Dighe come strumento di repressione nell'area curdofona: il casa di Dersim (1971-1978).

Dams and hydroelectric power plants are the basis of economic development in Turkey. Different projects, like GAP and the dams on the river Munzur, disguise the real aim of the Turkish government: the construction of dams and hydroelectric power plants are used as tools of Turkish assimilation and repression against Kurdish population. They are one of the main causes of Kurdish forced migration to areas where the majority of population is Turkish. This kind of policy is not the exclusive prerogative of the President Erdoğan and his AK party. One of the oldest, biggest and most important dams, the Keban, was built in ‘70s on the river Euphrates. The government introduced this project as particularly important to increase the production of hydro-electric power and new employment. The Keban dam, however, is a tool of repression and assimilation on the dersimli population: ethnic, linguistic and religious minority in Turkey. Dersimlis are still colliding with the condition of fragmentation created from “genocide” during ‘30s. The aim of this work is to analyze the problem of hydro conflict and to show the real purpose of the dam’s construction in Turkey, with special focus on Dersim area, in Kurdistan. To examine the case study I used written sources, reports, international convention, signed by Turkey, but seldom applied, internal Turkish laws, as law n. 6831/1956 about the forest, law n. 2942/1983 about expropriation and law n. 5543/2006 about new resettlement, but mostly oral sources firsthand obtained during field research through oral history and interviews. The topics of interviews have been: dersimli identity, situation before the construction of the Keban dam and what changed later, activities of movements that work for heritage, cultural and environment conservation (activist of the river Munzur in Dersim and Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive). With this work, I have tried to give voice to dersimli civil society that rarely has been heard.