On the water dam projects in Turkey
Turkey-Regional, Politics, 9/28/1999

The Turkish ambassador in Amman, Tunjar Tobour Ali, said that Turkey has spent some US $150 million on the river project of "Manafjat," which has a pumping capacity of 500,000 cubic meters per day.

The Turkish ambassador added that the amount of water pumped can be doubled easily. He said Turkey has started studying a feasibility study to erect pipelines between the river flow and Israel and that a political decision in this regard was taken. He added that the Palestinian government and Jordan can benefit from this project.

In a statement with the Jordanian daily al-Arab al-Youm published on Monday, the Turkish ambassador said Turkey is concerned with the project and does not oppose other countries having shares in it, adding that Israel is interested in transporting waters from Turkey to Haifa and from there to Palestine and Jordan.

On his country's relations with Israel, the Turkish ambassador said that Turkish-Israeli military and economic relations are not directed against any country in the region, especially the Arab and Islamic states. "We do not find any reason for any country to think that such a cooperation is directed against it."

He continued that Turkey is demanded to cut its relations with Israel and at the same time, "There are several Arab and Islamic states which establish good relations with Israel. It is, therefore, unfair to claim that Turkey's relations with Israel are against the Arab states."

Previous Stories:
  Turkish - Greek talks in Ankara   (9/17/1999)
  Turkish - Israeli meeting to discuss selling Turkish waters to Israel   (9/9/1999)
  Turkish dam leads to evacuation of 16,000 Kurds from their villages   (8/11/1999)
  Jordan refuses participation in Turkish-Israeli maneuvers   (6/28/1999)

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