At the end of 2014, work on the Ilisu Dam stops for four months after the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) kidnaps two of the project’s subcontractors. When construction resumes, the largely non-Kurdish workforce is escorted to the site by military tanks. Militants also target Diyarbakir’s Silvan Dam by placing explosives on the roads leading into the site, and security threats in the region cause construction delays.
