Ottomans history is full of examples where it followed the besieging policy to make people hopeless and new Turkey follows in the Ottomans' footsteps. Since the sixties of the last century, it has been using a water war against neighboring Syria and Iraq, using the Euphrates and Tigris rivers as a weapon. The rivers run across several countries, the Tigris River springs from the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, crosses Syria in the far northeast, at a length of 50 km, then enters the Iraqi border from Fish Khabur, and meets the Euphrates River in the town of Qurna in southern Iraq, to form in Basra the so-called Shatt al-Arab. The Tigris is 1,800 km.

As for the Euphrates, it also flows from the Taurus Mountains, enters the Syrian territories from the border city, Jarablus, and goes into Iraq in the city of Al-Qaim. It is about 2,940 km.

Turkey weaponizes the two rivers; during the winter, it increases the quantities of water to Iraq and Syria, posing a threat on dams and cultivated areas. During the summer it reduces water quantities, causing to a great drought in the Euphrates Basin areas, consequently significant economic losses in the agricultural and fisheries sectors, in addition to the cumulative risks that threaten future disasters.

#Raqqa: The Euphrates River river today.. The Turkish fascist state continue to terrorize the people of Syria with all kinds of weapons, including using water as a weapon. pic.twitter.com/uaXrh1zxPN

— Rojava Network (@RojavaNetwork) March 1, 2021

Reasons of controlling the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

Turkey considers the basins of Tigris and Euphrates basins as one, crossing the borders. They are two tributaries of one river. It looks at the political borders of all coastal countries in the (Tigris and Euphrates) basin as a non-existent border.

Moreover, Turkey does not recognize the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as international, but rather calls them the international course, that one of its banks is in the borders of a state, and the other in the borders of a second state, so that the boundary line passes in the middle of the waterway, and is subject to the absolute sovereignty of the state from which it originates.

That is why Turkey believes that it has the right to dispose of the amount of water it gives to the other basin state, while it uses whatever it wants to meet its need for the water of the two rivers, now and in the future.

Dr. Suleiman Abdullah Ismail, in his book on rivers in Turkey, says that this understanding means "the Turkishization of the two rivers and imparting this adjective to them."

While the Iraqi writer Fuad Qasim al-Amir refers to Turkey’s rejection of the principle of dividing the water of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, distributing them, or allocating them. The Turkish water policy is based on the right of absolute sovereignty of Turkey over its water resources in the Euphrates and Tigris basin within its territory. It always emphasizes that its projects work to meet the social and economic needs of its inhabitants, and that the first priority for water is undisputedly for the Turks.

The Iraqi writer notes that Turkey does not agree to conclude bilateral agreements with Iraq and Syria related to water quotas under the pretext that international law does not force it to do so, nor does it recognize the principle of "acquired rights". It has not accepted the inclusion of this principle in any schedule of meetings of bilateral or tripartite committees on water.

Shares of Syria and Iraq

Syria signed a protocol with Turkey in July 1987 in which the Turkish side pledged to provide 500 m3 / second of Euphrates water on the Turkish-Syrian borders for distribution between Iraq and Syria, and in cases where the monthly flow is below the level of (500) m3 / second. The Turkish side agrees to compensate the teams during the next month, and the two sides will work with the Iraqi side to distribute the water of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as soon as possible.

On this basis, a Syrian-Iraqi agreement took place in April 1988, in which the two sides agreed that the share of Iraq would be 58% of the total Euphrates water channeled to Syria, and 42% to Syria.

The Iraqi and Syrian sides demanded Turkey to increase the annual drainage later from (500) to (700) m3 / second due to insufficient water to meet their needs, and the Turks refused the request. Suleiman Demirel, then Prime Minister of Turkey, saw that the amount of (500) m3 / second is a high quantity in itself, and consists more than the needs of Syria and Iraq, but it cannot be undone due to the presence of the 1987 Protocol that governs the water relationship between the two countries.

 Since the 1970s, Turkey has followed an ambiguous water policy for giant irrigation projects that it concealed from its neighbors due to the lack of a Syrian-Iraqi agricultural strategy, seizing opportunities, taking advantage of the political differences between Iraq and Syria to obtain the largest quantity of Euphrates water, sometimes claiming that the Syrians refuse to negotiate with the Iraqis, At another time, Syria will preserve the additional water if Turkey submits to Iraq's demands and water quotas.

