#turkey bombing kurds

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Bassam Tawil

"Turkey is bombing and massacring Kurds tonight. No protests, no marches, no media coverage, no condemnations from UN, no ICC arrest warrants for Erdogan. Since 1914 Turkey has killed over 1.5 million Kurds. Stop Kurdish genocide." — Hemdad Mehristani, researcher, X, October 23, 2024.

If Turkey has the right to respond to a terrorist attack by bombing dozens of targets belonging to Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria, why is Israel being condemned for responding to the October 7 Hamas-led atrocities against its own citizens? Just because of the "two-state solution": Michigan and Minnesota?

Not only is Erdogan lying when he accuses Israel of "genocide," but he is also proving that he is a big hypocrite. If he is really worried about the safety of the Muslims in the Gaza Strip, why does he continue to support Hamas, while denying Israel the right to defend itself against Islamist terrorism? If he believes that he has the right to bomb Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq, why is he denouncing Israel for taking the same action against Palestinian Islamist terrorists?

The complicit silence of the anti-Israel groups on US university campuses towards Turkey's crimes is simply evidence of a staggering racism and hypocrisy.

[feminariden]

Just some week ago i was talking about the SCV like "just because there was infighting and infiltration of radical islamist in the FSA doesn't mean that they deserved to lose the war against Assad" but now that the war restarted my first instinct was to think "ok THESE rebels are radical islamist and shouldn't win the war actually" which is pretty hypocrital now that I think about it

[dostoyevsky-official]

this thanksgiving, the only turkey you should be concerned about is the one that's a NATO state that's been bombing kurds into oblivion in syria and iraq and arming al qaeda jihadists like HTS to go after assad while no one is looking

[scottishcommune]

Emergency aid for Rojava!

Humanitarian aid for the victims of Turkey’s aggressions

Turkey has been bombing civilian infrastructure in Rojava (North and East Syria) since 4th of October 2023, and the region is heading for a humanitarian catastrophe. Turkey has bombed more than 150 targets so far: Much of the region's vital infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed in a matter of hours. Turkey’s attacks have so far caused dozens of civilian deaths and injuries and destroyed 80 per cent of civilian infrastructure, including water and power supplies, hospitals, residential areas, schools, oil fields, factories and warehouses. Hundreds of thousands of people have been cut off from electricity and water supplies for days now. The Covid hospital in Dêrik, one of the most important hospitals of its kind in the region, was completely destroyed by the Turkish air strikes. Numerous other health facilities have been destroyed, hospitals cut off from electricity, cold chains broken - there are calls for blood donations. As Turkey’s attacks continue, the humanitarian situation is expected to deteriorate further and the death toll to rise. The Kurdish Red Crescent (Heyva Sor a Kurd) is on the ground providing vital humanitarian assistance. Support the work of Heyva Sor a Kurd with your donations!

Bank account

Heyva Sor a Kurdistanê e. V.

Kreissparkasse Köln

IBAN: DE49 3705 0299 0004 0104 81

BIC/SWIFT: COKSDE33XXX

Reference: Rojava

PayPal: paypal.me/heyvasorakurdistane

*please note:

Due to an order from the ADD Rheinland-Pfalz, they are currently unable to accept donations from Rheinland-Pfalz.

Contact and further information:

www.heyvasor.com

E-Mail: heyvasor@web.de

Phone: +49 (0) 2241 975 25 83

Instagram: heyvasor

Twitter: @Heyva__Sor

Facebook: Heyva Sor a Kurdistanê e.V.

