ABSTRACT
In response to the onslaught of US-led globalisation and of its wars, the defence by communities of their lives, livelihoods, culture and heritage is a key to opposing and eventually ending this destruction. Culture and history are key elements in the struggle for economic and social change and for free expression in the Kurdish region. The World Archaeological Congress has noted that the question of people's right to have access to and express their culture and heritage is recognised in various standards, and commented that the Ilsu dam would have amounted to a form of ethnic cleansing in which governments and companies would have been complicit. Ilsu shows that while saving archaeological sites may not be the priority for survival movements, these are movements against cultural destruction; communities, beginning with women, in defending their lives, livelihoods and homes are also defending cultural heritage.
