From: hrcoord@igc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: TURKEY: Project could lead to water
Date: 28 Jul 92 16:55:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1475100140:000:4538
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Jul 28 09:55:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: TURKEY: Project could lead to water

/* Written 12:04 am  Jul 28, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: TURKEY: Project could lead to water war with neighbours/SERIES/


an inter press service feature

by nadire mater

att editors:   the following item is the third and final feature
in a series on the controversy surrounding the
construction of a massive irrigation project in                   south-
east turkey. the first two were moved                      earlier saturday.

istanbul, jul 25 (ips) -- the south-eastern development project
(sdp) -- intended to bring prosperity and peace to the troubled
regions of turkey -- seems to be sowing the seeds of a water
dispute with the country's neighbors.

the source of the dispute, which also happens to be the source of
the multi-billion dollar irrigation project, are the rivers tigris
and euphrates -- both of which originate in turkey, but flow over
the borders of neighbouring syria and iraq.

syria and turkey signed an agreement earlier this year which
stipulated that ankara allow at least 500 cubic tons of water per
second to flow over its border to damascus.

the damascus authorities fear this agreement will be breached
with the completion of the project, aimed at developing
agriculture, industry and tourism in south-eastern province of
turkey.

and on the eve of the opening of the first completed segment of
the project -- the ataturk dam -- turkish prime suleyman demirel
turkish did nothing to allay those fears.

''five hundred cubic tons of euphrates water per second released
in syria is more than enough,'' demirel said friday, adding:
''there is no guarantee that this may continue for the coming 20-
25  years. the water is ours on this side of the border, and
theirs on  the other side. the water, oil, and soil of every
particular  country belongs only to that country.''

such statements make for bad friendships says husnu mahalli, the
bbc arabic service correspondent in turkey. ''arabs cannot accept
that. the construction of the karkamis dam four km to the north of
the syrian border in fact means denying syria of even a drop of
water.''

the middle east correspondent added: ''we are on the brink of
very dangerous developments...demirel does not even accept the 500
cubic tons per second arrangement provided by the damascus
agreement. water cannot be compared with land and oil, it flows.''
(more/ips)

turkey: project could lead to water war with neighbours/series/(2-e)

turkey: project (2)

demirel has previously stated that the 500 cubic tons per second
scale was an ''arbitrary'' arrangement. he gauged that when the
euphrates sinks down to its minimum during the months of august
and september the amount of water drops to 250 cubic tons per
second.

similarly, it rises to a maximum in the spring months of march,
april and may of 600-1000 cubic tons per second. ''just as their
oil is theirs, our water is ours,'' argues demirel.

the ankara government claims that once completed, the flow of
water from the tigris and euphrates will be better regulated.

but western observers in ankara hold that when the south-eastern
development project is completed, 40 percent of the present amount
of water now flowing to iraq, and 90 percent of that to syria,
will remain in turkey.

a report from the british ministry of foreign affairs, published
in friday's cumhuriyet, also stated that by the mid 90's, the
amount of water flowing to iraq and syria will be reduced, with
the result that water rather than oil will be the main focus in
the region.

the report predicted a scarcity of water in syria, iraq and
jordan, palestine and israel by the year 2000, and according to
the british ministry of foreign affairs, israel has already warned
turkey, by way of a letter, of a ''war for water in the middle
east''.

the world bank is also reported to have declined giving financial
support to the project because it may bring about natural resource
problems in the area.

in 1986, turkey had proposed a 'peace water project' for the gulf
countries. the project included the transfer -- by pipeline -- of
six million cubic tons of water from its seyhan and ceyhan rivers,
to the gulf emirates via syria an jordan.

the project however fell through when syria could not reach an
agreement with jordan and iraq.(end/ips/nr-ip/nm/cpg/92)
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