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Political tensions hit Turkish economical
ties with Iraqi Kurdistan region
17.9.2007
By G.Jenkins
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September
17, 2007
Turkish companies active in Kurdistan region
(northern Iraq) say that political tensions between
Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdish authorities have
severely damaged their ability to do business in the
region. Many are now preparing to wind up their
operations in Kurdistan (northern Iraq) and return
to Turkey (Milliyet, September 14).
Tensions between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds are
nothing new. Ankara has long suspected that, despite
their public commitment to Iraq’s territorial
integrity, the Kurds in the north of the country
really aspire to independence -- something that
Turkey fears would fuel separatist sentiments among
its own restive Kurdish minority. Nevertheless,
since the U.S.-led 'invasion' and subsequent
occupation of Iraq in 2003, economic ties between
Turkey and Kurdistan region (northern Iraq) have
boomed. In April 2007, annual bilateral trade grew
to around $5 billion, and Turkish contractors were
believed to have secured $2 billion worth of
contracts in Kurdistan region (Iraq). A total of
1,200 Turkish companies were estimated to be
operating in Kurdistan region (northern Iraq),
employing around 14,000 expatriate Turks (see EDM,
July 30).
However, in early summer 2007 political relations
were increasingly strained by the Iraqi Kurdish
authorities’ refusal to move against the separatist
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been using
camps in the Qandil Mountains, close to Iraqi
Kurdistan region borders with Turkey and Iran, as a
platform for its insurgency in eastern Anatolia. In
the run-up to the Turkish general election of July
22, politicians competed with each other to issue
harsh warnings to the Iraqi Kurdistan authorities,
including the repeated threat to launch a
cross-border military operation to strike at the PKK
camps.
Turkish businessmen operating in Kurdistan region
(northern Iraq) say that the result was a boycott of
Turkish consumer goods, which have now been mostly
replaced by products from Jordan, Syria and Europe.
They complain that they have also been increasingly
excluded from lucrative contracts awarded by the
Iraqi Kurdish authorities, particularly for
infrastructure.
“The big companies are now all looking just to
complete their unfinished projects and leave,” said
Ahmet Acar, president of the Businessmen’s
Association, which is based in the Iraqi Kurdistan
capital city of Erbil (Milliyet, September 14).
Other Turkish businessmen active in Kurdistan (Iraq)
said that the situation had been made more difficult
by the Turkish government’s refusal to engage
politically with the Iraqi Kurdish leadership. They
noted that in the last six months around 10
countries had opened consulates in the Kurdish
capital Erbil, but that the sole Turkish diplomatic
representative in the city was still operating out
of a local hotel room.
Guntekin Koksal of the Turkish oil company Petoil
noted that their local joint venture had begun
drilling for oil in northern Iraq’s Bin Bavi field
in August 2006, but they were finding it difficult
to export the oil along the existing pipeline to the
Turkish Mediterranean port of Yumurtalik.
“In order to transport the oil we need to use the
Kirkuk-Yumurtalik pipeline but we can’t because the
necessary agreement hasn’t been signed with Turkey,”
said Koksal (Milliyet, September 14).
The reason is that Turkey would have to sign any
agreement with the Kurdistan Regional government (KRG),
and it is reluctant to do so because it fears that
it would amount to de facto recognition of a Kurdish
political entity in the north of the country.
In addition to affecting the profits of Turkish
companies operating in Kurdistan region (Iraq), the
downturn in economic relations also threatens to
come with a domestic political cost for Turkey. The
boom in bilateral trade since 2003 gave a much
needed boost to the local economy in southeastern
Anatolia, which has traditionally been both the most
underdeveloped region of the country and the most
fertile recruiting ground for indigenous violent
militant groups, whether Islamist, Kurdish
nationalist, or leftist.
But in the short-term there appears little prospect
of easing tensions. Turkey has welcomed the decision
to postpone a referendum over the future status of
the city of Kirkuk, which Ankara had feared would
opt to join the KRG (Kurdistan region Government)
and eventually serve as the capital of an
independent Kurdish state (Al Sabaah, September 12).
It also reacted positively to Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani’s recent call for all militant groups,
including the PKK, to leave Kurdistan region
(northern Iraq) (Hurriyet, September 8).
However, it continues to be frustrated by the Iraqi
authorities’ failure to back words with deeds.
During a visit to Ankara on August 7, Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki promised that the Iraqi
government would send a delegation to Turkey within
two weeks to discuss concrete measures to be taken
against the PKK presence in the Qandil Mountains
(see EDM, August 8). The delegation has yet to
arrive.
Inside Turkey, the PKK has been continuing its
insurgency. A day rarely passes without a report of
a PKK attack, often including deaths and injuries,
appearing in the Turkish media. Despite its
landslide victory in the July 22 elections (see EDM,
July 23), there is little doubt that the second term
of the moderate Islamist Justice and Development
Party (AKP) will be considerably more challenging
than the first. At a time when the pace of economic
growth is slowing, Turkey’s EU accession process has
stalled and there are tensions between Islamists and
secularists over the AKP’s draft for a new
constitution, taking a tough line with the PKK and
the Iraqi Kurds is probably the only issue on which
all of the political actors in Turkey are agreed.
jamestown org
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