Turkey Weaponizes, Then Restores, Water
03/28/2020 Syria (International Christian Concern) – Nearly a week after Turkish sponsored armed groups cut the water supply for 460,000 people living in Syria’s Hasakah province, the supply has been restored. This restoration comes with the demand that Turkey receives 30-50% of the Mabrouka station’s total electrical output, according to the Rojava Information Center.
This is part of a broader trend of Turkey forcing demographic change in an area that became ethnically and religiously diverse from refugees fleeing the Ottoman-era genocide. Hasakah has since contained heavy clusters of Christians whose ancestors survived this genocide, and while several residents have fled because of the Syrian conflict, those who remain have expressed significant concern about Turkey’s activities in this area.
Turkey began a military operation into NE Syria last October, and heavily relies upon sponsored armed groups that often includes overlap with terrorists such as ISIS or HTS. The immediate aftermath of the invasion was a mass displacement of several minority groups. Since then, Turkey has taken several steps with the intention of forcing demographic change in this area.
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