Property | Value |
Name | International Fact-Finding Mission Report - Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan Pipeline - Turkey section |
Description | An international fact-finding mission, comprising representatives of human rights and environmental groups, visited Turkey in March 2003 to investigate the likely effects of BP's proposed new pipeline. The pipeline, if built, would carry up to a million barrels of oil a day from the Caspian Sea through Georgia to Ceyhan on the Turkish Mediterranean coast. UK oil giant BP leads the project, and is seeking around $2.5 billion in public subsidy from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank and export credit agencies such as the UK's ECGD. This report provides the findings of the international delegation. It documents the pervasive atmosphere of repression in the Kurdish region of North-eastern Turkey, through which the pipeline would pass. The report argues that the evident lack of free speech precludes criticism of the pipeline project, effectively rendering invalid BP's efforts at consultation. The delegation was itself detained twice by the Turkish military police, the Gendarmerie. A number of planned visits to villages affected by the pipeline had to be abandoned by the delegation, for fear of exposing residents to potential human rights abuses by state security agents. The report concludes that the pipeline not only breaches international standards but also threatens human rights abuses. BP's resettlement proposals even appear to breach Turkish law. There are widespread problems with compensation and a generalised failure to take account of the impact of the project on disadvantaged groups like women and ethnic minorities. The report is especially critical of the choice of the Gendarmerie as the lead force for pipeline security. The Gendarmerie was heavily implicated in the worst human rights abuses inflicted on Kurdish civilians in Turkey in recent decades; and has been repeatedly criticised by the European Court of Human Rights in KHRP cases. This report has been published jointly in conjunction with the Corner House, PLATFORM and Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mondiale. (ISBN Number: 1 900 175 59 2) |
Filename | Second International Fact-Finding Mission to Turkey section Baku-Ceyhan pipeline - full report 25 4 2003.doc |
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Filetype | doc (Mime Type: application/msword) |
Creator | admin |
Created On: | 04/25/2003 00:00 |
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Maintained by | Editor |
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Last updated on | 02/13/2006 23:41 |
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