GAP Creates Some Problems

Introduction

Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesi-GAP has always been a controversial project, because it was not completed for many years. Rather than reasons of continuing in many years, positive and negative aspects of GAP are examined in this paper. It is thought that GAP is an economic development project. Many people can ignore the social and cultural aspects of the project. In order to analyze of GAP, different perspectives are used from different sources. There are some data and information from Turkey’s official institutions and some criticisms from different people’s books and articles.

What is GAP?

GAP is a development project for Southeastern Anatolia in Turkey. Since this region is a very dry area, it is wanted to eliminate the disadvantages of this area with GAP. The project includes Tigris-Euphrates Rivers basins and nine cities in Turkey: Adıyaman, Batman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Kilis, Siirt, Şanlıurfa, Mardin and Şırnak. This area covers almost 11% of Turkey’s population and territory.

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GAP brings irrigation, hydroelectric power production, infrastructure, education and health. Actually, its main aim is to develop Southeastern part of Turkey by increasing income and living standards via well developed agriculture. The project includes 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric power plants. GAP’s official website (http://www.gap.gov.tr) says that “The Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) is the largest scale and costliest project in the history of the Republic of Turkey, also the one most effectively implemented among regional development plans and programmes developed so far. With its integrated regional development approach and sustainable human development philosophy, the GAP has its high prestige in relevant international literature”.

Furthermore, the website says that “The total investment in the GAP region in the period 1990 – 2017 is about 119.3 billion TL in 2018 prices”.

GAP was officially established in 1980s. During 1980s, Turgut Özal was in power in Turkey. He had neoliberal ideas which were also popular in the world. During Turgut Özal period developmental projects were gained importance, because Turgut Özal tried to have economic development and more liberal policies in Turkey, so GAP is one of the examples of Özal’s neoliberal policies.

Do the states have a right to sovereignty over water?

GAP creates some problems with Turkey, Syria and Iraq. These states have a conflict over Tigris and Euphrates due sovereignty rights for rivers and distribution of water. In order to understand whether states have a right to sovereignty water, we need to first look at “transboundary waters” term. According to UNECE’s 1992 Convention On The Protection And Use Of Transboundary Watercourses And International Lakes, “Transboundary waters means any surface or ground waters which mark, cross or are located on boundaries between two or more States” (p.2). In Turkey-Syria-Iraq water crisis, the main problem is that these states have different perspectives over Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. According to Turkish side, both rivers are transboundary waters and Turkey has absolute sovereignty over rivers. It supports limited usages of Syria and Iraq. It supports “tahsis“to other countries because Turkey is a menba-source country. On the other side, Iraq and Syria claim that Tigris and Euphrates are international rivers. They want common usage of the rivers. They support more equal distribution (taksim) of the rivers. In addition to different perspectives, there is no any certain law for international waters. There are some protocols and agreements for international water, but these are advices for states. If there is a conflict between states, it is solved with bilateral agreements, so there is no authority or law for solutions. For instance, in Turkish-Syrian-Iraqi conflict, Joint Trilateral Committee worked on this issue. All sides have some promises to each other, like Turkey granted 500 cubic meters per second water release to Syria but it sometimes cuts the water release the Syria side. We can say that there is no any clear final agreement between these states today.

What are the outcomes of GAP?

GAP’s official website gives information about the latest situation of the projects. According to website, some outcomes are:

• “The South-eastern Anatolia Region enjoyed a great progress increasing its exports of 3.3 billion dollars in 2007 to 8.6 billion dollars in 2017, an increase by 161%,

• The rate of labour force participation in the region increased from 34% in 2007 to 43.7% in 2016,

• In the school year 2008-2017, 28,918 new classrooms were introduced in preschool, primary and secondary education,

• The number of doctors serving in the region increased from 4,430 in 2002 to 10,946 in 2015,

• 1475.7 kilometres long main irrigation canals are ready for service,

• At the end of 2002, the total area brought under irrigation was 198,854 hectares; in 2017 it reached 545,938 hectares,

• As of 2017 road network reached 6,518.8 km and network of dual carriageways to 2,342.3 km including 294 km long motorway”.

According to these outcomes, developments occur in education, health, infrastructure, transportation, irrigation, employment and so on. Moreover, tourism also increases. In the below, there is table about tourism in the GAP region.

These are claimed by Turkish state, but it should be remembered that the states sometimes over report their statistics. In addition to state side, thoughts of this region’s people should be learned in order to understand whether GAP is successful or not. In the book, Sudan Sebepler (2016), one of the author Akgün İlhan says that “Not only economic but also cultural transformation is also expected with GAP” (p.344). The author İlhan claims that Turkish state wants to eliminate Kurdish people in this region with GAP, because the state thinks that these people help PKK which is a security threat. With this project, people’s houses are submerged and then, they have to move. Therefore, Kurdish people move to other parts of Turkey and PKK lose its power. Although this book and the writer of GAP part shows us a new perspective for GAP project, it does not give some numerical details or data about how many people migrated from this region due to GAP. The submerge problem is correct and many people have problem. However, in this issue, it is not correct to think only Kurdish people or discriminate people according to their ethnic origin. If there is a problem about people’s migration due to submerge, not only Kurdish people are affected. All people are affected negatively. In his article, The Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) from 1977 to 2017: A Qualitative and Multidimensional Analysis of the 40 Years of GAP (2018), the author Arda Bilgen says that GAP creates ecological problems. It causes drought, inequality and internal migration. It also harms historical places, like Hasankeyf and Halfeti (p.827). In this point, Arda Bilgen is right, because we see that historical monuments from Hasankeyf is moved to another area due to upcoming submerge threat.

Although there are some internal and international concerns, Hasankeyf is moved. The movement process is reported in the news which is not a normal scene that we can see everyday.

Will GAP become an international problem?

The answer is yes. In fact, it became. The project is financed by international companies and banks and foreign governments. As mentioned above, the start of GAP was during Turgut Özal period. Since he had neoliberal ideas, he was open to foreign investors and he supported economic openness of the state, so GAP project did not remain an internal project. It became an international project. Turkey has borrowed money from international companies. In the below, there is a table about loans for GAP.

In addition to finance of the project, citizens of the GAP region had some protests. According to Sudan Sebepler, people whose houses were going to be submerged went to embassies of project’s financers’ origin countries, like Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and wanted refugee status (p.347). Not only in the state level, but also in the individual level, people are aware of the project’s international side. This shows us that the project has already transformed into an international problem. In addition to Turkey, other countries are affected by GAP at least indirectly.

Conclusion

GAP is a huge and lengthy project. It aims to develop Southeastern part of Turkey. It has some projects for different areas: agriculture, education, energy, health, infrastructure, tourism and so on. The project has positive and negative sides. On the one side, Turkey’s official institutions say that it is a successful project and the GAP region has developed very well. On the other side, there are some problems due to the project. Some people have to migrate because their houses are under the water now. In addition to migration, Turkey has some problems with its neighbours due to distribution of Tigris and Euphrates water. Nevertheless, when we look at the claims of both sides, official and non-official, we should be careful for examining the success of the project. If we only look at state claims, we can think that there is no problem and development of the region is amazing, but states can over report their statistics and their development. Instead of state, if we look at only thoughts of people who are against the project, we can wrongly say that the project’s only aim is to eliminate the security problem of the region. When we examine the project, we should know every negative or positive outcome. If there is a successful development, all citizens should benefit from this. If there is a failure, then not only one ethnical group but also all citizens are affected negatively and it will be a humanity problem rather than a minority problem.