... and all of this is possible because Turkey took advantage of the disarray in Iraq and Syria over the last 20 years and built large dams and aqueducts on the upper Tigris and Euphrates rivers, drastically reducing their flows and causing water levels in Southern Iraqi marsh lands to almost entirely dry up.

It's a humanitarian catastrophe.

Not to say that we should not use this opportunity to do critical archeology. In fact, this situation may not last, so we should invest in digs asap.

...but it is still important to understand the nature of why these sites are being discovered now.