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Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan-Iraq April 29, 2006, --
As they attempt to secure their hold on a
semi-independent slice of Iraq and rebuild its
economy, Kurdish leaders have turned in a surprising
direction — toward Turkey.
For much of the last century, Turks and Kurds have
been bitter enemies. Starting in the 1930s, Turkey
banned the language of its Kurdish minority and
violently suppressed Kurdish independence movements
on its soil. Just in recent weeks, Turkish security
forces and Kurdish protesters clashed in riots that
claimed more than a dozen lives.
Across the border, the Turkish government has
opposed Kurdish moves toward self-rule in Iraq's
three northern provinces. And Turkish leaders have
accused the Kurds of harboring bases for militant
groups that have attacked civilians and military
targets in Turkey.
But today, Kurdish leaders are seeking investment
from Turkish firms. To date, 314 Turkish companies
have signed contracts for projects valued at more
than $1 billion, officials of Iraqi Kurdistan have
said.
Visitors to Kurdistan can fly into one of two
airports built by companies based in Turkey, drive
Turkish-built roads and see Turkish-built housing
developments and university buildings.
"Turkish companies are everywhere in Kurdistan and
doing everything," said Ilnur Cevik, a Turkish
businessman whose Cevik Ler company claims more than
$100 million in Kurdish government construction
contracts.
"Soon my company will be generating electricity in
collaboration with the Kurdistan government," he
said.
The influx of Turkish companies is part of a policy
to thaw relations with its wary neighbor, Kurdish
officials say.
"We really have been flooded with Turkish
companies," said Safeen Dizayee, a leading member of
the Kurdish Democratic Party, which controls western
Kurdistan. "This is healthy because it helps to
develop good international relations. Naturally if
Turkey, or any other country, has a vested interest
here, their politicians are going to be obliged to
be flexible."
The investment also carries benefits, both economic
and political, for Turkey. Before the U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq in 2003, officials in Ankara, the
Turkish capital, had complained that United Nations
sanctions on Iraq had cost Turkey $60 billion in
lost revenue.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, some Turkish leaders see a
chance to renew a large, nearby market, which could
strengthen their own nation's economy.
"Northern Iraq is an especially lucrative market
because it is the most stable part of Iraq and
because it borders Turkey," said legislator Reha
Denemec, a member of the ruling Justice and
Development Party.
"Turkish companies are lining up to do business
there, especially in construction. So much Turkish
cement is going there that this has driven up cement
prices in Turkey," he said.
On the political side, "the trade is crucial because
it helps us deal with our terror problem in the
southeast of the country," added Denemec, referring
to Kurdish separatist groups within Turkey.
The Kurds' struggle in Turkey is part of their
aspirations for statehood throughout the region.
Twenty million Kurds — considered the world's
largest ethnic group without a political homeland —
live, often uneasily, in Syria and Iran as well as
Iraq and Turkey.
Iraqi Kurds were subject to brutality and inferior
status under Saddam Hussein and eagerly supported
the invasion to depose him. The autonomy and
relative tranquillity they enjoy in northern Iraq is
the fruit of that alliance with the United States.
Yet many Western firms still shy away from the
region because of concerns about violence and
political interference with contracts. To some
extent then, Iraq's Kurds are inviting Turkish
companies out of necessity.
"Many international institutions consider the risk
in Irbil [the capital of Kurdistan] to be the same
as the rest of Iraq," said Douglas Mellor, an
American living in Britain who advises the Kurdish
government.
Global companies such as Coca-Cola Co. have thus far
declined to risk sending executives into any part of
Iraq, Mellor said.
"The British Petroleums and the Shells of the world
are very interested in Iraq, but because they are
[publicly traded] companies with large boards of
directors, a lot of them are just kind of hovering
around. They're interested, but quite often their
executives can't even fly into Iraq."
Regionally based firms, with more knowledge of
Kurdistan and its influential people, have been
better able to exploit opportunities here. Turkish
firms, along with companies from Lebanon, Jordan,
the United Arab Emirates and to a lesser extent,
Iran, have launched an unprecedented building boom
in Kurdistan.
"Until 1991, there were about 200 or so public
projects over the past 120 years," said Dizayee, the
KDP official. "Since then, there have been about
1,200 projects."
Some Kurdish business owners complain that Kurdistan
officials' strategy of luring Turkish firms has
sidelined them and when they do land government
contracts, they are forced to pay off top
functionaries of Kurdistan's ruling parties — the
Kurdish Democratic Party, which controls western
Kurdistan, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan,
which controls the east.
An owner of a construction business in Irbil said he
rarely won large contracts because the government
puts so few out to public bid. And when he did win a
significant deal, it required taking a prominent
party official as a partner.
"I shared some of my profits because I was obliged
to do so," said the businessman, who asked not to be
named for fear of reprisal. "They are like snakes.
If they know about any project, they're going to
bite you."
Party influence on businesses has hindered economic
growth and the quantity of goods available to Kurds.
Cellphone users in Kurdistan, for example, generally
go with one of two companies, both with party ties —
Korek in the west or Asiacell in the east. Users of
the two services can call international phone
services but not each other.
Cevik, the Turkish owner of the Cevik Ler firm, said
he owed his success to his long relationships with
Massoud Barzani, head of the KDP and president of
the regional government, and Jalal Talabani, the PUK
leader and Iraq's head of state.
Cevik said that he met the two Kurdish leaders when
he was an editor for a Turkish newspaper. Over the
course of seven years they remained in contact —
despite strong opposition in his home country.
"I was a liaison between the Turkish government and
the Kurds. I was one of those activists in Turkey
trying to build better relationships with the
Kurds…. I think this is crucial — vital," he said in
a telephone interview. "Some branded us as traitors
in Turkey and tried to ruin us financially."
As U.S. warships massed in the Persian Gulf in 2003,
Cevik sat down with Barzani and Talabani outside
Irbil. It was a rare meeting between the two Kurdish
rivals, who had fought each other in a civil war
during the 1980s.
"Mr. Talabani and Mr. Barzani asked me to bring some
reliable Turkish companies — they wanted handpicked
companies — into Kurdistan," Cevik said. "We did a
partnership with some of these companies."
Since that meeting, his company has become one of
the leading businesses in Kurdistan, with government
contracts that include building the $44-million
Sulaymaniya airport and a $65-million dormitory
project for Salahuddin University.
"I think the Kurds realize that with the uncertainty
of the future in Iraq, they can't put all the eggs
in one basket," Cevik said. "So they are trying to
forge closer ties in Turkey."
La Times.com
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