WATER DISPUTE AND KURDISH SEPARATISM IN TURKISH-SYRIAN RELATİONS

Öz

WATER DISPUTE AND KURDISH SEPARATISM IN TURKISH-SYRIAN RELATİONS

Öz

This article aims to understand to what extent the water sharing factor was a decisive or the majör one hindering an intact peaceful coexistence of upstream country, Turkey, and its dovvnstream neighbour, Syria, by taking the current relations into consideration. Throughout the 1990s, Turkey tried to solve the security issue with Syria by making some concessions such as releasing 500 cubic meters of water per second. However, Damascus maintained its policy of playing the Kurdish card as a useful instrument of pressure. Tovvard the end of the 1990s, Syria found itself in total isolation and Damascus adopted a nevv policy, a rapprochement with its neighbours and coping with the image deterioration. Damascus has currently seemed enthusiastic to cooperate with Turkey for the effıcient utilization of water. In a region vvhere the bilateral relations are defıned by love-hate characteristics, it has, so far, seemed rather difficult to provide a regional cooperation for an integrated and win-win approach to vvater issue. Hovvever, the grovving urgency of increasing the water supply by non-conventional water resources in the Middle East and the necessity to fınd technological solutions to vvater scarcity problem will increase ecological, hydrological and economic interdependence.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• South East Anatolia Project GAP
• Kurdistan Workers Party PKK
• Non-Conventional Water Resources
• Three-Staged Plan
• Shuttle Diplomacy