Successful “Big Jump” actions for Hasankeyf and Tigris River! Resistance continues against Ilisu Dam!

Successful “Big Jump” actions for Hasankeyf and Tigris River! Resistance continues against Ilisu Dam!
Following a call by the Initiative to Keep Alive (HYG) and the Mesopotamia Ecology Movement (MEM) for the “Big Jump” ecology activists in Hasankeyf, Turkey and the world protested the controversial Ilisu Dam on the 14th of July. This action day (“Big Jump” is an int’l action day since 2002) is the continuation of the growing activities of the last 1,5 months against the Ilisu Dam which is almost ready for the filling of its reservoir. So in the actions in more than 25 places the participants requested the immediate stop of the mega dam which would also devastate the Tigris region along the Tigris also in Iraq.
The most actions have been done within Turkey which is a positive development as it shows the growing solidarity wave of the people fighting the Ilisu Dam. In the follwong nine towns people gathered at rivers and lakes: Kırklareli, Antalya/Alakır, Antalya/Sarısu, Çanakkale/Gökçeada, Çanakale/Bozcaada, Balıkkesir/Kazdağları, Ankara/Seğmenler Park, Rize/Findikli, Nevsehir/Avanos, İstanbul/Sariyer, Batman River, Hasankeyf. The actions in Turkey have been coordinated by the HYG, MEM and also by the Hasankeyf Coordination which is a new turkey wide structure to coordinate the activities against the Ilisu Dam! Several unions, profession organizations, ecology movements, cultural associations, movements for the right to cities have set up the Hasankeyf Coordinationon July 5, 2019.
The international places which joined the “Big Jump” for Hasankeyf are as follows according to our knowledge until now: Hamburg, Berlin, Mainz, Nürnberg and Wendland from Germany, Katalonya – Manlleu, Rome, London, Kopenhagen, Zürich, USA -Washington/Port Townsend, Brasil – Rio de Janeiro, Sîne/Iran, Sarajevo/Bosnia, Baghdad. The most activists who organized these international actions have joined in the last years. In the most cases activists jumped into their rivers or lakes. In Berlin an art action has been done at the central historical church Gedächtniskirche with the artists Zehra Dogan.