Akademik

   In sharp contrast to most of the Middle East, Kurdistan is blessed with water. Both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers rise in the Kurdish areas of Turkey before flowing south into Syria and Iraq.

   In recent years, Turkey has sought to harness this enormous resource by building an ambitious series of dams. The resulting Guneydogu Anadolu Projesi (GAP), or Southeast Anatolia Project, has led to bitter quarrels with Syria and Iraq and was probably one of the main reasons Syria provided sanctuary for Abdullah Ocalan and his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) until October 1998. The dams have also flooded important Kurdish archeological sites or may do so, as with the proposed Ilisu Dam at Hasankeyf. This has created much ill will among many Kurds and concerned foreigners.

   Three large dams also exist in Iraqi Kurdistan: Bekhma on the Greater Zab, Dukan on the Lesser Zab, and Darbandikhan on the Sirwan and Diyala. In addition to these rivers, strong springs also exist in many areas of Kurdistan. Numerous Kurdish towns and villages attest to this fact by having the prefix Sarab or Kani (meaning "spring") before their names.

   In the coming years these water resources can only become more important. Along with the oil resources, which are prevalent around the Iraqi Kurdish city of Kirkuk, water will make Kurdistan economically as well as politically important.