The waters of the Euphrates River and its impact on Turkish-Syrian relations 1980 - 2000

Abstract

Successive Turkish governments have been taking the water of the Euphrates River as a means of pressure on its neighbor, Syria. This is due to its tense relations with it, over the long decades of the last century, since Syria’s official independence in 1946, due to border problems, and Syria’s non-recognition of the annexation of the Alexandretta Brigade to Turkey, which it considered an integral part of Syrian territory, in addition to the water of the Euphrates River, which Turkey exploited As the country of origin, where it has established large projects, the most prominent of which is the Al-Ghab Project (GAP) without consulting with Turkey, and ensuring its water share, which negatively affected the decrease in the flow of river water, which is the main source for irrigating the Syrian agricultural lands, as well as the stopping of Syrian electricity stations Stop working due to lack of water. Later, a new factor of tension was added between the two people, represented by the activity of the Kurdistan Workers Party, accusing Syria of supporting it and harboring its elements, and its leader (Abdullah Ocalan). Turkey has taken this matter as an excuse to cut off water and reduce its flow rate. All this made Syria to submit protest notes to the Turkish side, but it fell on deaf ears. And the matter came to a military confrontation between the two countries, until the international mediation, particularly the Egyptian mediation, managed to defuse the crisis in 1998, by convening the Adana Conference, in which all contentious issues between the two countries were discussed, most notably the security issue, border control, and non-claiming. Syria, Alexandretta Brigade. In addition to withdrawing its support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party, and expelling its leader (Abdullah Ocalan) from Syrian territory. Despite the gradual improvement in relations between the two countries after the signing of the agreement, the Euphrates River water problem did not find a final solution between the two countries until 2000, the year in which Syrian President Hafez al-Assad died.