Emin Özmen Turkey, Hasankeyf, 2018. Young men stand next to caves, newly discovered on the construction site. They're destined to be submerged in water in a few months.
The city, whose first settlements date
(...) back 12,000 years, has an exceptional archaeological heritage: Assyrian, Roman and Ottoman monuments, thousand-year-old troglodyte houses, remains of a stone bridge and a 12th century mosque are part of it.
Hasankeyf is however condemned to disappear under the water due to the construction of the Ilisu dam on the Tigris River. It will be the second largest dam in the country, is at stake. Started in 2006, the project would bring "the greatest benefit" to the people as the current President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, then Prime Minister, promised.
A total of 70,000 people will be displaced and dozens of villages condemned to disappear. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos