French firm gives up on Turkish dam

But both companies have been subject to heavy lobbying from lobby groups which say the dam would severely damage the lives of local Kurdish people, archaeological sites and the environment.

Turkey’s other main dam project, the Ilisu complex in the south east of the country, has seen half a dozen Western companies walk away in the past few years.

Both dams are in areas inhabited by Turkey’s Kurdish minority.

On the edge

The Yusufeli project is not dead yet.

Alstom, another French engineering group, is still publicly behind the Turkish government’s plans, with banks Barclays and BNP Paribas reportedly offering financing.

And the Turkish government is desperate for ways to prime its economy which is in tatters, thanks to political instability and runaway inflation.

But Alstom’s own participation could still be at risk.

Coface, France’s export credit agency, had made Spie’s application for backing for its Yusufeli involvement conditional on the project meeting World Bank standards for dams.

The same conditions could apply to Alstom.

Friends of the Earth, the international ecological pressure group, says Yusufeli has already fallen foul of that rule.

The project, FoE says, will submerge 15,000 people’s homes while affecting the livelihoods of 15,000 more.