US embassy cable - 04ANKARA5780

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 005780 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR OES/PCI: A. SALZBERG; NEA/REA: C. LAWSON; 
EUR/ACE; EUR/SE 
 
E.O.12958: DECL: 10/05/2014 
TAGS: EAID, ECON, IZ, PREL, SENV, SY, TU 
SUBJECT: TURKISH MFA VIEWS ON TIGRIS-EUPHRATES COOPERATION 
 
REF: A. BAGHDAD 360 
 
     B. STATE 199151 
     C. ANKARA 1373 
 
Classified By: Econ Counselor Thomas Goldberger for reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) Summary:  During the August visit to Ankara of IIG 
President al-Yawar, Iraqi Water Minister Rashid proposed 
beginning talks on Tigris-Euphrates cooperation.  MFA 
Transboundary Water Chief Mithat Rende said that while 
Rashid's presentation was "positive," it did not lead to any 
agreement on moving forward.  Rende explained that there 
remains a lack of confidence among the three riparian 
countries.  He listed several familiar Turkish concerns about 
moving forward, and he noted Turkey's position that the 
tripartite Joint Technical Committee was dead.  However, his 
optimistic remarks about Syria and his ideas about ways the 
U.S. could facilitate cooperation might indicate a new 
willingness to explore cooperation.  End Summary. 
 
Proposal of Iraqi Water Minister Rashid 
--------------------------------------- 
 
2.  (C) Regional Environment Officer (REO) and visiting USGS 
hydrologist Janet Hren met October 1 with MFA Transboundary 
Water Policy Head Mithat Rende to discuss the latest 
developments in Turkey's water policies.  Rende reported that 
Iraqi Water Minister Rashid had accompanied Iraqi President 
al-Yawar on his August 2004 visit to Ankara.  In a meeting 
with Foreign Minister Gul, Rashid expressed his desire for 
cooperation with Turkey on the Tigris and Euphrates.  Rende 
said that Rashid's presentation was positive, but did not 
offer new ideas on how to move the process forward. 
 
3.  (C) Rende emphasized that Turkey considers the shared 
waters of the Tigris and Euphrates as a source for building 
cooperation with Syria and Iraq.  However, when we pressed on 
what was lacking, Rende said that there remains a fundamental 
lack of confidence among the countries and Turkey remains 
wary of anti-Turkish feelings in Syria and Iraq that have 
poisoned past discussions on the Tigris-Euphrates.  To move 
forward, Rende said, leaders in Syria and Iraq must express a 
firm political will to engage in meaningful cooperation; put 
a stop to the repeated resolutions, supported by Iraq and 
Syria in the Arab League, in which Turkey is portrayed as 
using water as a weapon against its Arab neighbors; conduct 
joint projects; and exchange information.  Rende claimed that 
previous efforts to exchange data have been one-sided.  He 
said that Iraq has asked for -- and received -- hydrological 
information, but has not offered to provide information in 
return.  As evidence of Iraq's reluctance, Rende cited an 
unanswered request Turkey made three years ago for 
information on Iraq's plans to divert water into the Dokan 
reservoir.  Later Rende added that no discussion can take 
place until the three countries agree with Turkey's position 
that the Tigris and Euphrates must be dealt with as a single 
water basin.  Rende claimed that Syria now agrees with this 
position.  He said that an earlier Iraqi proposal to restart 
the trilateral commission would go nowhere -- "it's dead; new 
mechanisms are needed to build cooperation."  In January, 
Iraqi officials had proposed reviving the committee. 
 
Syria 
----- 
 
4.  (SBU) Rende said that relations with Syria continue to 
improve, and recently that has included progress on water 
issues.  In addition to Syria's support for the "single 
basin" concept, Rende said Syria acknowledged that Turkey's 
dams provide important benefits for Syria.  He also reported 
that Syrian officials asked "Ankara's blessing" for a project 
to pump as much as 1.5 bcm per year of water from the Tigris 
river for irrigation. 
 
U.S. Role as Facilitator 
------------------------ 
 
5.  (SBU) Hren briefed Rende on USGS experience on similar 
issues, included Israel-Jordan Water cooperation, and asked 
in what ways the U.S. could be helpful.  Rende reiterated 
that third party intervention would be a mistake, "but Turkey 
welcomes facilitating efforts."  He reminded REO that MFA U/S 
Ziyal in June 2003 told officials in Washington that Turkey 
wanted to be part of the solution and offered to "contribute 
to the reconstruction works of water and hydropower 
infrastructures of Iraq."  Rende said that the U.S. could 
help in a number of ways, including training Iraqi officials 
and technicians on modern principles for water basin 
management.  Rende said Iraqi officials needed more 
background on the Helsinki Rules, which describe the 
internationally-accepted principle of equitable and 
reasonable use of shared water resources.  He added that all 
three countries would benefit from technical support to help 
them collect and share common water data.  Noting that all 
three countries need to do a better job of managing water 
resources for agriculture, he suggested projects on efficient 
use of water in agriculture would be welcome. 
 
Water for Israel, Libya and Cyprus 
---------------------------------- 
 
6.  (U) Rende said that Turkey remains committed to the 
Manavgat water project to transport fresh water via tankers 
to Israel, but Israel seems reluctant to move forward.  Rende 
added that Libyan officials had expressed interest in a 
similar scheme to buy fresh water from Turkey.  Turkey 
continues to explore ways to deliver fresh water to Cyprus: 
an Israeli company will begin ferrying water to Cyprus using 
large water bladders, and Turkey hopes to build a fresh water 
pipeline to Cyprus to provide fresh water to both sides of 
the island.  The total cost of the pipeline would be about 
USD 1 billion. he said. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
7.  (SBU) Turkey's MFA securely controls Turkey's policy on 
the sensitive Tigris-Euphrates issue -- and Rende is the 
point man.  In previous conversations, Rende has portrayed 
Turkey as eager to cooperate but suspicious of Iraq and 
Syria.  What was new were his positive comments about Syria 
and his thoughts on ways the U.S. could facilitate 
cooperation with Iraq.  For example, his idea on water 
efficient agriculture could build confidence that each of the 
countries is looking to carefully use the shared water.  One 
of Turkey's complaints about Iraq (and to a lesser extent 
Syria) is that it has a history of wasting water for overly 
ambitious and poorly managed agricultural schemes.  Turkish 
GAP officials have told REO that this is a problem as well 
for the GAP programs designed to pump Euphrates water to 
irrigate the plains of upper Mesopotamia in Turkey.  CYMMIT, 
the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center located 
in Ankara, is developing a series of agricultural innovations 
which it describes as "water conservation agriculture" that 
reduce water usage, soil erosion and salinization.  REO will 
fax a brief description of the projects to OES/PCI and 
NEA/REA. 
 
8. (U) Baghdad Minimize Considered. 
EDELMAN