The findings indicate that the dispute becomes more manageable when a cooperation framework based on benefit-sharing—through data exchange, institutional continuity, and water-use efficiency reforms—is established, rather than reliance on fixed claims to quotas or flows.
📌 3 Key Takeaways
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Objective & Hypothesis:Drought in the Euphrates and Tigris river basins, rising water demand, and the expansion of storage capacity and flow regulation in the upstream basin have increased the fragility of water relations between Turkey and Iraq.
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Key Findings & Data:From a Turkish perspective, this study analyzes (1) the normative and institutional dynamics that generate conflict, (2) the relationship between Turkey’s arguments on transboundary waters and the principle of equitable and reasonable utilization, and (3) the impact of Iraq’s domestic water-management capacity on the crisis.
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Conclusion & Impact:The findings indicate that the dispute becomes more manageable when a cooperation framework based on benefit-sharing—through data exchange, institutional continuity, and water-use efficiency reforms—is established, rather than reliance on fixed claims to quotas or flows.
🔬Design:Review & Systematic Survey
📍Scope:2025 Verileri
⚙️Variables:الفرات ودجلة · العلاقات التركية العراقية · الدبلوماسية
Abstract
Drought in the Euphrates and Tigris river basins, rising water demand, and the expansion of storage capacity and flow regulation in the upstream basin have increased the fragility of water relations between Turkey and Iraq. From a Turkish perspective, this study analyzes (1) the normative and institutional dynamics that generate conflict, (2) the relationship between Turkey’s arguments on transboundary waters and the principle of equitable and reasonable utilization, and (3) the impact of Iraq’s domestic water-management capacity on the crisis. Employing a document review and process-tracing approach, the study assesses points of breakdown from the 1946 Protocol to the financial mechanism established in 2025. The findings indicate that the dispute becomes more manageable when a cooperation framework based on benefit-sharing—through data exchange, institutional continuity, and water-use efficiency reforms—is established, rather than reliance on fixed claims to quotas or flows.
İpek, C. D. (2026). Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Türkiye-Iraq Relations: Problems and Solutions from a Turkish Perspective. Rouya Türkiyyah, Cilt: 15 Sayı: 1, 129–150. https://doi.org/10.36360/1560-015-001-008
W. Scheumann and M. Schiffler (Ed.), Water in the Middle East: Potential for Conflicts and Prospects for Cooperation, (Berlin: Springer, 1998).
Ömer Fatih İlbey, “Nil ve Fırat-Dicle Nehirlerinde Yaşanan Süreçlerin Su Politikaları ve Güvenliği Açısından Analizi,” unpublished M.A. thesis, Ankara University, Institute of Social Sciences, 2022.
A. Kibaroğlu, A. J. Kirschner, S. Mehring and R. Wolfrum (Ed.), Water Law and Cooperation in the Euphrates-Tigris Region: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approach, (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2013).
Kibaroğlu, Kirschner, Mehring and Wolfrum, Water Law and Cooperation.
Ibid.
Akın, “Turkey, Iraq sign,”
A. P. Elhance, Hydropolitics in the Third World: Conflict and Cooperation in International River Basins, (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1999).
Nurit Kliot, Water Resources and Conflict in the Middle East, (London: Routledge, 1994).
Özden Bilen, “Prospects for Technical Cooperation in the Euphrates–Tigris Basin,” in Asit K. Biswas (ed.), International Waters of the Middle East: From Euphrates-Tigris to Nile, (Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 95-116.
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Frederick Lorenz and Edward J. Erickson, Strategic Water: Iraq and Security Planning in the Euphrates-Tigris Basin, (Quantico, VA: Marine Corps University Press, 2013).
Waltina Scheumann and Manuel Schiffler (eds.), Water in the Middle East: Potential for Conflicts and Prospects for Cooperation, (Berlin: Springer, 1998).
F. Dawood, “Renewable Energy for Water-Energy Nexus in Euphrates and Tigris River Basin: A Literature Review”, in L. A. Jawad (Ed.), Tigris and Euphrates Rivers: Their Environment from Headwaters to Mouth (Cham: Springer, 2021), pp. 337-367.
İlbey, “Nil ve Fırat-Dicle,”
Bilen, “Prospects for Technical Cooperation,”
Scheumann and Schiffler, Water in the Middle East.
Lorenz and Erickson, Strategic Water: Iraq.
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