fbpx

The Militarization of Water: The Repercussions of Turkey’s Use of Water as a Tool for Achieving its Objectives at the Expense of Human Rights

Introduction

Water plays a significant role in the escalation of conflicts in the Middle East Region, particularly those conflicts related to the practices of the Turkish government on the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. On May 2021, human rights estimations monitored dramatic drop in water levels on the Euphrates River, which decreased from the maximum level of 325.20 cubic meters to 320.70, with a decrease of more than 4 cubic meters due to the Turkish government’s reduction of water amount coming into the two rivers by controlling the pumping of the water stemming from its territory to the two rivers through the impoundment of flowing water in favor of the dams projects established by Turkey on the two rivers, such as the Atatürk Dam. This sharply reduces the Syrians and Iraqis’ share of the Euphrates water and disregards all international conventions and treaties related to regulating water utilization between the states, in addition to breaching the agreements signed between Turkey on one hand and Syria and Iraq, on the other, particularly the 1987 agreement signed by the Syrian and Turkish governments.

As such, and for the first time in history, the water level of the Euphrates River dropped by 5 cubic meters in May 2021, after Turkey interrupted the water of the river cutting it to less than 200 cubic meters per second, causing imminent environmental, economic and human rights disasters and threatning the lives and livelihoods of more than 3 million Syrians, who depend on this river as their primary source for drinking water, electricity, irrigation and fishing. Furthermore, water projects by the Turkish government affect the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, especially the construction of the “Ilısu” Dam with its negative effects on the cultural and archeological heritage in the historical region of Hasankeyf, which dates back to 12 thousand years and contains several Assyrian, Christian and Islamic monuments that make it a crossroad of many cultures. In the same context, the Iraqi Marshes will be subjected to drought, turning it into a desert as a result of the dams’ projects, since such projects will block the flow of water into the Marshes area. The Iraqi Marshes is on the World Heritage list of the UNESCO, as it enjoys a multicultural, biological and historical diversity. This is in addition to the serious damages to the environmental life in Iraq represented in the low water level flowing into the Tigris River, resulting in a crisis in drinking water and agriculture inside Iraq as well as increased desertification and water contamination and the impact on the Iraqi industries, owing to the decreased energy generated from power plants that rely on the water along with the lack of environmental conditions appropriate for fish resources’ growth, thereby decreasing such resources.

On the other hand, armed factions of the Turkish government are cutting off the water supply to the most vulnerable areas in Syria under their control, particularly the constant water supply interruption to the Allouk water station in Ras al-Ayn countryside. These armed factions of the Turkish government have recently interrupted the water supply to the Allouk water station in Al-Hasakah Governorate, north Syria for 16 straight days in the period from 10 to 26 April 2021, threatening the water rights of more than 460 thousand Syrian people who depend on such station for access to drinking water and public and personal hygiene’s maintenance in the midst of the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Notably, the Turkish government uses water interruption as a bargaining card against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), contrary to all the international conventions and norms stipulating that water should not be used in political disputes. Moreover, the Turkish government constantly targets the water infrastructure such as water stations using military missiles, leading to the shutdown of such stations and affecting the civil rights of citizens replying on the services of these stations.

Within this framework, Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights highlights in this report the human rights violation associated with the water policies of the Turkish government, through which it gains economic and political benefits regardless of the human rights considerations. The reduced amount of water flowing into the Tigris and Euphrates rivers contributes to the suffering of civilians at all the environmental and trophic levels, which directly threatens their right to life in some cases. On the other hand, the armed factions of the Turkish government target water stations and resources in northeastern Syria, which is a pattern known as water weaponization and use in the military context of disputes. Such patterns may lead to an increase in diseases resulting from water shortage, as some diseases require a high level of water-based personal hygiene, the most prominent of which is the emerging Coronavirus. Furthermore, the Turkish forces has shelled the water infrastructure such as water stations on numerous occasions, resulting in the shutdown of such station and thereby affecting the Syrian civilians.

Topics

Share !

RECENTLY ADDED

RELATED CONTENT

القائمة
en_USEnglish