Was adequate attention paid to concerns of the Kurdish people, including use of the Kurdish language?
IFC is concerned that all affected households along the pipeline route be informed about the project’s impacts, its land acquisition procedures, and its compensation measures, in a language with which they are fully conversant. We discussed with BTC various practical measures that could be taken to ensure that every project-affected person had meaningful information available. This resulted in a number of actions, such as the inclusion of Kurdish-speaking members in teams involved with community liaison, land acquisition and negotiation, particularly when visiting communities with households of Kurdish origin. The BTC teams noted a very high level of literacy in the Turkish language in these communities, and IFC concurs with this assessment after a detailed verification in the field. IFC’s social development specialists have made various visits to a cross section of affected villages to observe the land acquisition process and to validate BTC consultations. During recent visits to Turk