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

How did Bashar Assad get away with it? Simple: The world let him. It closed its eyes to his evil, preferring to focus on pet targets like . . . Israel. Those “enlightened” stooges setting up encampments on college campuses? They weren’t protesting Assad’s murder machine; they wanted to stop Israel. Democrats like President Biden, Veep Kamala Harris and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weren’t outraged by the long-running Assad death factory but by an imaginary “genocide” the Jewish state is supposedly waging against Palestinians. No, it didn’t start with them: Who can forget President Barack Obama’s “red line,” threatening a US military response if Assad deployed chemical weapons against his enemies? Yet when the Syrian Army fired missiles laced with sarin gas into neighborhoods controlled by the opposition, killing more than 1,400 civilians, Obama did . . . nothing. Actually, he and then-Secretary of State John Kerry invited in Vladimir Putin — asking Russia to help “resolve” the crisis (well, end Obama’s embarrassment) by coming in and saying it had collected Syria’s chems. Moscow had been pushed out of the Middle East decades before; now it became a key ally of Assad, and proceeded to back him mercilessly in the civil war, bombing civilians (especially hospitals) with abandon. With nary a peep on US campuses, nor at the United Nations, International Criminal Court and so on. Elsewhere in Syria, Ankara is even now masterminding a fresh assault on the Kurds — a completely stateless people who survive despite decades of oppression from the rulers not just of Turkey and Syria but also Iran, Iraq and even ISIS. Meanwhile, the sadistic Kim family in North Korea is notorious for slaughtering and starving to death millions; terrorists and despots have offed hundreds of thousands more in Africa and Asia. Still, the one nation sacrificing its soldiers to defeat Middle East savages — Israel — somehow winds up the one smeared in headlines by much of the left and at the UN and ICC as a “war criminal.” Assad’s mass graves are a reminder not just of he evil that still walks the world, but of the perverse hypocrisy of all the supposed moralizers waxing furious about a “genocide” that doesn’t exist.

The New York Post's apt response to the horrifying discovery of a mass grave with over 100 000 bodies in Syria. Read the full article here.

[eretzyisrael]

by Giulio Meotti

With Hague’s Court mandates to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant we are witnessing the collapse of the free world.

Hamas celebrates.

Iran rejoices.

Turkey is ready to do its part with Sultan Erdogan who always gets away with bombing Kurds, Armenians and other peoples sacrificed to his Ottoman expansionist aims.

The European Union, through the mouth of the useless Spanish socialist Josef Borrell, says it is faithful to international law.

China is tempted to celebrate, but cannot do so fully since it has not signed the Rome Statute on the Court of The Hague.

Donald Trump, who is putting together the most pro-Israel administration in American history, has already made it known that he will impose sanctions on the Hague Court.

Orban’s Hungary is the most pro-Israel. Orban also invited Netanyahu to Budapest.

Belgium, with its subjugation and Qatari penetration, is for arresting him (there is something rotten in Brussels).

Norway, with its progressive quislings, is the country with the fewest number of Jews in Europe and is the most pro-Hamas. The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide, is more pro-Hamas than the Arab countries and was photographed alongside the daughter of the Palestinian Arab terrorist involved in the Paris attack in which six people were killed at the Jewish restaurant Jo Goldenberg.

In Vichyist France, Islamogoscism will play its part.

Holland, with its pogroms, is for arresting Netanyahu. But Geert Wilders distances himself and writes: “The world has gone mad.”

Dhimmi-Labour England is for arresting the Israelis. London has enough problems with Islamists to alienate them even more. Not only because the Muslim population of the United Kingdom is growing ten times faster than the general population. Prime Minister Starmer also fears the rise of the “Communists for Islam” party led by Corbyn.

Social-communist-Eta Spain is for arresting Netanyahu. The Spanish left is with Cuba, Iran and Hamas.

Germany and Italy are taking their time.

The Canada of the super woke Trudeau wants to arrest Netanyahu (the Conservatives are against). In the streets of Canada, people are marching now shouting “Jihad Jihad Jihad”.

The Argentina of the heroic Javier Milei is with Israel. Afuera!

The Brazil of the communist Lula is for the arrest (when will Jair Bolsonaro return?).

The Colombia of the communist Gustavo Petro is for the arrest.

Chile too. “Forward to the Bolivarian revolution!”. This is how the young and woke Chilean president Gabriel Boric supported the regime of Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela. “I die as I lived... my respects, Commander”, wrote Boric upon the death of Fidel Castro. The same Boric who promised to “bury liberalism”. Like when he calls Greta Thunberg “the best thing that has happened in a long time.”

Everything is connected: wokists, socialists (welfarists are natural allies of Islamists), Peronists, multilateral sepulchres, radical ecologists, useful idiots of the BRICS.

And so in the end, what the mainstream media calls the “populist international” (Milei, Wilders, Trump, Orban etc) in the end turns out to be the last political trench in defense of a people who refuse to be subjugated by Islamic terrorism and the alliance between Eurabia, communist remnants and satrapies. And the Western dhimmis who fall to their knees.

[girlactionfigure]

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

🔥CEASEFIRE EVENTS..

.. DRONE ALERT last evening - a Hezbollah drone flew the border, trying to draw IDF reaction.  It did not attack.

.. ROCKET ALERT early this morning in a northern town - was set off by IDF forces use of an illumination flare on the border.  Not a rocket.

