Competition with a movie star (Batman)

According to Wikipedia this town in the valley of Tigris in times had some fun with the movie character of the same name. One politician came to the idea to sue the filmmakers for using the name. I do not think that the whole thing was a serious act.


The town is in no need to make money from suing foreign corporations for abuse of name rights since they found oil here and made a development out of their own powers. From our first impression the whole region made big steps into a better economic situation – good roads from Van on, the towns on our way with the typical series of small shops, open till late seven days a week and brightly advertising the local products but as well all sorts of consumer goods that the Great International Bazaar (as Fukuyama calls it) supplies, Carrefour-magazines even Burger King fast food.

Buildings are under construction, most of them with a solid concrete framework that is later filled in with brickwork. The whole of Turkey has always been threatened by earthquakes and one hopes that the concrete frames are laid out in a way that they can stand a quake.

Our tour guide says that the water projects brought money to the region. The upper valleys of Euphrates and Tigris were locked with numerous dams to create artificial lakes that are among the biggest in the world. A system of tunnels distributes the water in the whole area. Our guide has no ear for the complaints of Syria and Iraq at the lower course of the two rivers – they get their full share of water, only with a delay, as he says. This is obviously not true, the newest project is in the meanwhile protested worldwide. We will visit the valley where it is planned, Hasankeyf lies in it, one of the oldest cities in Turkey. It would be completely flooded, if a further dam was build. That makes even many Turks protest the project.