Turkey and the waters of the Euphrates

The Turkish Daily News said on Saturday that Turkey has decided to permit the water of the Euphrates to flow into Syria during the nine-day Eid al-Adha vacation in Turkey so Syria will be able to meet its water requirements.

The Turkish paper added that Turkey usually shuts the electricity turbines in the dams installed on the Euphrates river with the objective of saving electric power during long vacations, but during the next al-Adha Eid it will not shut the turbines with the objective of permitting the Turkish private sector to work after the Eid al-Adha vacation.

The paper indicated that the recent heavy snowfall also made it unnecessary to stop the electricity turbines in order to permit "water collection."

The paper indicated that Syria complains regularly during the religious vacations as Turkey closes off its electrical turbines.