|
Turkey's Kurds look to Iraqi Kurdistan for
jobs, trade
10.1.2008
|
|
|
|
January 10, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Migrants seeking a better life in
Iraqi Kurdistan? It sounds bizarre but thousands of
Turkish
Kurds are finding jobs and trade opportunities
across the border that are largely absent at home.
While Turkish warplanes bomb Kurdish PKK rebel
targets in Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq', Turkish
businessmen and workers are busy making money in the
autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, and Iraqi
Kurds are coming to Turkey both for business and
relaxation.
Firms based in Turkey's impoverished, mainly Kurdish
southeast region also work as intermediaries between
Western companies and the Iraqi Kurds.
"Iraq contributes seriously to employment in
Diyarbakir. Our youths get the chance to find jobs
there, in construction, in restaurants and the
clothing industry," said Seyhmus Akbas, chairman of
southeast Turkish business forum DOGUNSIFED.
Diyarbakir, with about 1 million inhabitants, is the
largest city of southeast Turkey but its economy has
long been hostage to separatist violence as security
forces battle militants of the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK).
The conflict, which dates back to 1984 and has
killed nearly 40,000 people, scares off investors
and helps keep unemployment at a staggering 60
percent of the local population against 9 percent
nationwide, officials say.
Since 1984
when PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey. A
large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, granting them full
political freedoms.
Six people, mostly students, were killed in a bomb
blast in the centre of Diyarbakir last week.
Authorities have blamed the separatist PKK for the
explosion and the group has signalled PKK members
acting independently may have been to blame.
Per capita income in southeast Turkey is just one
third of the national average. Half its residents
hold a state "green card" which entitles the very
poor to free health care and help in buying food and
fuel oil.
ECONOMIC BOOM
Little wonder, then, that Turkish Kurds have been
keen to share in the economic boom in energy-rich
Iraqi Kurdistan.
Construction sites in northern Iraq pay workers as
much as $2,000 a month. Similar work in southeast
Turkey pays just 400 lira ($345).
Turkish construction firms, active across the Middle
East, Russia and central Asia, are eager to share in
northern Iraq's infrastructure projects, estimated
to be worth $20 billion over the next 20 years.
Contracts won by Turkish construction firms in Iraq
in 2007 topped $4 billion. Turkey's total exports to
Iraq neared $3 billion and included capital goods
such as electronics as well as consumer goods and
food.
Turkish truck-drivers, many from southeastern
Turkey, bring back crude oil, far cheaper in
northern Iraq, to sell inside Turkey. Iraq also
pumps crude oil to Turkey's Mediterranean coast via
the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik pipeline.
Close cultural links and a common language help
Turkey's Kurds find jobs in Iraqi Kurdistan.
"Western companies look for partners in Turkey's
southeast to do business in northern Iraq because of
the common language and culture. There are at least
20 such intermediary companies in Diyarbakir alone,"
said Mursel Tuncay, chairman of the Diyarbakir-based
Murkan Group of Companies.
Tuncay said Iraqi Kurdish businessmen also prefer
doing business with Turkey because of its open
economy.
"They come here to work, strike deals and have fun
in Istanbul. They cannot do this in Iran or Syria.
They see Turkey as their gateway to the world,"
Tuncay said.
Some local businessmen fear the Turkish army's
bombing campaign against PKK targets over the past
month could hurt business. "You watch northern Iraq
bombed live on TV. This breaks our hearts as human
beings,"www.ekurd.net
Akbas said, who
described Iraqi Kurds as cousins of the Turkish
Kurds.
Businessmen in the southeast have urged the Turkish
government to develop closer political ties with
Iraqi Kurds, but Ankara prefers to deal directly
with Baghdad.
Turkey is anxious to prevent the emergence of an
independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq, fearing
this could fan separatism among its own large
Kurdish population and also destabilise the broader
region.
"Turkey should assume the role of a father (to Iraqi
Kurds). They are not a threat. We are the biggest
country in the Middle East and their population is
small compared to us," said the head of Diyarbakir's
commodities exchange, Fahrettin Akyil.
"It is a very rich region. Its possibilities should
be utilised effectively. Terrorism and northern Iraq
should be kept quite separate. If we do not go
there, businessmen of other nations will go and fill
the vacuum," said Akbas.
But trade with northern Iraq can be risky. Several
Turkish truck drivers have been killed in the past
few years. Turkish businessmen face other risks too.
"Northern Iraq does not have an established
authority. Many of our friends incurred losses there
because they were not paid for the goods they
delivered," Akyil said.
Reuters
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 