Ataturk Dam and GAP

I did my university internship at Atatürk Dam:

I'm at university. We have to do internships during the summer months. I think it was my first internship. In those days, the Atatürk dam was still under construction. A relative of ours was working in a government job in Urfa. He had a friend from DSI. I told him at the end of the term that I was going to do an internship that summer.

Atatürk dam was the most important project of Turkey in those days, I was very happy, when the semester was over, I got on the bus and set off for Urfa. When we approached the city, a passenger sitting in the front of the bus said that Urfa appeared. I was wondering too, and as I was going down the hill, an earth-colored city was barely visible ahead. The color of the buildings mixed with the color of the surrounding soil, the buildings were really earth-coloured, and there were no trees or greenery around on the road. I was very surprised as I am used to the colorful city view from our place.

I think we had arrived in the morning, after having a little chat with our relatives and resting during the day, we also went to the fish lake that day. I think they hosted me that night.

I like to take pictures, I worked in photography in my childhood, I guess it's a hobby from there. There really wasn't any decent greenery in the city as it seemed from afar. Even the trees were gone. Maybe it has changed now. Except that summer, I never had the opportunity to go there again. I remember that they once organized a summer trip from school to the dam in the following years, but I guess it coincided with the military camp, I couldn't attend the trip.

There were flowers around the lake in Balıklı Lake, I took a photo of the lake by taking the flowers in the frame after the flowers, just in case there was something colorful at last. The lake and its surroundings appeared in color in the photographs. It looked as if Urfa was a colorful and green city. Who knows where those photos are now, maybe I'll find them if I search.

The next day I went to the dam, if I said to the dam, somehow our relative had me drop off to the DSI guesthouse on the dam. I looked around a bit at first, but the dam was nowhere to be seen. I knew I was going to do an internship in the hull, and there weren't many people in the guesthouse at that time. Then I found someone, they showed me my room, I left my stuff. Then I asked how I can get to the dam, they said to get in a passing vehicle. I went out and waited for a while. After a while, a pickup going to the dam stopped next to me. It was very hot, even extremely hot. There was not the slightest tree around. The dam was not in sight yet. We went for quite a while, I was starting to think that I did well to myself, but when I turned around a rock, a dam appeared in front of it. If I said dam, it looked like they were building a huge mountain from that distance. I'm talking about the fact that it has reached perhaps a quarter of the project height yet. It still looked huge.

Dam Construction Site:

They took me not where I needed to go, but down the fuselage, to a place near the turbine building, they informed me by radio, after waiting for a while, another pickup came, picked me up, took me where I needed to go, to the fuselage. I guess it was already afternoon now, it was quite adventurous to get to the place where I would work. We met with my site supervisor in charge of the hull. They had informed him beforehand, he was waiting for me.

Although it was difficult at first, I liked the dam construction site as the days passed, even though the working conditions were difficult, I got used to it over time, I decided to stay longer. I worked there more than the compulsory internship period, until the opening of the school, I think, for three months. I entered and exited all parts of the dam, even the injection tunnels.

A curtain is made by injection of a special mixture of cement so that there is no water leakage under, to the right and to the left of the entire visible dam body. Injection works take a very long time, so in order to start the filling works as soon as possible, they first built an artificial tunnel under the body of the dam (cut & cover tunnel) and started filling immediately, gaining time. In the continuation of this tunnel, injection tunnels were opened in the mountain slopes on the right and left, with several layers.

They used dynamite to open the tunnels, dynamites were placed in a special way and detonated in sequence by adjusting their timing. The newly opened section was first opened by the responsible geological engineer, examining the rocks on site and sketching the cracks, then they were designed and reinforced by either concrete or cement spraying.

There were gaps in the underground, we came across one while I was there, it was like a secret cave, it just didn't have an entrance. Inside were magnificent stalactites, and like corals under the sea, the cave had many different forms of limestone stones. There were even stalactites and stalagmites.

It's a habit from middle school science class, I couldn't stand it, I collected some of it. In middle school, our teacher had us collect stones so that we could get to know the types of stones, and then we would experiment on them and try to understand their types. I don't know if such course activities exist now. It seems to me that we were a little bit luckier.

At that time, when such gaps came across at the opening of the tunnels, they had to concrete the inside of them, in fact, it was a natural masterpiece, I thought then, what a pity.

During my internship, I went home and came back, I think it was a holiday, I packed the stones I had collected in a suitcase and brought them home, barely carrying them. Those stones are still in Bursa, my brother, on the old-style hand-embroidered copper house barbecue that he brought with him as a souvenir when he worked in Gaziantep.

Dam Body Construction:

Later on, I worked on the dam, mostly on the hull, filling works, soil tests, stabilized fill tests, etc. Clay fill goat feet were compacted with rollers, we were always keeping an eye on it so that the contractor wouldn't miss anything. I even went into a career where they once got in one of those huge yellow trucks with wheels over two meters in diameter that could carry a hundred tons of earthworks and brought the clay fill material. Instead of going around or over the mountain, they dug tunnels under it because it was less costly to carry the fill material. Think about the money spent. They probably made the calculation, it was probably more economical. If I remember correctly, trucks had 15-16 forward gears and 6-7 reverse gears, automatic gear, power steering, specially cooled driver's cabin, very comfortable vehicles. I sweat more on the field.

