Water War? Turkey Cuts Water Supply to Syria – Euphrates Shut Down
| SUGGESTED BY Rick Staggenborg |
Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan doesn’t seem to know when to quit. With his hopes of destroying Syria fading, he has doubled down with yet another means of promoting chaos and suffering in Syria (and Iraq) by cutting off their vital water supply from the Euphrates in violation of accepted international principles of law and decency. Is there anything he can do that will cause Turks to reject him and the AKP
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By Michael Collins
Suhaib Anjarini, Al Akahbar, May 30 The water cutoff by the Turkish government caused Lake Assad to drop six feet threatening two million people in and around Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city. The Euphrates originates in Turkey and also provides a critical water source for Iraq. Turkey, a NATO member, strongly opposes to the current government of Syria. The Turkish border to Syria is a major supply route for weapons and foreign fighters against the Syrian government. Along with China and Brunei, Turkey refused to sign the United Nation’s agreement on International Watercourses. The agreement calls for the “equitable and reasonable” sharing of rivers, wither they originate or flow into a nation. In addition, the agreement states that nations shall“take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm.” Turkey and Iraq have claimed Turkish manipulation of the Euphrates as far back as 1975. Syria and Iraq argue that years of drought conditions are caused or worsened by Turkish water policy. The outright cutoff of the Euphrates by the extremist and unstable government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan represents a Turkish act of aggression against both Syria and Iraq. The Turkish propaganda machine is gearing up to blame the water crisis on ISIS, an Al Qaeda affiliated Syrian rebel group. The Al-Akahbar article below notes that this could not be the case. Watch closely how the U.S. State Department handles this crisis. If we’re told that Syrian rebels are to blame, that’s a red light that NATO is creating a false flag to justify the Holy Grail of NATO military action against the Syrian government. Hopefully, the U.S. and other nations call this what it is — a human rights abuse of epic proportions committed by an unstable autocrat, Turkish PM Erdogan, at the head of a major NATO nation. The article from Al-Akahbar English is produced in full below with permission. ———————– AL-AKAHBAR English The Turkish government recently cut off the flow of the Euphrates River, threatening primarily Syria but also Iraq with a major water crisis. Al-Akhbar found out that the water level in Lake Assad has dropped by about six meters, leaving millions of Syrians without drinking water. Two weeks ago, the Turkish government once again intervened in the Syrian crisis. This time was different from anything it had attempted before and the repercussions of which may bring unprecedented catastrophes onto both Iraq and Syria. Violating international norms, the Turkish government recently cut off the water supply of the Euphrates River completely. In fact, Ankara began to gradually reduce pumping Euphrates water about a month and half ago, then cut if off completely two weeks ago, according to information received by Al-Akhbar. The reservoirs are expected to run out of water completely by tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. Meanwhile, water supplies in auxiliary reservoirs in al-Khafsa are close to being depleted and the reservoirs are expected to run out of water completely by tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. This threatens to leave seven million Syrians without access to water. However, shutting down the dam (if ISIS agrees) will only lead to a human and ecological (zoological and agricultural) catastrophe in Syria and in Iraq. According to information obtained by Al-Akhbar, Aleppo locals (who had already launched many initiatives to reach solutions for a number of local issues) began a race against time to recommend solutions for the problem, including putting the thermal plant at al-Safira back to work, which may convince ISIS to spare the Euphrates Dam turbines, and in turn preserve current water levels in the lake. In any case, it is worth mentioning that the water in the lake would take about a month, after resuming pumping, to return to its normal levels. A historical conflict END Creative Commons 3.0
A new Turkish aggression against Syria: Ankara suspends pumping Euphrates’ water
By: Suhaib Anjarini
Published >Friday, May 30, 2014 (Link)
Reproduced with permission (Creative Commons 3.0)
Top: “The decrease in water levels” , Lake Assad (Photo: Al-Akhbar)
Top: “The decrease in water levels” Bottom: “Euphrates Dam” (Photo: Al-Akhbar)