Turkey and waters to Syria and Iraq
Regional, Economics, 2/23/2000

Sessions of the international conference for water security which concludes its works today in Cairo on Tuesday witnessed verbal rows between the Turkish and Iraqi delegations when the chairman of the Turkish delegation, Ali Ihsan Baghish, refused to consider the rivers of the Tigris and the Euphrates to be international rivers.

Iraqi Minister of Irrigation Mahmoud Ziab called on Turkey to approve a tripartite agreement with the participation of Syria in order to define the sharing of the waters according to international law in this regard so as to ensure rights necessitated by the requirements of preserving the river's environment.

The Iraqi minister refused statements made by the Turkish minister that the internationally-shared waters are an economic commodity. He also criticized the Turkish measures in building large dams on the two rivers which affect the Iraqi rights to the waters.

The Iraqi minister continued that Turkey has built 22 dams and that the water reserves of these projects reached 21 billion cubic meters, adding that these projects put both Iraq and Syria in very critical conditions.

He added that continued Turkish implementation of such projects will lead to a major shortage in the amount of water arriving in Iraq and that after the completion of these projects the Euphrates waters will be reduced from 30.3 billion cubic meters into 8.45 cubic meters.

The Turkish director of the water policy and strategic research, Ali Ihsan Baghish, has asserted Turkey's interest in waters situated in its own territories in implementing projects on the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, saying that the protest shown by Syria and Iraq against the construction of Turkish dams is not justified. He said in this respect that Turkey had not in the past protested when both Syria and Iraq built dams on the two rivers to maintain the most possible benefits from their waters.

In a session held on Tuesday in Cairo by the eighth international conference on Arab water security, Ihsan added that his country does not own a water surplus so as any extra amount of waters will flow to Syria and Iraq. He asserted that his country does not want any problem with the neighboring states over water, rather it wants to maintain a dialogue in this regard to preserve the Turkish rights.

The Turkish expert ruled out the eruption of war between the countries of the region, especially between Syria, Iraq and Turkey over water. He added that discussions among the three sides should be concentrated on reaching an agreement for a fair partition of waters, rather than an equal partition. He continued that figures stated by Syria and Iraq on using the Turkish waters are not correct and need to be reconsidered.

For his part, Syrian Minister of Irrigation Abdul Rahman al-Madani objected to the statements made by the Turkish minister, as al-Madani backed the Iraqi position in refusing sale of the waters to Israel while waters are prevented from Syria and Iraq who share the Tigris and the Euphrates with Turkey. The Syrian minister added that the waters are still one of the reasons for the Syrian-Israeli conflict, besides the occupation of the Golan.

The chairman of the session, Osama El-Baz, who is the political advisor to President Mubarak, interrupted the Turkish delegate by asking, "If Turkey has no water surplus, then how at the same time can it transport and sell waters outside its territories?"

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