What if the Soviet connected the Caspian sea to the Persian Sea by flooding the Ararat Plain?

What if the following depression was flooded by building a dam to block the Aras river?

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Geographically the aras river flow trought a 10 km wide choke point.
You can use the mountains and build a series of 2 km, 1 km, 2 km and 1 km dam to cut the flow of water and create a lake.
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There is almost no reason to do that instead of a canal, but let say that Stalin decide to create this giant lake during/after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran because he made a agreement with the Iraqi government to irrigate Iraq in exchange of connecting the Caspian sea with Persian sea by using the Tigris and providing food.
So what would be the climatic impact and geopolitical impact?

Pro:
  • A shipping route that isn't controled by NATO, isn't frozen in winter or isn't throught siberia assuming that Iraq is allied
  • Crop irrigation for iraq
  • Water reserve in case of drought for surrounding countries
  • More rain fall for the region
Con:
  • Cost of the dams and locks for the rivers
  • Cost of the relocalisation of the Iranians and Armenians
  • Lost of farmlands
  • Lost of historical cities
  • Might piss off Turkey and Iran
 
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What if the following depression was flooded by building a dam to block the Aras river? It would only need to build a 10 km long dam or 4 small 1-2 km dams.

View attachment 739949
There is almost no reason to do that instead of a canal, but let say that Stalin decide to create this giant lake during/after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran because he made a agreement with the Iraqi government to irrigate Iraq in exchange of connecting the Caspian sea with Persian sea by using the Tigris and providing food.
So what would be the climatic impact and geopolitical impact?

The most important one would be of course another trade route for the soviet that don't freeze or isn't controlled by NATO if we assume that Iraq is allied to the URSS. Also an alternative to the Suez. You could also connect the Euphrate to the Mediterranean to make Iraq a central shipping hub.
Can you please give me a better map of this lake ? Having a hard time visualizing it
Thanks
 
Can you zoom out a bit on the map and give a better description of how they're going about it? (sorry I guess I'm a visual learner lol)

I think that this probably could succeed in connecting the two, assuming that Stalin is willing to dedicate a ridiculous amount of resources to make this happen (keep in mind Iran is huge) and compensate for the people who will be displaced by this act.

Although, whenever dams are constructed, the people affected aren't usually cared for as well as you'd expect (the Hoover Dam or the Three Gorges Dam come to mind) and with Stalin's USSR being the arbiter of this whole thing, I imagine the effort would be disastrous for people who live in or near the region affected. This would put a far greater strain on Iran's (and by extension, the USSR's) ability to provide for these people, and sort of force a transition to industrialization in order to facilitate the creation of jobs and industry, backed by the Soviets.

Iran would be far more reliant on Soviet support, so while the lives of many are ruined, I guess it'd be a net positive for the USSR in the short term, since the lives being ruined aren't Russian lives, there's an alternative to the Suez, and because Iran is less independent. I don't see this paying off like, at all, though.
 
Can you zoom out a bit on the map and give a better description of how they're going about it? (sorry I guess I'm a visual learner lol)

I think that this probably could succeed in connecting the two, assuming that Stalin is willing to dedicate a ridiculous amount of resources to make this happen (keep in mind Iran is huge) and compensate for the people who will be displaced by this act.

Although, whenever dams are constructed, the people affected aren't usually cared for as well as you'd expect (the Hoover Dam or the Three Gorges Dam come to mind) and with Stalin's USSR being the arbiter of this whole thing, I imagine the effort would be disastrous for people who live in or near the region affected. This would put a far greater strain on Iran's (and by extension, the USSR's) ability to provide for these people, and sort of force a transition to industrialization in order to facilitate the creation of jobs and industry, backed by the Soviets.

Iran would be far more reliant on Soviet support, so while the lives of many are ruined, I guess it'd be a net positive for the USSR in the short term, since the lives being ruined aren't Russian lives, there's an alternative to the Suez, and because Iran is less independent. I don't see this paying off like, at all, though.
Is it better (see updated post)?
 
