Turkey using water to force Syria’s Kurds into submission

Ahmed Sami Abdelfattah

While the world keeps fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan keeps directing his army to move ahead with implementing its plans in Syria.

The Turkish army has recently cut off potable water supplies in Ras al-Ayn, a city of the northeastern Syrian province of al-Hasakah, near the border with Turkey.

Water supplies returned to the city in March after a 12-day suspension, according to a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on March 6.

The resumption of the supplies came after the Kurdish forces which control Ras al-Ayn to provide surrounding cities with more electricity.

Old policy

Turkey went into conflict with Iraq in the past, because it did not recognize the right of the Arab country to the water that flows from Turkish territory on the road to Iraq.

As the source of water to other countries, Turkey believes that it has the right to deny these countries the right to get this water. This is why it cuts off water supplies to Iraq whenever it wants.

In June 2018, the news channel, Sky News, referred to a marked drop in the level of water in the Tigris River.

It said the drop which amounted to 50% of the water of the river happened because Turkey started filling the reservoirs of a series of dams on the river inside it.

The Turkish government started filling the dams, even without coordinating with the Iraqi government.

Fueling revolt

Turkey is using water in order to fuel public anger inside Kurdish-held areas in Syria.

Al-Hasakah province is located south of the M4 Road that Turkey wants to control with the stated aim of establishing a buffer zone on the border with Syria.

Recurrent water supply disruptions aim at bringing life in Ras al-Ayn to a standstill and consequently forcing the Kurdish forces into total submission.