Water: The Spigot Is Turned Off

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With the push of a button at the new Ataturk Dam last week, Turkey's President Turgut Ozal cut the flow of the Euphrates River to Syria and Iraq, his country's arid downstream neighbors, by 75%. The month-long diversion will enable Turkish engineers to fill a reservoir that will be used for irrigation and hydroelectric power.

Syria and Iraq expressed anger at the move, predicting that it would adversely affect their agriculture and power generation. Long-brewing tensions over the dam increased last summer when Ozal observed that his country might someday block the Euphrates to force an end to Syrian support of Kurdish separatists in Turkey. Later he backed away from the threat.

The Turks recently offered to make electric power available to Syria and Iraq from the huge 22-dam Anatolia project, due for completion in 2005. Over the long term, the offer may cool tempers, but in the next few weeks the simmering water war could get hotter as Syria and Iraq get dryer.