The risks of hydro-hegemony: Turkey’s environmental policies and shared water resources in the South Caucasus

Abstract

The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war intensified the debates about regional integration and political rivalries in the South Caucasus. In the changing geopolitical setting of the region, Turkey’s regional environmental policies contradict its cooperation-based and friendly relations with the regional states. Taking a recent hydropower development project in the Kura-Araks River basin initiated by the government of Turkey as a case study, this study reviews Turkey’s transboundary water management policies in the region in connection with its political ties with the regional countries. This article argues that Turkey uses its relative power in the regional hydropolitical relations by exploiting current and historical issue-linkages and benefit-sharing options, and that the intention to act like a hydro-hegemon in the South Caucasus will negatively impact Turkey’s position in intended regional cooperation schemes and long-established strategic partnerships with the regional countries, especially Azerbaijan and Georgia.