.. Reuters: Hezbollah lost more than 4,000 of its men in the war - more than 10 times its losses in the Second Lebanon war - but far less than Hamas.  This does not include the thousands injured and maimed by the pager and portable radio attack.

.. Lebanese sources: Most of the Lebanon-Syria border crossings attacked by Israel have been repaired.

.. Arab source: In the document concluded by Israel and the USA there are secret clauses related to Iran and this is what made the ceasefire in Lebanon possible.

🔹SYRIA CHAOS.. fleeing Hezbollah left piles of weapons behind in Syria, with multiple Iraqi and Afghan militias supported by Iran taking over their positions. Opposition groups which include ISIS and Kurds (not together) are attacking.  The Syrian Army backed by Russia air power is attacking everyone.  Turkey will likely join, attacking the Kurds.  Israel is NOT INVOLVED.

.. Today Russian Air Force jets began bombing villages that the rebels captured yesterday west of Aleppo.

🔹JUST FOR CONTEXT - SYRIA.. Last night the Syrian Assad regime attacked a school in the city of Yereko  in southern Idlib with heavy artillery.  Several children were killed and dozens injured on the spot.  Awaiting the UN condemnation, the EU threats, and the ICC warrants.  And see the next item below.

🔸HAMAS HOSTAGE DEAL NEWS.. A delegation of the Egyptian intelligence will visit Israel today as part of the ceasefire talks in Gaza per Lebanese media.

▪️PM COURT CASE.. Netanyahu is asking the court to hold a hearing regarding his security arrangements during his testimony. In addition, he requested that by Monday the Shin Bet and the court administration present to the judges the details of the security arrangements.  One of the issues is not only the security nor the time of the beginning of the testimony, but the pace:  A prime minister who testifies three times a week six hours a day is a reality-changing event.  A prime minister who testifies once a week for three hours, another story.

▪️SOCIETAL CONFLICT OR CHANGING PRIORITIES.. the coalition passed the first reading of a new law mandating the privatization of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation within two years, closing down the public funded broadcasting which includes Kaan news and Reshet Bet radio. If a buyer cannot be found in two years, the broadcaster will be shuttered completely and its intellectual property will revert to the government.

.. “bill’s explanatory notes say ‘the broadcaster’s current output does not justify its “extremely high” government budget and that the move is necessary to “increase competition” in the media market.’

.. The Attorney General’s Office strongly disagreed expressing concern given how many Israelis get their news through television, closing the public broadcasting corporation would minimize sources of news free from external influences and criticism of the government or broadcast of content that is not favorable to the government may lead to measures against private media.

.. The reverse site notes Israel no longer has any shortage of broadcast channels, TV, cable, satellite, and internet access, should not be spending tax shekels to fund a particular channel, puts the multiple private channels at a disadvantage competing against govt. money, and while the Attorney General states they are “free from external influence” - WHO WATCHES THE WATCHERS?  

♦️GAZA - heavy IDF air strikes this morning in the north of Nuseirat, north Gaza.

[m0rtimer3]

Syria is a total mess. The government collapsed, no one’s paying the army, cops, or officials. So, who’s in charge, and who do people pay taxes to?

Israel’s bombing near Damascus. Turkish-backed forces are near Aleppo. Turkey’s helping the Turkmen. The Kurds took over Raqqa but are fighting Turkey’s guys. The U.S., Russia, and Turkey might back the Alawites in Latakia and Tartus, but the rest of Syria is just non-stop war.

Some guy banned weapon exports, but everyone’s laughing at it. The next six months are gonna be hell.

[anarchotahdigism]

HST is apparently mandating hijab in Damascus & requiring women to have men escorting them

HST won't empty their prisons either

HST's SNA allies are attacking Kurds as Turkey bombs them

All while the Zionist occupation invades

Fucking nightmarish

ppl were so quick to say that it's fine that HST is former IS/AQ

[honey-whiskey-666]

excuse me but where was the world community when turkey bombed southeast turkey the last few years and killed a lot of kurds? where was the world community when turkey bombed hospitals and schools in rojava and killed children and old people? where was the world community when turkey bombed iraq and syria and killed people and left the rest with no electricity and water? where was the world community when turkey bombed refugee camps in iraq and syria and killed people? where was the world community when azerbaijan attacked and invaded artsakh and people had to flee and leave their homes? tell me where was the world community, especially the muslim community? 80% of the kurds are muslims, so where is the support??

[dolcettamagica]

do you mind sharing some resources or giving some info that could help teach about what's going on in Kurdistan?

