i don't want anyone to tell me whether i can wear a headscarf or not we're going to. how women are striving to reform their islam with traditional prejudices. strong. stuff september 24th on t w. a sinking city for thousands of years legal have lived in the ancient town of hassan cave. give to really get after the water submerged her son kafe the town with its people wildlife and traditions ceased to exist he just disappeared to help. get the town was evacuated before it was swallowed up by the waters of the river tigris the reason why tens of thousands of people lost their home is

a huge down. it's up it's literally like well the earth and subdue it is you know in the sense of wreckage to take up or. ference hotel was called paradise garden when we visited him in january 2020 it was a paradise in ruins the route was dismantling the prefab sections of his hotel in the hope of rebuilding them elsewhere because here the river tigris was rising fast if left he said the building would be under water within a few days. or paul revere of other me when i think about the future of my business i feel very pessimistic. a big part of me just wants to withdraw that's how i feel right now my normal willpower and energy to do

things has gone. your. crews witnessing the destruction of his hometown. the ancient town has sunk a few was in the region once known as mesopotamia considered the cradle of civilization in just a few months most of the town in the tigris valley would be a sunken treasure like a real life atlantis residents were not consulted about the controversial down beforehand. river before waters right there it's been raining and now we have snow to. the roads dogs manchu into cairo grew up in paradise garden they seemed confused

about what was happening to their home the booth. for 12 years fear outs hotel was open for tourists. as an case in the surrounding land of ancient mesopotamia was inhabited for many and. numerous advanced civilizations left their mark on it this true many travelers who pass through turkey's southeast to her son caves and many came to figure out paradise garden. this was filmed in the summer of 2018 when fear rats hotel still look like its name . he already knew then that his garden of eden would soon be lost. but he couldn't bring himself to believe it.

to. who's. it by the start of 2020 it had become a santry ality. spirit says the sign cave and the tigris valley should have been declared a world heritage site. according to a study the town fulfilled 9 of the 10 unesco world heritage criteria. it seemed predestined for the recognition. but the government in ankara had no interest in applying.

back in the mid 1990 s. the town was as yet untouched by archaeologists were in chanted with the sun cave this mausoleum was built by a turkish ruler to his son after he was killed in battle in 473. the mosque and minaret on the banks of the tigris reportedly date back to 1409 researches found artifacts in the ground suggesting that the area was home to a number of different civilizations people are believed to have inhabited the tigris valley as far back as 12000 years ago. or even in modern times many residents of her son kay flipped from farming fishing and traditional handicrafts. the town was famous for its neolithic caves carved into the rocks along the riverbank. families lived in these caves until the 1960 s.

when most moved into houses they built for themselves. the cliffs became a hit. story corps site and were placed under preservation order in the 1980 s. . but some families continued to stay in the caves right up until the 1990 s. as they gave welcome response from the hot sun must stop. no one knows how many generations found refuge in these rocks from the rain sodden heat and cold just that the fate of the caves was decided when it became clear that they could pose a risk to the state's plans to flood hundreds of square kilometers of land. some of the caves go deep into the rock the concern was that if the rising river tigris flooded them the whole cliff side could collapse so 2 years the spent filling the caves with deborah and sealing them off with

a massive stone wall. a radical intervention in nature. the idea of building a dam on the tigris is nothing new politicians in faraway anchorage 1st considered it decades ago the river euphrates has a number of dams as do many of the other rivers that flow from the mountains in eastern turkey heading south but none of these projects destroyed so much land in one fell swoop as the aliso dam on the river tigress. iranians it may join us on here you can see how some cases back their position and you can already see the beginning of the reservoir here. that isn't a river it's the reservoirs.

i thought it was he was literally. like i feel the earth and subdue it in the sense of breaking up toward the end of the sun this often does was when you just look at it all around everything's been turned upside down blocked off. it's just brutal out the so thick you would lose a shy man is a conservationist who's been coming to his sank a for more than 15 years he's stunned by what it's become for the turkish government commissioned a huge damage around 60 kilometers downriver it's still unclear what long term impact this project will have on nature here and on local residents. visit this is a when you 1st look at this is it. the mice in the trees you see a way most people would think nice. i would resist it's a cliche but actually it's

a crime i thought when you think about what the water has covered. right here one of humanity's most historic settlements. haasan cases now submerged if. you can just see a few caves poking out of the top but that's all that's left the central caves and also the architectural structures like the old bridge pillars that were around a 1000 years old are gone. there's a boat that was the bridge for the silk road the original site road as of. this graveyard would be the next victim to go under. local residents came to see it one more time before it was engulfed by the reservoir. which was you're. seeing this makes our soldier burn i come from his son came we had a house and garden here and now it's all gone our youth has been lost but i'm. sure

the good. the one grave there belongs to my father the other to my mother my brothers and i discussed it and decided to leave the greats here a little knowledge of the good you young. man met surtax to check who spent a part of his life in germany. it's such a shame. they're sorry it's more than a shame it's a crime against humanity for britain. and the mantra that i can help you all right since being in turkey i've shown down my language it's a crime yes a crime you can say that. there was opposition to it in turkey but it didn't change anything unfortunately. i have 5 think that was the start of this whole thora tarion regime it started with nature and given that.

