consulate. body that will never be found. not connected to the highest levels of government. why did journalist jamal khashoggi have to die. was 3 hours for. 2 years later and the reasons are still unclear the case of jamal. starts september 30th on t.w. . a sinking city for thousands of years legal have lived in the ancient town and his son caves. must thank you for a really good after the water submerged doesn't cave the town with its people wildlife and traditions ceased to exist it just disappeared to her she made it to 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. is that it's literally like well the earth and subdue it in the sense of wreckage of the carport. 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 pulled over. 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. spirit was witnessing the destruction of his home town. 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. rivers of the waters right there it's been raining and now we have snow 2.

zeros dogs manchu and caro 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 the tourists. sank a from the surrounding land of ancient mesopotamia was inhabited for many and. numerous advanced civilizations left their mark on it this true many travelers who passed through turkey's southeast to her son caves and many came to figure out this paradise garden. this was filmed in the summer of 2018 when ferrites hotel still looked like its name. he already knew then that his garden of eden would

soon be lost. but he couldn't bring himself to believe that you. who's. if you buy the start of 2020 it had become a sad reality. here out says a sign cave in 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 on touched by archaeologists were in chanted with the sun case this mausoleum was built by a turkish ruler to his son after he was killed in battle in 1473. 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. now even in modern times many residents of her son cave lift 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 far away and korea 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. through. the. iranians it may have shown us on here you can see how some case 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 listen to us and that's when you just look at it all around everything's been turned upside down blocked off. it's just a brutal august ticket oh it was a shy man is a conservationist he'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 dam around 60 kilometers downriver it's still unclear what long term impact this project will have on nature here and on local residents. is that 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. or is that sickly but actually it's a crime. when you think about what the water has covered. right here one of humanity's most historic settlements. haasan caves his now submerged as. 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 a north. this graveyard would be the next victim to go and. local residents came to see it one more time before it was engulfed by the reservoir is because. it was. seeing this makes our souls are burned

i come from house and. we had a house and garden here and now it's all gone our youth has been lost but i'm. sure they're going to be. 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 you. man met surtax check who spent a part of his life in germany. shot such as shane. there sorry it's more than a shame it's a crime against humanity and for britain. and the man child 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. by think that was the start of this or thora tarion

regime it started with nature. ayesha man was a key figure in mounting resistance to the dam. in 2008 he worked for the mantra that hansen foundation the german conservation group . one time he got turkish pop singer tacan to visit his son cave and draw attention to the town's plight he also organized a number of other protest initiatives. german green party politicians is dimia and inflate also for to save this unique cultural landscape there were repeated rallies and protests against the down 2018 the police used water cannons to break up one of the last launch protests and made me murderous

arrests. last spring hassan 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 the 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 from northern iraq reported live from the scene. one

resident told the reporter how he was born in one of the caves and 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 or way from here. almost 30. 1 of 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 hand suspicions are not unfounded. in 2006 wretched tired attended the ground breaking ceremony for the elites who down 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 could a stand worker's party or p k k

a designated terrorist dope. 'd 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 was shallow enough for them to cross easily allowing them to launch attacks on turkish soil in their long running battle with ankara. the wider 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 they gain our sewer and boateng rivers that flow into the tigris from the north have also expanded making them almost impossible for p.k. k. fighters to cross. while we were that turkish fighter jets passed

over her son came i thank you in spite against the p.k. k. has shaped life in this area for decades. you. this is true he was 60 years old according to firat he says he often rested in the shade and ate the walnuts it provided. was green like his hometown his son caves 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 there's nothing you can do to change it but you can't point believe it either. and then the and then you know. ference says the state's never consulted the residents of her son cave or the many other towns and villages affected but that's how it's always been in turkey southeast he says they've always had to give way when the state turned up and tolerate the arbitrary decisions made by ankara was. more plausible doesn't cave has been under 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 out 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 from the. 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. and then we 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. 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 and you. knew it was if it is not before you to i 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 or attempts to stop this would fail and it was always months when you totally commit yourself to a cause like this. you have to be prepared to lose it not really i've often asked

myself whether i could have done something differently curtain 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 it. and i was like ok 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 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 little consing elisa dam allows the turkish authorities to control the water and to decide when and how much taller iraq out or and 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 let's see who lasts longer richard. palace 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 divide it 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 trance. 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 cave is doubtful. it was full when the state began pushing residents to move applying subtle pressure

now 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 has sunk a 5 so they relocated bringing not only their possessions but also countless bottles of water. to that. 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 . won't find says the kitchen to get. it was 1st released come in and take a look we had everything painted. that it was full of little water boiler is fitted outside. we had the molding stone ourselves for which the ship to see.

was the fish there will be 4 of us living here. i could go either them or the ship the average haasan k. family has 6 to 7 people. so we're a small household which. isn't particularly. bullishness is it well there's no supermarket here sorry for a bakery. and many of the houses have no running water. when people want to take a shower they drive back to old hostile cable australia and. 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 a brewers have largely stayed away. the new market whole office the same 70 is that there's no one to buy them. a decision but yes we're going to have obviously we'll have to stay here now and our living conditions will be nicer than the fore. but

it's not clear whether we'll be able to earn what we used to. on the machine but 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 longer and they're big mysteries in the class even if the tourists return reasons it doesn't have the same atmosphere here in the. met i heard 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 that and then the tourists will return to. but not everyone is convinced by hans arguments at least not those who worked with him and figure out are going to try to stop the dam. has lost a few kilos over the whole stress of seeing his home town disappear. and caro his black dog was not happy in new his son case. says he's now moved to the mountains where the shepherds. but his white dog match 0 had to find a new friend. thank you here in song to be honest after the water covered house on cave the town with its people

or the 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 economic value. favorite shows his friends the place where he plans to build his hotel the prefab sections from the old assange case they're waiting. for. that says the new building should be ready before winter. but his paradise garden is lost forever.

to the female. more and more women in the indian state somehow rush trying to becoming lawn tennis. my dad. taking a sustainable approach to. the environment and stefan. in 30 minutes on d w. this

. live from berlin the kremlin critic alexina bali is released from the hospital in germany doctors treating a volley for an alleged nerve agent attack saying that a complete recovery is possible the opposition leader was airlifted to berlin in a coma last month after falling ill in. the coming up an overhaul for europe's migration policy leader today over

a new proposal to address. dire humanitarian situation and europe's corners it's likely to set a.