OF COURSE OMG

kurdistan’s timeline

more in depth history

kurdish genocides

another source to genocides

and again…

kurdish groups (pkk, ypg, ypj) saving us from isis

abdullah öcalan’s take on women’s rights

so, first you have the understand that kurdistan has been colonized by four countries: turkey, iran, iraq, syria. iraq and syria gave the kurds autonomous regions (which is the bare minimum). rojava is the syrian occupied kurdistan and bashur the iraqi occupied kurdistan.

those four countries did (and do) the same disgusting shit israhell has been doing to palestine, since 1923: prohibited the language, the national colors (turkey has prohibited new adidas shoes a few days bc they have red, green and yellow😭), raped women and kids, use illegal chemical weapons (the last time? two years ago), deporte them, genocides, even cutting off olive tress of kurds and so on.

iran hates the kurds with a burning passion, especially bc jin, jiyan, azadi was started by the kurdish freedom movement (pkk) centuries ago.

the most hate tolds the turkish regime. turkey’s crimes against kurds are ENDLESS. the worst being the dersim massacre. turkey also collaborated with ISIS to kill kurds in rojava. at the beginning of last october erdogan started to bomb rojava again!, citizens and even mosques. if you want all the crimes turkey has done to kurde you should ask for an extra ask cause turkey is the absolute worst.

the best news site regarding kurdistan is anf

you can also follow @/newsfromkurdistan on instagram.

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

Project2025 #CorpMedia #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #NoDAPL #BLM #SDF #DACA #MeToo #Humanity #FeelTheBern

JinJiyanAzadi #BijiRojava ISIS and pro-Turkey faction step up assassinations in Syria [UPDATE]

The Rojava Information Center said that April saw a 16 percent decrease in “sleeper cell” attacks while SDF and coalition raids increased by 100 percent, adding that deaths among Kurdish “self-administration members” rose by 21 percent this month, 41 percent of which were due to assassinations...

RELATED UPDATE: ISIS Attacks in Syria are Increasing: NATO Turkey Bombs SDF (Kurds)

RELATED UPDATE: Syria and Turkey could be headed for new era of ties

RELATED UPDATE: Hundreds of French protest in support of 'Jin, Jiyan, Azadî' uprising

RELATED UPDATE: Pakhsan Azizi: The philosophy of ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’ is a philosophy of life

RELATED UPDATE: Afrin Liberation Forces pay tribute to their co-founder Karker Tolhildan

RELATED UPDATE: HPG pays tribute to guerrillas Rênas Civyan, Hogir Botan and Berxwedan Goyî

RELATED UPDATE: FBI probe reveals Turkey as key conduit for ISIS cryptocurrency funding

RELATED UPDATE: Turkish gov’t leveraged bribes to New York mayor to undermine Erdogan’s opponents

FURTHER READING:

[generallemarc]

Syria news update

I'll be following this obsessively, so I may as well provide some info to anyone interested. An article published by Politico at about 1:30 EST(or last updated at that time, it could be either) claims that the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS forces now control around half of Aleppo. For any who don't know, these guys had been contained within part of the Idlib governorate since around 2020, and despite being theocratic terrorists who used to be a branch of al-Qaeda, their part of Idlib nearly doubled in population from around 4 million to around 8 million from refugees fleeing the Assad regime. Assad's forces, backed up by Iranian advisors and militias along with Russian drones and the occasional Russian airstrike had been waging a low-level campaign of bombings and artillery strikes against the rebels for months now, but they've melted in the face of this new advance.

There also seems to be some clashes between the remnants of the Syrian National Army(who control a small portion of the north of the country and are now backed by Turkey, who has troops in parts of the SNA's territory) and the Syrian government forces, with reports of an airstrike on an SNA base that could only have come from either the Syrian government or Russia. There are reports of the SNA having captured multiple villages and towns, though not nearly as many as the jihadis, since the SNA is, to borrow a nerd phrase, likely just making attacks of opportunity to capitalized on the Syrian government's weakness, as opposed to the jihadis who were likely planning and amassing forces for months.

The SDF has an enclave in Aleppo that was previously a majority-Kurdish neighborhood before the war, and they are confirmed to be sending reinforcements there. They had to go through government controlled territory to get there, but there's been some limited co-operation between the SDF and Syrian government in the past involving enclaves in each other's territory, and anyways it's not like the Syrian government has the werewithal to do anything about this even if they wanted to. There are reports of some clashes between the SDF and jihadis, but given how little territory the SDF controls in that region(outside of Aleppo they have another, larger enclave, but it's still pretty small compared to the other factions' territory and their own primary territory in the east) I don't know how much of a factor they'll be.