man was a key figure in mountain resistance to the dam. in 2008 he worked for the mantra that hansen foundation the german conservation great . one time he got turkish pop singer to a con to visit husain cave and draw attention to the town's plight he also organized a number of other. test initiatives. german green party politicians chambres dimia and inflate also for to safe this unique cultural landscape they were repeated rallies and protests against the dam in 2018 the police used water cannons to break up one of the last large protests and made me morris arrests.

last spring her son case downfall was drawing visitors residents from the surrounding region came to the town at the weekends to see the rising water level by mid march when the spring was just beginning the waters had risen considerably they impounded river was barely flowing anymore causing garbage and greed to build up. the bridge that link test case with the dwellings on the other side of the tigris was already submerged. just. in. a television broadcast of from northern iraq reported live from the saying. one resident told the reporter how he was born in one of the caves in her son cave ridge when i hand

described the dam project as a massacre he said he didn't believe the state was that bothered about producing electricity and that it was more about driving the people away from here. almost. all their goal is to clear all the towns in this northern part of mesopotamia. or they're not interested in producing energy they could do that with wind or solar power. and if they would restore the historic monuments for the tourism industry they could earn 10 times what they're getting all. this area is also one of the most fertile regions in the world. they could earn money from that too. but they are determined to clear this area. but my impression increasingly is that this is all driven by security concerns.

and i had suspicions are not unfounded. in 2006 wretched tired attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the release of the dam he was prime minister at the time. from the very start it was clear the dam was about more than elektra city the decision to build it was made by the national security council which includes the turkish military members of the government admitted that the dam which is 130 meters high and 1.7 kilometers long was designed in part as a safeguard against the band couldn't stand worker's party or p k k. a designated terrorist organization.

this reservoir that formed as a result of the dam cuts off routes used by p.k. k. militants. for decades the kurdish fighters have come from iraq crossing the mountains into turkey before there were points where the tigris the shallow enough for them to cross easily allowing them to launch attacks on turkish soil in their long running battle with ankara. the white reservoir is designed to prevent that which held $199.00 towns and villages have had to be fully or partly evacuated for the cause more than $60000.00 people have lost their homes. and it's not just the tigris that's affected begin our sewer and boateng rivers that flow into the tigris from the north have also expanded making them almost impossible for the p.k. k. fighters to cross. while we were that turkish fighter jets passed over her son caves i think or his fight against the p.k. k.

has shaped life in this area for decades. and you. this tree was 60 years old according to he says he often rested in it shades and ate the walnuts it provided. it was so green like his hometown his son case the trees have to die before it's time. for creatures come into the world live and then have to die. but just imagine you speak to a friend and half an hour later you hear that he's been killed in an accident. you

hardly know how to get over it and i guess there's nothing you can do to change it but you can't point believe it either. and. you know. if iran says the states never consulted the residents of hassan cave or the many other towns and villages affected but that's how it's always been in techie se he says they've always had to give way when the state turned up and tolerate the arbitrary decisions made by ankara that was. awful awful just one case has been on the preservation order for 35 years because of its historical significance since then we haven't been allowed to erect even a garden shed some families had 10 people living in one house because it was forbidden to put up any new buildings and now the same people who didn't allow us

to build have decided to destroy the lot and cover it with water to lift your limbs . iraq's neighbors also cut down their trees before they left would just highly sought after in this impoverished region most of the residents of her son case of try to take a pragmatic approach to the situation. many are of arab or kurdish descent they are in the minority in turkey and have learned to live with the poor treatment they sometimes experience at the hands of the state. on. by this point all the bridges the nearly all access roads to her sank a foot underwater. has done cave was left as a ghost town the residents had taken anything that could still be used from their

homes windows doors and steel. the controversial nature of the dam prompted the governments of germany switzerland and austria to withdraw credit guarantees for the project in 2009 nearly all companies from those countries subsequently quit but even that didn't change the project's course the turkish government funded the dam by itself undeterred by the opposition you. know you as if it is not before the high still think it's right to stand up against projects like these and to do something is wrong even though it was always clear to me that there was a high probability our attempts to stop this would fail it was always months when you totally commit yourself to a cause like this. you have to be prepared to lose it you have to really quite often ask myself whether i could have done something differently kerning something

