​​​​​​​Draining the course of rivers and springs… Turkish strategy that accompanies its war of extermination

In addition to the war crimes and demographic change operations committed by the Turkish occupation army and its affiliated mercenary groups (ISIS – Jabhet al-Nusra - the National Army) over the past years in Syria, the Turkish occupation state opened the water front against the Syrians in conjunction with the continuous occupation attacks.

During the opening ceremony of the second largest dam in Turkey, the Ilisu Dam, on the Tigris River, on November 6, Erdogan stressed the need to protect the country from the dangers of drought and its consequences such as food shortages, and to prepare for the dark scenarios that await the world in the future.

Erdogan's statements came in conjunction with the suffering of millions in Syria and Iraq from water scarcity as a result of the decline in the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to historical levels, which affected agricultural production, securing drinking water, and the large number of poisoning cases.

The scarcity of water on the banks of the Euphrates in Syria will push the population to migrate, and this is what the Turkish occupation state seeks, and that this is a long-term Turkish goal, that is, it is a strategic goal for it.

These practices come within the framework of Turkish efforts aimed at displacing as much of the region's population as possible, using many methods, including special warfare through intelligence agencies, continuous bombardment with heavy weapons, and drones that target, on a daily basis, separate areas in North and East Syria, and Turkish policies. Regarding the course of the Euphrates River.

Observers believe that this fuels national conflicts between Turks, Kurds and Arabs by creating the impression that the Turkish people are the ones who blocked the water, given that there is a previous sensitivity as a result of the rule of the Ottomans. The practices of the Turkish occupation state negatively affected the relations of the Turkish people with neighboring peoples. These practices have created Great sensitivity, as the Turkish state and power have become a scourge on the head of the Turkish people themselves.

Turkish dams network and its impact on Syria

The Turkish occupation state began building a network of dams on the Euphrates River since 1966, building the first dam, which is "Kiban" in the Elazig state in Bakur (Northern Kurdistan) with a storage capacity of 30 billion cubic meters of water, and continued building dams after that, as it built "Baghshtash" dam in Erzinjan, "Karkaya" in Amed, "Ataturk" between the states of Raha and Samsur, and "Karkamish" in Diluk (Gaziantep).

The Ataturk Dam, with its storage capacity of 48 billion cubic meters of water, is among the 5 largest dams in the world, as it constitutes a major obstacle to the decline in water coming into Syria and Iraq.

In addition to dozens of dams that store a total of 670 billion cubic meters of water, built by the occupied Turkish state over the past 50 years, as part of the GAP project.

Despite the warnings issued by experts in the geological field about the danger of the occupied Turkish state keeping large quantities of water amounting to 50 billion cubic meters behind the Ataturk Dam, and considering this as one of the reasons leading to earthquakes in the region, the Turkish state insists on blocking water and threatening the lives of millions. And preventing the pumping of Euphrates water into Syrian territory.

In addition to the huge quantities stored by the dams constructed by Turkey, and the diversion of some tributaries to agricultural lands in the Harran Plain and the Plains of Suruj, most of the rivers and springs flowing into the Syrian lands dried up over thousands of years; As a result of Turkish practices, the rivers of "al-Sajur, north of the city of Manbij, and al-Balikh, between the city of Girê Spî / Tel Abyad and Raqqa, and al-Khabour and its tributaries in the Jazira region, have dried up."

For the most part, the Turkish occupation state pumps the small amount of Euphrates River water currently from its dams to generate electric power, in a clearer sense; If Turkey cannot pump water, it cannot provide electricity.

Where Ankara ignores the agreement concluded with Damascus and Baghdad in 1987 about pumping 500 cubic meters of water per second to Syria, and Syria, in turn, pumps 60% of that amount to Iraqi territory.

The water crisis added to the catastrophic situation during the years of war in Syria

The regions of North and East Syria are fed by three dams on the Euphrates River, namely the Rojava Dam (Tishreen) southeast of the city of Manbij, the Euphrates Dam, the largest Syrian dam near the city of Tabqa, and the Hurriya Dam near the city of Raqqa.

The percentage of water that enters the Syrian lands comes from abroad, 70%, as the Euphrates constitutes the lifeline for millions of Syrians from the Euphrates region in the north of the country and other regions such as Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, in addition to supplying the second largest city in the country, Aleppo, with drinking water.

The river irrigates on its banks in Syria an area estimated at 900,000 hectares of land cultivated with grains, the most important of which is wheat, along with orchards and fruit trees, according to a number of agricultural committees and commissions in different regions, but 400,000 hectares of land has remained without water since the summer of 2020. The Dams Administration said in a previous meeting that Turkey's continued retention of water could harm 600,000 agricultural hectares on the banks of the Euphrates in Syria.

And in light of the economic blockade applied to the regions of North and East Syria; The terrifying decline of the Euphrates River affects; On local production, which achieves a large part of self-sufficiency.

Water dams need a rate of 300 cubic meters per second, to generate electric power as the lowest rate through which one turbine can be operated from the Tishreen Dam or the Euphrates Dam and generate electricity with a capacity of 105 megawatt hours, while the coming quantity is less than 150 cubic meters per second and sometimes it is lower. for 125 cubic meters per second.

With the beginning of this March, the Tishreen Dam administration announced that the dam had stopped working due to the lack of water supply, and dozens of cities, towns, and villages in northern and eastern Syria were left without electricity. The dam will return to work on the 8th of this month.

The operation of the Tishreen Dam will depend on the amount of water supplied from the Euphrates River coming from the Turkish occupation state, but according to the current situation, the hours of electricity supply to the region will be less than it was before stopping the dam from working for a week.

T/Satt.

ANHA