There's already been at least one high-ranking Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps advisor killed, and while Russia's ground forces have been hauling ass out of the region at least one drone operating team got caught, with some members confirmed killed via video and the rest either captured or executed. Given that there have been multiple confirmed instances of HTS using armored vehicles as suicide-car-bombs, I think we can safely assume that the laws of war aren't something they care about, with that likely being as true for the Syrian government. There are no real "good" factions here, but the SNA and Kurds are at the very least less bad than either Assad's despotic tyranny or HTS's theocratic extremism. But since the latter two are the main combatants, this is primarily a red-on-red campaign, with the factions backed by Turkey and the West for the moment seeming to be focused more on making short-term gains and/or protecting what they've already got from being overrun. I'll try and post more as more information becomes available.

EDIT: Update-the SDF appears to be seizing territory west of Aleppo. If I had to make an uneducated guess, I'd say they're trying to create a connection between their enclave in Aleppo and either their larger enclave in the north or their main body of territory in the east, and/or to capture any towns that are majority-Kurdish to protect them from the other factions.

[landbacktoindigenouspeople]

This is reply to @palestineforlife in a little better format. First of all, thank you for responding respectfully! As I mentioned earlier, I reviewed your link, and I have to ask: are you aware of how much misinformation and propaganda are circulating right now? There’s a huge amount, and anything you see online needs to be critically analyzed before accepting it as truth.

For example, the video link you shared raises questions. It’s incredibly easy for someone to manipulate emotions by staging something like filling aid bags with sand and claiming they’re evidence of suffering caused by the Jews. There tons of aid going to Gaza. In just the previous week, from 8-14 of December, there was 14,051 tons of aid delivered. Every aid shipment is documented by its origin and the route into Gaza (I.e. aerial route, maritime, via Jordanian route, Kerem Shalom, etc). Are you suggesting that they empty these 14 000 TONS, that's 655 truckloads of aid in a span of a single week (check out how much there has been in a month) and fill them in with... sand? Or just some? Where does the actual aid go, the supplies you think are being switched to... sand,because that's a lot of stuff what you don't need and warehousing that is ging to be hell. That is all something you cannot really do... very covertly, so maybe that video seems a littl suspicious to me.

Given the prevalence of propaganda designed to play on emotions, it’s worth asking: why and how would Israel even benefit from such actions? Civilian deaths in Gaza are a PR disaster for Israel. That’s why Israel often goes to great lengths to avoid them, even at the risk of their own soldiers. Israel delayed its ground operations in Gaza to minimize civilian casualties. It knows civilian deaths would only fuel anti-Semitism, something already pervasive worldwide.

Israel has invested significant resources into providing Palestinians with basic necessities, including medical treatment in Israeli hospitals. Meanwhile, Gazan leaders divert funds toward personal luxuries, terror tunnels, and weapons rather than their citizens’ welfare. Does it make sense for Israel to starve people it has spent so much money and effort to assist (and treat in their hospitals etc.), knowing it would only worsen its image globally? The idea doesn’t hold up without solid evidence.

Additionally, there’s documented evidence of Hamas exploiting aid. No one likes to actually mention the word Palestinian terrorists or Hamas stealing the aid, but it happens. For instance, they’ve been caught stealing humanitarian aid meant for Gazans and even killing civilians trying to access it. Here’s one report: NY Post article. WCK is thus far the only aid organization who doesn't seem to cover up that they employees are/were Hamas but instead took action.

It’s also worth addressing the double standards. If you’re concerned about Palestinians suffering in Gaza, why hasn’t there been similar outrage over Palestinians being starved and brutally treated in Syria? (granted, the man from the video could and most likely has some medical condition but... you also know they are starved and abused in Syria) Syrian forces have killed Palestinians with brutal chemical weapons, and Bashar al-Assad has been welcomed back into the Arab League despite atrocities. Because killing half a million of their own citizens and bombing tens of thousands of Palestinians is acceptable if you are an Arab. Amnesty International and the ICC barely address these issues. Why? Because it doesn’t involve Jews, it seems to be ignored. Not a single arrest warrant unless your are a minory defending your rights to exist (take a look at how the Kurds are treated in Syria, how Turkey is killing them there but sush, it's an open secret). I look at your links, I ask for you to please look at mine.

