Bank may cancel Ilısu credit
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ISTANBUL - The Austrian government is likely to withdraw its financial support for the Ilısu Dam project in southeastern Anatolia because Turkey has not fulfilled the necessary criteria, the Austrian foreign minister said Wednesday, according to a nongovernmental organization.
Ulrich Eichelmann, from the International NGO Campaign on Export Credit Agencies, or ECA-Watch, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review late yesterday that Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger, speaking on a television program in Austria, said that if the criteria are not met then the project cannot be financed.
Turkey needs to fulfill more than 150 criteria to receive the finance credits, including criteria about protecting the social, natural and historical environment in the ancient city of Hasankeyf, which will be flooded once the project is completed. German and Swiss governments are expected to declare their decision about whether or not to release credits to Turkey for the project this week.
Around 20 environmentalists from ECA-Watch had occupied the building of the Austrian Control Bank, or OeKB, in Vienna on Wednesday to protest against the Ilısu Dam project in southeastern Anatolia.
The OeKB is one of the export credit agencies financially supporting the dam project. Environmentalists stormed the office of OeKB Director Rudolf Scholten and hung a banner out of the window saying, "Stop Scholten! Stop Kontrollbank! Save Hasankeyf!" according to information provided by ECA-Watch. The activists aimed to persuade OeKB to withdraw support from the dam project.