My research topic is about the water crisis and conflicts in the Middle East. Before starting the research, I already knew that Turkey and Syria are damming the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers; both rivers run through Iraq. I was assuming that by damming the rivers, Turkey and Syria were trying to store up enough water supplies for their agricultures. Another one of my assumptions was that by damming the river, the amount of water for Iraq will be reduced and therefore, conflicts will occur between countries over the distribution of water. Summarizing what I already knew and what I assumed, I came up with my research questions of what I wanted to find out about the water dispute in the Middle East. The research questions are, which country do the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers belong to and what have the countries done to resolve the conflicts on water resources?
Conclusion:
During the research process, I looked for information on both the water conflicts that were taking place in the Middle East and possible solutions or attempts of resolving the problems. From the five sources that I have found, there were information on the causes of water shortage, consequences of water shortage (conflicts), distributions and contributions of water from the three countries, attempts to resolve conflicts and obstacles faced during the process of distribution. From the information I found, I was able to answer the two questions that I had. My first question, which country does the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers belong to? The answer to this question is that, the rivers do not belong to any countries they are international rivers. This means that the rivers are equally divided into parts by the international water law for their surrounding countries. My second research question is, what have the countries done to resolve or reduce conflicts on water resources? Although the international law may seem like a solution to the distribution problem of the water resources, it is not. In the case of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, the international law acts as a basis for the countries’ discussions but it does not help distribute the rivers. This is because Turkey, Syria, and Iraq were not satisfied with how the rivers were divided according to the international law. There were many meetings held for the three countries to resolve the problem of distribution but, there still does not seem to be a clear conclusion which all countries can agree on. Although the conflicts over water distribution in the Middle East have occurred many times during the past 50 years, there is likely to be a change soon in the future, with the change of governance in Iraq.
At present, there is an eight meter high and 670 kilometer length concrete wall built around the territory of West Bank, next to the country of Israel. Also, the wall consists of watchtowers and 2 meter deep ditch next to the walls. This structure began to be constructed on June 2002 and will probably fully finish around the year 2010. When the idea first came out, it made quite a dispute.The barrier’s purpose is to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from entering and attacking innocent civilians.
The Golan Heights is a mountainous region that lies within the border of three different countries in the Middle East, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. The term, Golan Heights, came from both the geographic and political aspects of the region. The geographic aspect refers to the Golan plateau, which contains an area of 1800 square kilometers. The political aspect refers to an area of disputed sovereignty, currently controlled by Israel. Although the Golan Heights is currently a territory occupied by Israel, it was once a Syrian territory. The Golan Heights was a Syrian territory from 1944 until June 1967, when Israel captured the area during the Six-Day War. The territory remained under the control of Israel, however, parts of the Golan Heights were returned to Syria in 1981, after the Yom Kippur War. Conflicts over the Golan Heights still occur today between Syria and Israel.
Current Status:
Although the Golan Heights was used for military purposes before Israel took over, Golan Heights is currently one of the favorite places for tourists of the Middle East. Due to the level of elevation, Golan Heights has the only ski resort in Israel. The Golan Heights also provides 15% of water for Israel. The Golan Heights also has its own national park called, the Banias National Park. The well maintained park follows along the Banias stream, and includes some easy and fairly short hiking courses that include old watermills and the ruins of temples.
After the oil conflicts in the Middle East, politicians predict that the next war that will occur
What are some possible solutions to this situation in the Middle East?
in the Middle East is most likely a “water war”. Although countries in the Middle East have a sufficient amount of oil, they are suffering from the lack of water supplies. Nations with the highest birth-rates in the world, including Turkey and Oman, are worried about how to find water sources that are sustainable for the urban growth. Rivers in the Middle East are often shared between four to five countries, and these rivers have an average renewal rate of between 18 days to three months. Conflicts often occur between countries over the control of the water sources, leading to unpleasant relationships between countries.
Perception: “Arab” and “Muslim” refer to the same people.
Truth: Arabs are people who speak Arabic as a native language and identify themselves as Arabs; Muslims are those who practice the religion of Islam.
Nowadays, many people believe that Muslims are the same as Arabs. However, the truth is that only 15 percent to 20 percent of the Muslims are Arabs. Most of the Muslims live outside the Middle East, in countries in Southeast Asia. Another reason that a lot of people are confused distinguishing Arabs from Muslims is that Muslims are required to know a few Arabic phrases in order to understand the Koran. Therefore, many people think that both groups speak the same language, but Arabic does not have to be the primary language for Muslims.
Why do you think people often have this misperception?
Queen of Jordan comments on Muslim stereotype [video from Youtube]
We have thoroughly read the scoring rubric for our blog and we think that the scoring rubric works great as a guide which help us organize our blog. Firstly, In the Ideas and content category, we can see that it is important to connect what we have learned in class to other topics and reflect our thoughts. Also we learned that it is important to research events or things that we didn’t learn in class. Our another opinion about the blog scorig rubric is that the posting frequency is too high in order to get higher grades.We think it should be lowered to 2 or 3 posts per week instead. Finally, we are planning to go on to some other blogs and try commenting on their posts with our ideas and suggestions as it says on the rubric.
