The people of Hasankeyf, an anciet city whose history stretches back over 10,000 years, the surrounding area and their support in Europe won an important victory in 2002 when a major campaign forced British company Balfour Beatty and other European companies to withdraw from the project. Despite this success expropriation of land in Ilisu and Karabayir villages has started. Ms. Vine met Diren Özkan and Gamzey Yalcin of Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive to discuss the legal challenges being made to the construction of the dam. She also met with lawyers who represent villagers whose land has been expropriated. KHRP was concerned to learn that the compensation that has been offered to these people, who have lived off the land for centuries and who ill be forced to relocate once the dam is built, is wholly inadequate and for the most part significantly less than the amounts proposed by court-appointed independent experts.

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