Transition from Enmity to ‘Common Fate’ Rhetoric: Water Issue in Turkish-Iraqi-Syrian Relations

Starting from the fact that the water issues are the ones which challenge traditional security understanding, this article tries to analyze the basic reason(s) why Turkey, Syria and Iraq have not come to an agreement over the fair distribution of Euphrates-Tigris waters so far. The study presupposes that despite the rapprochement between Turkey, Iraq and Syria on the basis of ‘common fate’ rhetoric and good neighborhood strategy, water still exists as a dormant issue due to the security oriented priorities of the three countries. In addition, the ambitious plans of each country to divert the waters of the Euphrates-Tigris waters, and the lack of legally binding agreement are among the other reasons. The argument of the study is that the current problem of water between three countries is more than a resource problem; therefore, the GAP project is one of the concerns of the article. In addition, the article will focus on the fact that, unlike the 1990s, the three neighboring countries’ previous negative rhetoric and attitude in dealing with their problems regarding water shortage have changed, to a large extent, into a positive one.