Finally, if you want to discuss Apartheid, hatred or discriminatory treatment, it’s worth reflecting on how some narratives of victimhood and blame may themselves be steeped in propaganda. There are examples, even from Palestinians themselves, that confirm the validity of these claims. You could talk about Apartheid, how some people are dirty and unfit to be buried on Muslim land (again... Muslim lands because Muslims like the Palestinians violently conquered the region and Jews were either violently oppressed or driven off. Is this propaganda?

Maybe. You just see it a lot, some of it even posted by Palestinians themselves, so you decide.

But before you decide, please check out people like Tal Oran (his instagram), Rawan Osman (she's Syrian- Lebanese Arab and tells you how she was teached to hate Jews and she grew up in a very secular household), she is not the only one, antisemitisms is unhinged levels! and it has always existed in the Middle East. Check out Luai's vids, he's an Yemeni arab who was taught to hate the Jews and Israel. or Tmasundin, Israeli Arab Bedouin, who disagree that there's an "apartheid" (he's not the only one, talk to Israeli arabs, everyone is of couse allowed their own opinion and there is going to be all shades between love and hate). Or Mansor Ashkar who is a Druze and talks about Druze in Israel, also visited the sate of the nation episode. I cannot recommend enough to try to listen as many people as possible. People are of course biased but the more you listen to different viewpoints, the more you start to realise how complex everything is. Tldr: Arabs could have had a second Arab nation in Palestine (Jordan is 60%-75% Palestinian) but they have rejected the thought several times. I'm starting to think there's a reason for it and it's not pretty. Actual minorities in the Middle East (oppressed by islamists/radical muslims) would accept a land for themselves with celebrations. Ask yourself why the Palestinians have refused several times.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Water is essential for all life on Earth. But one-third of the world’s population do not have access to a supply of safe drinking water (a situation that is worsening). A third of all deaths in the world are the results of water-borne diseases. Water is a limited but endlessly renewed resource; its pollution, mismanagement and overuse by corporations, governments and people (turned into ‘consumers’ in a world that is not of their making) threaten to turn a global crisis into a long-term planetary disaster. The Vice-President of the World Bank, Ismail Seregeldin, stated in 1995 that “the wars of the next century will be over water… by the year 2025, the amount of water available to each person in the Middle East and North Africa will have dropped by 80% in a single lifetime”.

Disputes and Wars

40% of the world’s population depend on water from a neighbouring country. Over 200 large rivers are shared by two or more countries. In modern times the existence of vast cities, irrigated agriculture and the demand for hydro-electric power have led countries to claim or steal water resources once used by others. The cutting up of river systems by state boundaries has aggravated the problems of responding to floods. The political and engineering structures that bring economic power and political control to national and international elites also threaten lives and livelihoods. One reason for Turkey’s refusal to grant autonomy to the Kurds is the importance of water resources in eastern Turkey. Attempts to divert the sources of the River Jordan in South Lebanon and the Golan Heights provoked the Israeli-Arab War of 1967. Following this, Israel began to appropriate water supplies to support new settlements and supply towns and industry in Israel proper: Israel annually pumps 600 million cubic metres of water (over 30% of its supply) from aquifers that lie wholly or partly under the West Bank. 115 million cubic metres are allocated to the 1.4m West Bank Palestinians and 30m to 130,000 Jewish settlers; the rest (455 million cubic metres) goes to Israel. West Bank Palestinians have been barred from digging new wells or renovating old ones since 1967. Egypt offered Israel 400m cubic metres of fresh water a year to settle its conflict and assist the Palestinians; but there is still no agreement over water for the West Bank. There is a continuous threat of water wars in South Asia between India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Large-scale deforestation upstream results in increasingly widespread flood disasters below. Punjab water was an important contributory factor to the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war. Hindu nationalism has been fuelled by the unfair distribution of India’s water to the Sikh Punjab and led to the storming of the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984.

Modern wars depend on the destruction of the civilian population’s means of life and livelihood. In 1991 in Iraq, for example, the deliberate destruction of power supplies by bombing and war created a huge health problem. Over 90% of sewage treatment plants were disabled with huge amounts of untreated domestic and industrial sewage being pumped into rivers, creating an increase in water-borne diseases. Agricultural production was slashed by the breakdown of the electrically powered irrigation network. Before the Gulf War Iraq produced 30% of its food. Prior to the US-UK assault on Iraq in 2003, the figure was 10–15%.