Both Turkey and Iran have built a number of dams over the years, reducing the water flow especially into the four parts of Kurdistan. Turkey has been using water as a weapon against both South Kurdistan and Rojava, as well as against Iraq and Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian responded to Turkey’s construction of dams on the waterways on the border between the two countries.
Speaking at the parliament, Amir-Abdollahian described Turkey’s upstream dam-building as unacceptable, according to the Irna news agency.
The Iranian Foreign Minister said that they had raised the issue at least three times in recent months during face-to-face meetings in New York and Tehran and in a phone call with the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “I asked him (the Turkish Foreign Minister) to pay particular attention to the construction of dams on the River Aras,” Amir-Abdollahian added.
The River Aras in question takes its source from the northern slopes of the Bingöl Mountains in Erzurum province, North Kurdistan, before joining the Kura River and flowing into the Caspian Sea. The Aras is one of the longest rivers in the Caucasus.
While acknowledging that there is no bilateral agreement between Tehran and Ankara on cooperation on water, the Iranian Foreign Minister said that “however, we asked the Turkish government four months ago to establish a bilateral committee on water to deal with the issue.”
Both Turkey and Iran have built a number of dams over the years, reducing the water flow especially into the four parts of Kurdistan. Turkey has been using water as a weapon against both South Kurdistan and Rojava, as well as against neighbouring Iraq and Iran.
The construction of a dam on the River Aras poses a particular threat to Iran's access to water.
Iraq and Syria signed the 1997 United Nations Watercourses Convention that regulates the use of transnational water resources, while Turkey and Iran did not.