I also climbed over the giant penstocks and examined the spillway concreting. We even fished at the exit of the deviation tunnel once, huge carp fish. We caught stunned fish at extreme water speed by pullering them with a triple hook. I do not forget the eggplant kebab and barbecue parties. I don't forget my conversation with a village chief who was expropriated by the state for three cents because all his lands were left in the dam lake. After a very fun and informative summer, I returned to school with an internship report.

GAP:

The GAP project is a gigantic project, a project that is the work of everyone from Demirel to Özal. The deceased said, "I will not let the GAP gap," but the irrigation canals could not be completed even today. I guess a lot has changed in the Harran plain since then. It's a little greener now. What can be done in all these years is only electricity production, which is urgently needed, and some of the main irrigation canals.

However, the main purpose of the project was to carry water to every field in the region beyond electricity, that is, to bring a breath to the region and to transform the region in a sense. According to the plans, reverse migration to the region was supposed to begin. The main aim was to return the population gathered in the cities back to agriculture, to grow the grain, vegetables and fruits needed by the country in the fertile lands of the Harran plain, where the climate will become more temperate, and to contribute to the country economically. Did it happen?

In the newspapers from the end of 2019, there are reports that 53% of the irrigation canals have been completed. In all these years, only a little more than half of the canals have been built, and the main irrigation canals do not extend to the fields. A finer canal network is definitely needed to irrigate the fields.

In March 2021, news were made that the channels will be completed in 2023. I wonder if I believe it. It could not be done in such a time, the remaining 47% and fine distribution channels in 3 years would be completed.

What a pity that such a great potential has not been sufficiently thought through all these years. I don't remember the exact year I did my internship, but it was probably the summer of 1987. It's been 35 years, it's easy to say. Yes, the opening of the dam lasted until 1992. It's been 30 years though.

Need for Agrarian Reform:

We, on the other hand, have started a war today, and we are looking for solutions from where to buy grain. Bread and flour prices have skyrocketed. Even the prices of pasta, the only food of the poor, have increased many times in the markets. Really pity us.

I think that we have to make an agricultural reform urgently, we must first prepare an emergency action plan, complete the missing channels and similar agricultural investments instead of populist investments as soon as possible, and at least become a country sufficient to feed ourselves again. And we must do this no longer with the plow, but by using the technology appropriate to the conditions of the age.

Then we will see that the heart wants to produce the surplus, package it well, make it a brand by buying and stamping, and becoming an exporter. Such a Turkey adorns my dreams.

If we take a look at today's reality from dreams, I think our situation is very dire.

To what extent Turkish goods are sold in Moscow Markets:

I visit the markets in Moscow, we always do our shopping in the markets close to home with the lady. On the shelves, only tomatoes, oranges, lemons and zucchini are sold, as well as toilet paper, which I can count as industrial products, and Paşabahçe products. Just because their factories were opened in Russia, it doesn't come from Turkey. Factories probably also have Russian partners, I think they are not 100% Turkish factories. And I forgot, when we say market, we go to the supermarket, there is also a home appliances section. They sell Beko brand white goods there, as well as Merinos brand carpets.

I can't see any Turkish goods on the packaged product shelves. Many countries have all kinds of goods, we have neither olives nor olive oil. We have neither tomato paste, yoghurt, pickles, tea, coffee, hazelnuts, pistachios. There are even Persian dates, we don't have any nuts, we don't even have dried figs. Even yogurt is sold as Greek yogurt, white cheese has become Bulgarian cheese. Even bulgur is not Turkish bulgur, and even canned beans are not Turkish products. Supposedly, dry beans and bulgur are our national dish. The goods from other countries have filled all the shelves, and their prices are three or five times more expensive than their price, just because it's a brand or something.

Even on the liquor shelves, there are thousands of brands of spirits. There used to be at least Efes beer, since the breweries were sold out, even Efes now takes up only 20 cm of space on the shelves, or in some markets it doesn't exist at all. Previously, half of the shelves were Efes, and I was proud to have built the factory myself. There are so many brands of hard liquor on the shelves, from Armenian brandy to French wine, from rum to whiskey. I haven't seen even a bottle of raki in any market until today.

I will say, while such a big market is standing here, even if we learn how to pack a little, we would make our products into brands and fill the shelves with Turkish goods. In Russia, even products from Argentina are sold. They even sell citrus fruits, bringing them from Morocco. I even came across a product from South Africa. It is right next to us, our next-door neighbor, our blue land neighbor, but there is not enough Turkish goods. We say Finland, supposedly Russia gets angry because they want to join NATO. From butter to cheddar cheese, who knows what else Finnish goods.

After that, we say that we have an economic crisis, we suffer from the cost of living, we just cry, we just cry together. No one moves a finger to do something.

Conclusion:

We started with the dam, I was going to write something on energy. When GAP is mentioned, hydroelectric energy is not the only issue, of course, the GAP is a huge project from agriculture to fisheries, from fruit and vegetables to animal husbandry. There is much more that could be written on, but I am both depressed and tired.

As far as I understand, this country has been managed by staff who have not understood what this project is for at least thirty years.

As I write, a sadness fills me, my soul is narrowed, I feel sad.

There are a lot of subjects that need to be mentioned, such as industrial agriculture, but let me say that we must urgently reform agriculture and then other related issues.

Love and regards from Moscow.