Turkish occupation of parts of Syria

In April 2018, Turkey blocked water to northern Syria, as a result water level in the Tishreen and Tabqa dams decreased, these dams that are major source of income for the population along the Euphrates River.

International laws stipulate the need for a fair and equal sharing of shared water resources and despite the 1987 protocol, Turkey only passed 200 m3 per second, which is much less than the agreed ratio of 500 m3 / second.

A crime against humanity .. one million people under thirst

Since Turkey's occupation of the cities of Serêkaniyê and Girê Sp / Tal Abyad and despite the agreements between Russia, America and Turkey - on October 9, 2019, the Turkish occupation has cut off water 8 times from Al-Hasakah and its suburbs that depend on the Alouk station near Serêkaniyê.

Water cut by the occupation and its mercenaries is a crime against humanity. According to international laws, it causes a humanitarian catastrophe, especially since the cutoff coincides with the spike of the Coronavirus pandemic in the world, including the cities of northern and eastern Syria that have recorded hundreds of infections so far, as water is key factor for sterilization and personal hygiene.

Water cuts also affects an area inhabited by one million people, and three of the largest displacement camps in northern and eastern Syria, "Washokani, Al-Areesheh and Al-Hol", especially in the summer, when the urgent need for water.

Turkey's mercenaries previously used water against the people of the cities of Damascus and Aleppo. Today, they use it against the people of the city Al-Hasakah and its countryside.

Observers believe that cutting off the water of the Alouk station is to blackmail the Autonomous Administration and put pressure on it on the one hand, by inciting society against this administration and seeking to create sectarian strife between Arabs and Kurds.

On the other hand, using it as a justification for launching new attacks on and occupying the region, complementing the Turkish plan to occupy the entire north and east of Syria at a distance of 450 km, instead of 130 km between the occupied Serêkaniyê and Girê Spi / Tal Abyad, as it blocked the road to that after the agreement between the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian government where it stipulated on the deployment of Syrian border guards along the border strip, and conducting joint Russian-Turkish patrols.

International responses do not touch on the Turkish crimes

The International Committee of the Red Cross has expressed its concern about the scarcity of drinking water in the city of Al-Hasakah, after the Al-Alouk station in the northwestern countryside of the city was cut off, amid high temperatures that exceed 40 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) confirmed that stopping water from the Alouk water station, exposes 460,000 people to danger, and expressed its refusal to use water facilities for political and military gains.

"No child should live for even one day without safe and clean water. Hand washing saves lives. weaponizing water facilities is unacceptable - children are the first to suffer from this," the organization statement concluded.

The UN institutions did not mention Turkey's cutting of water to civilians, considering this a crime against humanity according to the laws established by the United Nations. This silence helps Turkey to persist in its crimes against the Syrian people.

Turkey needs to be punished under international laws

Given that water is a social wealth and every citizen has the right to obtain it, and the necessity not to use it in wars, the Geneva Convention considers the issue of cutting water to rise to the level of a "war crime and a crime of genocide" and the perpetrators must be held accountable.

According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the violations committed by Turkey and its mercenaries and their unlawful and irresponsible actions are contradictory even as an occupying power, which exposes it to international legal accountability.

How can Erdogan be tried?

Dr. Azad Dosky, a doctor in international law from Başur Kurdistan, says that according to international law and the United Nations Charter signed at the San Francisco conference in 1945, all countries are bound by these international laws, and the northern and eastern regions of the Syrian state are linked to these laws as well.

Dosky said that Turkey's cutting off the water and changing the course of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, violates international law, and the Syrian government must call the Council for an emergency meeting on these developments, as it is the legitimate representative in the United Nations so far.

He added, "For its part, the Autonomous Administration that manages Rojava and northeastern Syria can notify international organizations about the violations committed by Turkey against the peoples of the region, and these organizations must deliver this message to the Security Council and there are many evidences about that, whether cutting water or reducing its pumping, which is considered a political question to return to Rojava. "

Dosky indicated that the Turkish occupation’s goal of cutting off the water is to displace the people, and this in turn will lead to a humanitarian disaster.

Dosky pointed out that there are many evidences condemning Turkey for its violations that are taking place in accordance with Chapters Six and Seven of the Security Council Charter, and it can be held accountable in accordance with these violations and laws.

Human Rights and the United Nations Charter. " The doctor in international law stated that Syria can file a lawsuit at the International Criminal Court in "The Hague" against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and if these violations are proven against him, he can be held accountable.