Evaluation of the Central Asia international watercourses problem with respect to International Law

During the era of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Central Asian countries were governed from the centre in a planned economic and politic structure. All countries included in the union were structured to meet the needs of the Union. Some issues regarding the distribution of the resources found in the area arose among the Central Asian Republics, which gained their independency with the break-up of USSR in 1991. The most significant of these issues is the one regarding the using and sharing of water resources that gained importance as international watercourses after the break-up of the Union. Increasing need of Central Asian Republics for water, the using of water resources for non-navigational purposes, and the fact that water resources that these republics could use were located within the borders of other countries brought about the issue as to the using and sharing of water resources. In this thesis, the problem of using the international watercourses of Central Asia for non-transport purposes was tried to be solved by using the sources of international law. In this sense, in first part, the place of the term 'international watercourse' in international law was taken into consideration in the first place. Then, international laws, custom of international laws, basic principles regarding international watercourses, doctrines, and samples of court decisions which might form the basis of sorting out the issue of international watercourses were examined. In the second part, where the issue of the Central Asia international watercourse was taken into consideration in detail, information on international watercourses in the area was given, and the issue of water in terms of lower riparian and upper riparian countries, and the approaches of riparian countries to the issue in question were evaluated. The convention regarding the "Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses", signed by the United Nations in 1997, forming the base of this thesis, in this frame the issues of the Central Asian international watercourses was tried to be evaluated with respect to international law. Keywords: International Law, International Watercourses, Central Asia.