Water: Turkey Weaponizes Water against NES People

2020-07-27
Author: Juma'a Khazim

It has become evident that Turkish government relies on water as one of its strategic weapons in Syria for the support of its military operations targeting the Kurdish presence in Syria, expanding its areas of control in NES and forcing the military and local residents to yield to its terms and policies in Syria. All military parties have weaponized water, since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, to achieve political, military and economic gains. Thus, water availability for the local population has become significantly dependent to military forces that control the water source, feeding their residential areas.

As a result, Syrian opposition factions have weaponized water to confront the Syrian regime. In 2015, opposition factions threatened the Syrian regime with bombing Al-Fijah spring in order to restrain the regime from its military operations in Damascus governorate countryside. They, also, have used water in exchange operations, where it was required to pump Ain Al-Fijah water to Damascus in exchange for a temporary truce with the regime.

Al-Nusra Front negotiated with the Syrian regime, soon after it stopped pumping drinking water (Suleiman Al-Halabi pumps), which resulted in cutting off water for all residential areas controlled by Syrian regime forces. Thus, it stipulated stopping air bombardment in exchange for restarting pumps. Furthermore, during ISIS control, the Syrian regime cut off electricity to water pumps in the northern countryside of Aleppo.

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