and the surrounding canyons and caves 

The afternoons are for visitors to explore the town and surroundings and talk with residents on their own. Evenings are for storytelling, performance, sharing the day’s discoveries, and pondering the road ahead. Everyone is invited to bring family photos, songs, and musical instruments.

The Ilısu Dam Project threatens the natural and cultural inheritance entrusted to the citizens of Hasankeyf. Seeking ways to increase economic opportunity while preserving world heritage, Hasankeyf residents and their out-of-town friends are coming together to share their hopes and fears for the future and relish memories from bygone times.

Logistics: Hasankeyf is easily accessible by bus from Batman, Mardin, and Diyarbakır (the nearest airports). For information about hotel accommodations and camping facilities, please contact us (hisnkayfaATgmailDOTcom). Late summer, the peak of the fig and grape harvest, is one of the best times to visit Hasankeyf. Count on hot, dry afternoons and cool evenings, and bring good hiking shoes, long pants and lightweight long-sleeve shirts.

Photos of Hasankeyf available here.

Come, join us!

Hasankeyf Castle closed (again); spotlight shifts to lower city and townsfolk

The castle is out of the picture for now

The castle at Hasankeyf has once again been closed for an indefinite period. It had previously been closed for several months in 2010 after the side of a cliff fell. When it reopened in mid-2011, visitors were restricted to a small area around the Great Mosque, and most of the 2,350-square-meter fortified city was off-limits.

Rumors preceding yesterday’s closing (announced quietly in Hasankeyf at the close of business on Friday) have raised anxiety among local workers and merchants about the economic impact on tourism.

“No one will come to Hasankeyf if the castle has been closed,” observed Hasan, a local shop worker, reflecting a pervasive sense of pessimism. “Hasankeyf is slowly being squeezed to death,” commented a store owner.

A two-hour walk through town and gardens

To counter the negative effect of the closing, a group of local archaeologists and teachers is developing new itineraries for Hasankeyf's Lower City. Necdet, the group's leader, says one can cover the full expanse of the medieval city in two hours, or spend days exploring the caves and archaeological sites more thoroughly.

Another effort is using photography, storytelling and singing to bring people together to reminisce and think about ways to sustain the living heritage of Hasankeyf. Amateur photographers from Hasankeyf are organizing a photo-sharing event as part of the 2nd Hasankeyf Ingathering/Hasankeyf Buluşması, September 6-9. Everyone is welcome. It’s the perfect time to enjoy Hasankeyf’s renowned figs and grapes.

Figs and grapes picked fresh each morning!

--John

'This was Hasankeyf'

Set a reminder now: next week on Monday, August 27, there will be a live interview with Tommaso Vitali, director of the documentary "This was Hasankeyf". The film is now in post-production, and Tommaso will be speaking about the documentary and its goals with Ekrem Eddy Güzeldere on the radio show Inside/Outside.

The interview will go out live on Açık Radyo between 10:30 and 11:00 Istanbul time. We'll add a link to the MP3 later once it's up.

Stay tuned.

--Helen

Building dams, and nations

Archival photo from 'Modern Essays 5: Graft'

The building of dams has been seen as essential to Turkey’s modernization and development since the early days of the Turkish Republic, when the nation’s capital was established in arid Ankara rather than waterfront Istanbul.

The job of the country’s early leaders was to save Anatolia from “the grip of poverty and darkness” – rampant illiteracy, scant electricity, and primitive homes and farming methods – former president Süleyman Demirel told researcher/architect Aslıhan Demirtaş in a 2012 interview, adding that dams were a way to “break these chains.”

Dam-based infrastructure to bring irrigation and drinking water to Ankara in the 1930s was quickly replicated around the country, a process documented in “Modern Essays 5: Graft,” an archival exhibit currently on display at SALT Galata in Istanbul.

Archival photo from 'Modern Essays 5: Graft'

Curator Demirtaş has compiled black-and-white photographs of families posing proudly in front of dams in the 1940s and 1950s; old newspapers with full pages of photos showing people enjoying recreational opportunities in the country’s new reservoirs; scale models of the 42 dam lakes on the Tigris and Euphrates, including the yet-to-be-filled Ilısu; and her video interview with Demirel, who presided over Turkey’s dam building agency before becoming president.

In the video, Demirel concedes a few qualms about relocating people and other negative impacts of dams, saying “some projects may take away more than they bring,” but remains firm in his conviction that Turkey’s hydro projects have been key to its drive for modernity and civilization. The entire exhibit – which also includes a touchscreen display on which visitors can access a database of the country’s dam lakes – indeed explores how deeply entwined such projects are with national identity and pride, and not just for Turkey. To successfully propose alternatives, it seems a new, and equally convincing, national narrative about development and what it means may have to be created.

The exhibit “Modern Essays 5: Graft” ends this Sunday, August 26, but the dam database (in both Turkish and English) will remain available online.

--Jennifer

Ramazan in Hasankeyf

The tea houses and restaurants are closed throughout the day. Tourists take their meals in the seclusion of Has Bahçe or buy snacks from a grocer. There is brief excitement in the downtown market each morning as local gardeners arrive with their produce – eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and melons, and more recently, figs, grapes and apples. Around the same time, a herd of sheep, goats and cows moves slowly along the far bank of the river for mid-morning watering by the pylons of the old Artukid bridge.

By mid-day, the heat is enervating, but friends tell me their thirst and exhaustion are reminders to offer thanks. Men of all ages pass the hottest hours of the day in the mosque, dividing their time between rest, prayer and Qur’an recitation. Conversations treat familiar theological topics: respect among different religions, the completion of the Semitic prophetic tradition with the Qur’an, the status of Jesus in Islam and Christianity, etc.


Ramazan is a physical and emotional challenge, and Hasankeyf is a good place to test one's endurance. Iftar – the evening meal that marks the end of the day’s fast – might be taken on the edge of the river or in a shaded garden populated with noisy ducks and mischievous sheep.

But the best place for iftar in Hasankeyf is a rooftop terrace just above the Rizk Mosque. The broad panoramic sweep of Anatolian history unfolds in soft orange light – the Byzantine castle, Artukid bridge, Ayyubid mosque, Akkoyunlu tomb, Ottoman hamam. The call to prayer, echoing here since 639 CE, signals the end of another leg of this month-long journey.

In the evening, it’s back to the market for tea, water, fresh fruit. On the terrace overlooking the river, the conversation is generally in Arabic, and the songs, alternating between spiritual devotion and melancholic longing, are Turkish and Kurdish.

There will be no singing on the terrace this evening. It's the Night of Destiny, and most Hasankeyf residents will congregate in the mosques to listen to the reading of the Life of the Prophet.

--John