Turkey has reduced the rate of water flowing in the Euphrates River to Syria by 60% early this month, for the second time in 4 years. The river offered the lifeline for millions of Syrians in the Euphrates region in northern Syria, and other areas such as Al-Raqqa and Deir ez zor, as well as supplying the second largest city in the country, Aleppo, with drinking water.
Lower Euphrates level is a threat on agriculture and power generation during the summer
The Euphrates irrigates the plains along a large stretch along its banks in the Euphrates basin in northeastern Syria, as the areas planted with grains, the most important of which are wheat, are estimated alongside orchards and fruit trees with approximately 400,000 hectares of agricultural land, according to a number of agricultural committees in different regions.
Suad Damer, the co-chair of Al-Qanayah District Council, west of Kobani canton, says that the Turkish state’s deliberate reduction of the river’s water threatens the local production of vegetables which supply different areas of north and east Syria.
Reducing water flow from Turkey raises fears of power outages for more than 12 hours a day, as Turkey pumps water at a rate of 200 cubic meters per second, in violation of the 1987 agreement between Damascus and Ankara, which stipulates that Turkey should pump 500 meters cubic per second goes 58% of that amount to Iraqi lands.
This year, the second fire in the canton devours 80 hectares due to the Turkish bombing Besides, the events of burning agricultural crops returns again for the second year in a row, as nearly 80 hectares of agricultural lands were devastated in a number of villages west of Kobani last Sunday after the Turkish occupation deliberately fired from the city of Jarabulus towards the eastern banks of the Euphrates.
The Turkish-backed Euphrates Shield mercenaries fired 9 mortar shells on Sunday and Monday, targeting agricultural crops in the Poraz Plain, which caused fires in the wheat lands. Damer adds that reducing the water rate and bombing agricultural crops is another Turkish weapon before the eyes of the silent world, adding that “everything that Turkey does is contrary to international covenants and laws. Is it possible that the water level will drop by 2 km within two weeks? Syrians and the international community must act and end these violations.”
Fires devour thousands of dunums of wheat and barley in Deir Ezzor
The fires destroyed about 5 thousand dunums of wheat and barley in the area of Umm Midfa in the northern countryside of Deir Ezzor in northern and eastern Syria.After hours, the people, along with the fire engines, managed to control the fire, which also burned a number of homes in the area.
Tel-Tamr villagers: Turkey burns our crops, when trying to extinguish it
The villagers in the northern and western countryside of Tel-Tamr district, who are living of the seam line in the occupied areas by Turkey, that the Turkish occupation army deliberately burned their agricultural crops while firefighting teams are not able to extinguish these fires, being deliberately targeted by Turkish occupation.
The citizen Aboud al-Mizar, a resident of Sheikh Ali village, said, “We planted crops but have been burned by the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries, adding that” all civilian lands were burned in the area, and they were not spared from Turkish occupation’s mercenaries. ” And he added” Turkey’s gangs is close of us just 1 km, so we could not extinguish the fires that devoured our crops in the front of our eyes because we are being exposed to shells of the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries.
The goal is to displace the population and change demographically
In the same context, Ahmed al-Wajry, a resident of the village of Qabur al-Qarajneh, said, “On Sunday, mercenaries burned our agricultural crops and those of our neighboring villages.” Pointing out that “the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries aim, by setting fire to agricultural crops, to displace the people from those villages in order to occupy them and change their demography.”
The occupation targets the firefighting teams
“During the fire, the firefighting teams went to extinguish the fire, but they were targeted by mercenaries to prevent them from extinguishing the fires,” al-Wajry added.
He added, “The people of the region depend mainly on agriculture and the care of livestock and mercenaries who have burned their agricultural crops,” calling on “international bodies concerned to stop violations of the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries and to compensate and support the people.”
In turn, the administrator of the Mechaninaries Department of People’s Municipality in Tel Tamer district, Mahmoud Daar, said that mercenaries are burning agricultural crops in the villages north and west of Tel Tamer district, and that they are as firefighting teams they cannot extinguish them because of their direct targeting by the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries.