Turkey’s Water Diplomacy

Book excerpt: ‘Turkey’s Water Diplomacy’ delineates the institutional and legal foundations of transboundary water policy-making in Turkey, paying special attention to the evolution of transboundary water politics in the Euphrates–Tigris river basin. The book also analyses how Turkey’s harmonization with the European Union has impacted the transboundary water policy discourses and practices, and how these changes have been reflected in its relations with its Middle Eastern neighbours. Turkey was one of the three countries that rejected the UN Watercourses Convention in 1997. Yet, since the voting of the convention there have been changes in Turkey’s stance vis-à- vis international water law, which the book studies. Turkey’s water diplomacy embodies complex water management problems, which can be best understood as a product of competition, feedback and interconnection among natural and societal variables in a political context. Hence, the book adopts the Water Diplomacy Framework with its key elements in making policy-relevant recommendations specifically for Turkey’s water diplomacy.