that might have achieved a different result. how does it make it but even today i have no real answer to that kind of has to go on for. another case that's what it looked like the minaret here is gone. these were the old bridge pillars that were once part of the silk road because they're over 1100 years old the minarets gone up here there was a stork's nest this. thinks that back in the 1950 s. when turkish engineers 1st considered building a dam here the goal was no doubts to produce electricity but today in the age of wind and solar power it's no longer a convincing argument he believes there are more wide reaching geo strategic interests at stake with the legal council easer dam allows the turkish authorities

to control the water and to decide when and how much to let iraq out or i've often heard of that argument in the media and also from government representatives. they say iraq has the oil but we have the water might see who lasts longer richard. powers security strength with all these factors seemingly involved the turkish government sees the project as a huge success the residents of her son cave at the very least divided in their opinion. they've been relocated to the other side of the tigris river to knew his son caves built from scratch in record time. but the turkish state didn't want to surrender everything to the floodwaters some of the town's historic monuments were transported to the other side of the tigris

they were set up in a museum park on the edge of new hassan caves. the turkish government says this way tourists can still come and admire some of the town's cultural treasures. observers said it looked as if the sun caves organs were extracted and trying. planted the ancient structures made it to their new home intact but the soul of the old town was lost.

not everyone can afford a house in the new town residents received compensation for the loss of their homes and access to low interest loans but they all had to pay for their new house is long established his son kaye families who lived in rented accommodation were entitled to a house but they too had to buy it single people had no right to a home in the new town. both his son kafe was colorful and oriental in keeping with its surroundings whether that will ever be true knew his son case is doubtful. it was full when the state began pushing residents to move applying subtle pressure after the summer holidays the school in old has sunk a free maintenon expectedly shot without any prior warning parents were told their

children would have to go to school in new hassan cave so they relocated bringing not only their possessions but also countless bottles of water. to the local user we had no choice the children have to go to school but there's no running water here so we brought water with us every 2nd or 3rd day we have to fetch water. for instance the kitchen really cold. well 1st released come in and take a look we had everything painted. that it was form of a little water boiler is fitted outside. we had the molding stone ourselves of which bush in this it. was the fish there will be 4 of us living here yes.

should the average haasan k. family has 6 to 7 people. so we're a small household chill isn't true particularly. bullishness as it were there is no supermarket here for a bakery. and many of the houses have no running water. when people want to take a shower they drive back to all the hostile cable i'll show you. all those who were able to get a house have now come to new his sound cave and they have running water now too but tourists from abroad have largely stayed away. the new market hall office the same souvenirs that there's no one to buy them. obviously we'll have to stay here now and our living conditions will be nicer than before. but it's not clear whether we'll be able to earn what we used to as andras

was on the mission that we have nice houses and nice shops but people here live from 2 euro zone and we don't know whether that's going to work out any more muslims are over there big mysteries in the class would be even if the tourists return reasons it doesn't have the same atmosphere here. in. almost usual major. league there are only just. met on the other hand supports the dam wholehearted day he says that he too lived in the caves as a child and is grateful that those days are now over. turkish and for interests will come. they'll be able to swim in the reservoir and immediately get dressed afterwards because the water is so clean. and the water will be colder which means we'll have more fish fish don't grow to the same size in warm water the fish will be better quality. will profit from there and then the

tourists will return to. but not everyone is convinced by hands arguments at least not those who worked with it was a shy shame and fear that are going to try to stop the dam there at his last a few kilos over the whole stress of seeing his home town disappear. some of them and caro his black dog was not happy in knew his son case for out says he's now moved to the mountains where the shepherds. given. his white dog match 0 had to find a new friend. thank you. in song to be honest after the water covered her son cave the town with its people other wildlife and traditions ceased to exist it's gone and now a new system is beginning here the only advantage might be that people are better

off economically for. economical or good value. of. iraq shows his friends the place where he plans to build his hotel the prefab section is from older sank a fire there waiting. to rot says the new building should be ready before winter. but his paradise garden is lost forever.

to come off game one of the bundesliga comes to a sensational story by a crush on complete with the beautiful ramona. and vegetable a man nothing new there defeated at home by hatchability. one ounce ahmad of goals. meant. to. be home to something nice for him by asking him for jurors or dealing with a new unit that i killed many civilians with an entire company cutting my father such as i was a student because i wanted to build a life for myself. but suddenly life became alledge kind of sob. providing insights global news that matters g.w. made for mines.

this state up. the news live from berlin the european union says no sanctions against bellaver the e.u. file to reach a unanimous decision on punitive measures against deliver c. and president alexander lukashenko for his government's crackdown on the st as mass protests continue today 2nd time also coming up. the latest must be 75th anniversary of the united nations in new york they appeal for unity in the face of global challenges and cited the organization thanks to perform stay relevant.