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Is it better (see updated post)?
Oh wow. I'm surprised you only mentioned Iran and Iraq, since that'd disrupt Turkey as well. I'm wondering how they'd manage the response from within their own sphere of influence, much less from NATO.

If Iran and Iraq gave the go-ahead (willingly or not), I don't see this going as well as you portrayed in your image. A lot of trust is put into Soviet engineering and their capacity for seeing this through, and I don't know how well they'd be able to establish or maintain these barriers.

Another thing I didn't think of before- this route could be taxed, whereas the strait into the Black Sea is not very profitable. (read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Straits). Turkey might actually be on board with this project, assuming they'd see a share of the profits. And if you think it's ridiculous that Turkey would be willing to terraform just to circumvent the Montreux Convention, well, you can google the Istanbul Canal for more info on that.

We'd definitely see a lot of protests from NATO, not to mention the people displaced, but assuming that the fear of escalation allows the USSR to proceed, we'd see a Turkey alienated by NATO (and receiving funds from Soviet hands), a Russia with greater access to the sea, an Iran totally warped by water, and a more fertile Iraq... although I have reservations over how much of a positive it'd be for their environment.

This prompt is really growing on me, because I think it'd be an interesting scenario if it succeeds OR if it fails, like the Atlantropa stories all over the place.

I'll chew on it some more, but I'm thinking we'd see a cold war that would end far sooner due to economic and diplomatic strain causing a collapse within the USSR's sphere of influence, or one that is drawn out even longer due to increased tensions within NATO and a lack of restrictions on where the Russians can go.
 
Oh wow. I'm surprised you only mentioned Iran and Iraq, since that'd disrupt Turkey as well. I'm wondering how they'd manage the response from within their own sphere of influence, much less from NATO.

If Iran and Iraq gave the go-ahead (willingly or not), I don't see this going as well as you portrayed in your image. A lot of trust is put into Soviet engineering and their capacity for seeing this through, and I don't know how well they'd be able to establish or maintain these barriers.

Another thing I didn't think of before- this route could be taxed, whereas the strait into the Black Sea is not very profitable. (read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Straits). Turkey might actually be on board with this project, assuming they'd see a share of the profits. And if you think it's ridiculous that Turkey would be willing to terraform just to circumvent the Montreux Convention, well, you can google the Istanbul Canal for more info on that.

We'd definitely see a lot of protests from NATO, not to mention the people displaced, but assuming that the fear of escalation allows the USSR to proceed, we'd see a Turkey alienated by NATO (and receiving funds from Soviet hands), a Russia with greater access to the sea, an Iran totally warped by water, and a more fertile Iraq... although I have reservations over how much of a positive it'd be for their environment.

This prompt is really growing on me, because I think it'd be an interesting scenario if it succeeds OR if it fails, like the Atlantropa stories all over the place.

I'll chew on it some more, but I'm thinking we'd see a cold war that would end far sooner due to economic and diplomatic strain causing a collapse within the USSR's sphere of influence, or one that is drawn out even longer due to increased tensions within NATO and a lack of restrictions on where the Russians can go.
Yea I kind of forgot about Turkey because they don't lose that much territory and because they could dig a 30 km long canal/tunnel to connect the lake to the black sea by using the coruh river.
I don't see iraq refusing when they have no drawback expect maybe political. For Iran, they would probably not be willing without receiving concession and/or be forced.
The main problem is honestly the engineering of the dams, but they could probably in the worst case scenaro throw gravel, rock, concrete or even dynamite the surrounding mountain till it fill the gap.
 
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Yea I kind of forgot about Turkey because they don't lose that much territory and because they could dig a 30 km long canal/tunnel to connect the lake to the black sea by using the coruh river.
I don't see iraq refusing when they have no drawback expect maybe political. For Iran, they would probably not be willing without receiving concession and/or be forced.
The main problem is honestly the engineering of the dams, but they could probably in the worst case scenaro throw gravel, rock, concrete or even dynamite the surrounding mountain till it fill the gap.
Keep working on this! This would make a fascinating story.
 
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