Editing Euphrates (section)

=== Modern era ===
{{See also|Water politics in the Middle East}}
[[File:Baghdad Railway Euphrates wooden bridge.jpg|thumb|right|Wooden bridge carrying the [[Baghdad Railway]] over the Euphrates, {{Circa|1900}}–1910|alt=Refer to caption]]
After [[World War I]], the borders in Southwest Asia were redrawn in the [[Treaty of Lausanne (1923)]], when the [[Ottoman Empire]] was [[partitioning of the Ottoman Empire|partitioned]]. Clause 109 of the treaty stipulated that the three riparian states of the Euphrates (at that time Turkey, [[France]] for its [[French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|Syrian mandate]] and the [[United Kingdom]] for its [[British Mandate of Mesopotamia|mandate of Iraq]]) had to reach a mutual agreement on the use of its water and on the construction of any hydraulic installation.<ref>{{citation |url=http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Treaty_of_Lausanne |title=Treaty of peace with Turkey signed at Lausanne |publisher=World War I Document Archive |access-date=19 December 2010 |archive-date=12 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130112221242/http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Treaty_of_Lausanne |url-status=live }}</ref> An agreement between Turkey and Iraq signed in 1946 required Turkey to report to Iraq on any hydraulic changes it made on the Tigris–Euphrates river system, and allowed Iraq to construct dams on Turkish territory to manage the flow of the Euphrates.<ref name=geopolicity1112>{{harvnb|Geopolicity|2010|pp=11–12}}</ref>

[[File:Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Iraq (1921–1958).svg|thumb|left|upright|Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Iraq 1932–1959 depicting the two rivers, the confluence Shatt al-Arab and the date palm forest, which used to be the largest in the world]]
The river featured on the [[coat of arms of Iraq]] from 1932 to 1959.
[[File:Euphrates River (1).JPG|thumb|Euphrates near [[Kahta]]]]

Turkey and Syria completed their first dams on the Euphrates – the Keban Dam and the Tabqa Dam, respectively – within one year of each other and filling of the reservoirs commenced in 1975. At the same time, the area was hit by severe drought and river flow toward Iraq was reduced from {{convert|15.3|km3}} in 1973 to {{convert|9.4|km3}} in 1975. This led to an international crisis during which Iraq threatened to bomb the Tabqa Dam. An agreement was eventually reached between Syria and Iraq after intervention by Saudi Arabia and the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name=shapland117118>{{harvnb|Shapland|1997|pp=117–118}}</ref><ref name=kaya>{{harvnb|Kaya|1998}}</ref> A similar crisis, although not escalating to the point of military threats, occurred in 1981 when the Keban Dam reservoir had to be refilled after it had been almost emptied to temporarily increase Turkey's hydroelectricity production.<ref name=kolars49>{{harvnb|Kolars|1994|p=49}}</ref> In 1984, Turkey unilaterally declared that it would ensure a flow of at least {{convert|500|m3}} per second, or {{convert|16|km3}} per year, into Syria, and in 1987 a bilateral treaty to that effect was signed between the two countries.<ref name=daoudy169-170>{{harvnb|Daoudy|2005|pp=169–170}}</ref> Another bilateral agreement from 1989 between Syria and Iraq settles the amount of water flowing into Iraq at 60 percent of the amount that Syria receives from Turkey.<ref name=geopolicity1112/><ref name=kaya/><ref name=daoudy1720>{{harvnb|Daoudy|2005|pp=172}}</ref> In 2008, Turkey, Syria and Iraq instigated the Joint Trilateral Committee (JTC) on the management of the water in the Tigris–Euphrates basin and on 3 September 2009 a further agreement was signed to this effect.<ref name=geopolicity16>{{harvnb|Geopolicity|2010|p=16}}</ref>
On 15 April 2014, Turkey began to reduce the flow of the Euphrates into Syria and Iraq. The flow was cut off completely on 16 May 2014 resulting in the Euphrates terminating at the Turkish–Syrian border.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/19970|title=A new Turkish aggression against Syria: Ankara suspends pumping Euphrates' water|work=[[Al Akhbar (Lebanon)|Al Akhbar]]|date=30 May 2014|first=Suhaib|last=Anjarini|access-date=20 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616180412/https://english.al-akhbar.com/node/19970|archive-date=16 June 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> This was in violation of an agreement reached in 1987 in which Turkey committed to releasing a minimum of {{convert|500|m3}} of water per second at the Turkish–Syrian border.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuCd0blQ2V0| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/wuCd0blQ2V0| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|title=Eupherates of Syria Cut Off by Turkey|date=30 May 2014|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

[[File:Euphrates River.jpg|thumb|Euphrates in Iraq, 2005]]During the [[Syrian civil war]] and the [[Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)|Iraqi Civil War]], much of the Euphrates was controlled by the [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|Islamic State]] from 2014 until 2017, when the terrorist group began losing land and was eventually defeated territorially in [[Syria]] at the [[Battle of Baghuz Fawqani|Battle of Baghouz]] and in Iraq in the [[2017 Western Iraq campaign|Western Iraq offensive]] respectively.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pearce |first=Fred |date=2014-08-25 |title=Mideast Water Wars: In Iraq, A Battle for Control of Water |url=https://e360.yale.edu/features/mideast_water_wars_in_iraq_a_battle_for_control_of_water |url-status=live |access-date=7 February 2020 |website=Yale E360 |language=en-US |archive-date=26 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190926122552/https://e360.yale.edu/features/mideast_water_wars_in_iraq_a_battle_for_control_of_water }}</ref>