Water is a strategic natural resource of vital importance to all nations. As such it has been the cause of several international disputes. For Turkey especially, water is crucial to social and economic development. Turkey’s current national water regime that emphasises water resources development and management for productive uses, however, faces growing environmental concerns and international criticism regarding transboundary water cooperation. Furthermore, EU accession requires Turkey to adopt an extensive and ambitious body of EU water law. To understand Turkey’s position to international water law, the national policies and socio-economic circumstances that impact water resources management need to be considered. This book fills the existing knowledge gap through a broad perspective and analysis of the current state of Turkey’s water policy and its management of both national and transboundary waters. It is a unique undertaking that brings together Turkish and international authors, practitioners and academics, covering all aspects of water management

Water is a strategic natural resource of vital importance to all nations. As such it has been the cause of several international disputes. For Turkey especially, water is crucial to social and economic development. Turkey’s current national water regime that emphasises water resources development and management for productive uses, however, faces growing environmental concerns and international criticism regarding transboundary water cooperation. Furthermore, EU accession requires Turkey to adopt an extensive and ambitious body of EU water law. To understand Turkey’s position to international water law, the national policies and socio-economic circumstances that impact water resources management need to be considered. This book fills the existing knowledge gap through a broad perspective and analysis of the current state of Turkey’s water policy and its management of both national and transboundary waters. It is a unique undertaking that brings together Turkish and international authors, practitioners and academics, covering all aspects of water management

As Turkey approaches EU membership it faces the challenge of implementing the requirements of the WFD by the date of its accession to the union, something that will require major structural change and financial investment. Water and Politics in Turkey provides a comprehensive, detailed and authoritative examination of all aspects water management and water resources in Turkey, from evaluation of existing institutions and practices to assessing the difficulties inherent in the enormous changes that must be implemented as Turkey prepares for EU membership. It will be essential reading for water professionals, policy makers, environmentalists, and all those with an interest in Turkey the workings of the European Union.

'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.

This book presents an analysis of the main traits of the Turkish political culture and articulates some of the most important deeply embedded social qualifications of political life in Turkey. It reveals that when water management is historically and socially shaped by heavily technical knowledge systems of engineering it becomes a particularly useful tool for various political interests. The book analyses how Turkish freshwater management is socially constructed as both an engineering discourse and a paternalistic bureaucratic transaction. Such a construction stands in stark contrast to the water management discourse of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD), the European Union’s common water policy. Of all the issues faced in Turkish water management, none are as important and problematic as the issue of complying with European Union (EU) accession criteria. Not only is water socially, economically and environmentally important; its water management is a useful prism through which the EU accession process can be viewed as a whole. It showcases the complementarities and divergences between Turkish and EU bureaucratic constructs and value systems.