Euphrates waters an old point of dispute between Turkey and Syria, Iraq

AFP said the waters of the Euphrates constitute an old point of dispute between Turkey on the one hand and Syria and Iraq on the other, and a means of pressure used by Turkey against these two neighboring countries into whose territories the waters of the Euphrates river cross.

The agency reported that in 1987 Turkish President Turgot Ozal threatened to deprive Syria of the Euphrates' waters unless it halted its support for the Kurdish separatists of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK).

Earlier the questions of water sharing and border security was an object for bargaining between the two countries.

Recently, Turkey has repeated its threats to interfere militarily against Syria, which the former accuses of supporting the PKK.

Both Damascus and Baghdad view with suspicion the great Anadul projects Turkey started in the 1980s to develop its southeastern regions through use of the waters of the Euphrates. These suspicions were based on their realization that building dams along the course of the river would minimize the amount of water reaching Syrian and Iraqi lands.