Power project shelved in Turkey

ISTANBUL/OSLO: Traumatised by months of fighting between security forces and Kurdish militants which has killed hundreds, Turkey’s southeast suffered an economic blow on Thursday as a major hydropower project in the region was suspended due to security concerns.

The move by Statkraft, Europe’s largest producer of hydropower, came as Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu prepared to visit the mainly Kurdish southeast and unveil measures to boost a region stunted by a conflict which has left 40,000 dead. The start of peace talks with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in 2012 fuelled hopes it could catch up with Turkey’s richer west. The collapse of a ceasefire in July shattered the optimism and unleashed the worst violence in two decades.

Statkraft’s 517 megawatt (MW) plant on the Botan river in Siirt province was to be its largest hydropower plant outside Norway and it took a charge of 2.1 billion crowns as a result of the project’s suspension.