Alparslan Dam to destroy both history and culture of village
MUŞ (DİHA) – Alparslan Dam, which is still under construction, will leave 21 villages under water once it is finished and will destroy all the history that is hidden in the region.
Most of the villages’ main source of income is agriculture or animal husbandry and in case their villages stay under water, they will have to migrate. Hayrettin Özer, one of the residents of Tepe village that consists of 100 households and will stay under water, stated, “I have lived here fore 40 years. We just finished our house. We were about to economically sustain ourselves. Now our village will stay under water and we need to go somewhere else”.
‘The history and culture will be lost’
Özer pointed out that many villages have churches from the Byzantium times and their village has barrows and they will all be destroyed. Özer continued, “Many people in the villages that will stay under water need to migrate. They cannot go to Muş because there is no job opportunities, so people will migrate to big cities and will be slaves to others”.
‘It is unknown when dam will be finished’
Özer also added that the authorities who build this dam does not inform them about the process at all and he also said the villagers are highly desperate. “We have 4 thousand small ruminants and 400-500 big ruminants and if our villages are gone, we will not have anywhere to feed our animals. We do not know when the village will stay under water. For this reason, the villages do not invest in their houses and do not spend money on repairs or renovations. If they try to get land from another part with the money they get from the state, they will lose money. We do not know what to do”.
(da/nt)
