The deliberate withholding of water from hundreds of thousands of people should be headline news. But not, it seems, if the people affected live in the unrecognised Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, known to many as Rojava. And not if the nation holding back the water is a member of NATO.
Most people are unaware that, since the end of January, Turkey has reportedly broken its 1987 agreement with Syria and Iraq to ensure a minimum flow of 500 cubic metres per second of the Euphrates River to Syria, 60% of which goes on to Iraq. Instead, it is letting less than 200 cubic metres through to Syria, according to Kurdish authorities and NGOs, leading to a severe decline in the water levels and threatening a major humanitarian crisis.
While this has been largely ignored by the mainstream media, it has been well chronicled by local media outlets. Meanwhile, Turkey denied any wrongdoing and accused the Kurds of deliberately causing the shortage.
