The Turkish government has in an apparent act of aggression, recently cut off the flow of the Euphrates River, threatening primarily Syria but also Iraq with a major water crisis that has dropped the water level in Lake Assad by about six meters. This development has left millions of Syrians without drinking water or electricity, and threatens Iraq with similar consequences.
Al - Akhbar.com reported that in so doing, the Turkish government violated international norms. A source for the publication warned that “a further drop of one additional meter would put the dam out of service.” Meanwhile, water supplies in auxiliary reservoirs are said to be close to being depleted and were expected to run out of water completely in a matter of hours.
According to Al-Akhbar sources, losing water supplies in the dam means that the silt in the lake will dry off which would pressure its structure, subjecting it to fissures and eventually total collapse – hence making it crucial to shut down the dam. However that action would only further aggravate the situation, hence alternatives such as activating dormant thermal plants are being considered although it seems certain that they would be inadequate to solve the problem, unless the Turkish government takes the decision to resume pumping Euphrates water.
That process, if resumed, would still take about a month to return water to its normal levels. In that period, the suffering of the people depending on these water supplies is expected to be severe.
What prompted the action by Turkey in the first place, against fellow Muslim nations? Al - Akhbar.com explains that this is a historical conflict. The Euphrates River has historically been at the center of a conflict between Turkey on the one hand and both Syria and Iraq on the other. Turkey insists on considering the Euphrates a “trans-boundary river” and not an “international river,” hence it is “not subject to international laws.”
In 1987, a temporary agreement between Syria and Turkey was signed to share the water supplies of the Euphrates during the period when the basin of the Ataturk Dam was being filled. In virtue of the agreement, Turkey pledged to provide an annual level of over 500 cubic meters of water a second on the Turkish-Syrian borders, until reaching a final agreement about sharing the water supplies of the river between the three countries. In 1994, Syria registered the agreement at the United Nations to guarantee the minimum amount of Iraq and Syria’s right to the water from the Euphrates River.
Apparently however it’s not only Turkey that has the “switch” to dry up the Euphrates: drought in Syria, and misuse of Euphrates waters in Iraq, are also considered to be significant factors that could dry up the Euphrates without Turkish intervention. This conclusion is not based on conjecture but historical proof: this actually did happen in July 2009 as reported by the New York Times.
These other contributory causes towards the drying up of the Euphrates were corroborated more recently. In February of 2013, PressTv.com in an article titled ‘Tigris and Euphrates basins drying up, study shows’ reported: “Scientists… found during a seven-year period beginning in 2003 that parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran along the Tigris and Euphrates river basins lost 117 million acre feet (144 cubic kilometers) of total stored freshwater,” NASA and the University of California, Irvine said in a joint press release. The researchers said about 60 percent of the loss is due to “pumping of groundwater from underground reservoirs.”
Jay Famiglietti, the principal investigator of the study and a hydrologist and professor at the University of California, Irvine, stated that the decline rate intensified especially after a drought in 2007: “The rate was especially striking after the 2007 drought. Meanwhile, demand for freshwater continues to rise, and the region does not coordinate its water management because of different interpretations of international laws.”
Daniel Pipes in his blog Daniel Pipes.org explains that Turkish government ability to completely stop Euphrates waters from leaving Turkey and flowing into Syria is a feat made possible by the enormous reservoir behind its Atatürk Dam.
What is significant about this is that Turkey could at will, use its technological control of the Atatürk Dam to quickly and easily dry up the flow of the Euphrates in order to achieve military advantages, such as allowing military troops and trucks to cross over the Euphrates on dry land. The Bible prophesied that in the last days, this would actually happen:
Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. (Revelation 9:13-16).
Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared (Revelation 16:12).
Revelation Now.net explained: “What is even more telling is the drying up of the river allows a mobile infantry the ability to march directly to Israel.” It follows that an enemy country of Israel like Turkey would for example be happy to assist and join the aggressor “King of the East” marching towards Israel by allowing them easy passage over dry Euphrates land with their troops and tanks.
So who are these “Kings of the East” spoken of in Revelations 16? Bible scholars seem to agree that this refers to modern day China. Revelations 9:16 talks of an army 200,000,000 strong: Only China is said to have the capacity to fulfill this quota in our generation and fulfill the scriptures as prophesied.
One such scholar, Dr. Couch in an article for Scofield Prophecy Studies expounds: “The Euphrates has always been seen as a geographical and political divide in the Middle East. Though it ran almost through the middle of ancient Babylon, it was seen as a barrier from forces that might descend upon the Middle East, Africa, or Eastern Europe, bringing the barbarian nations from the Far East.
One view is that this is a way of describing in the end times the movement of the forces of that region, i.e. all the Muslim nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Iraq who would conspire to come against Israel in the final days. But a more prominent view would say these "kings" are the heads of state for nations further to the East, India and/or China. India has never been an aggressor power that attempted to break out of the Indian Continent, though that is not impossible in an end time scenario.
But the more plausible answer would be that these kings represent China…This power from the East is probably this great force coming from China. While we want to be careful and avoid being dogmatic on this, all signs are leading to this as a possibility. Today, China could field an army of more than 300,000,000 men! She is now the leading producing nation even above both America and Japan. China's buildup of forces is taking place at an alarming rate. She is working toward a full submarine force and also desiring to build aircraft carriers that will give her complete mobility around the world.”
No matter how the Euphrates will dry up at the command of the angel pouring out the 6th vial, the “Kings of the East” are going to come across it. Yet again, we can see how the stage has finally been fully set for the fulfillment of the end-time Bible prophecies of Revelation 9 and 16, also referred to in Daniel 11:40-45.And as Jesus said: “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near (Luke 21:28).
Credit to prophecynewswatch.com
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