Already suffering from an ailing national economy, residents of Turkish border towns take sanctions on Iraq as a personal matter, according to a feature story by the Washington Post on Sunday.
"This is Turkey and there is Iraq with three kilometers between us, and America is on the other side of the world stopping us from doing our trade," said Seyfettin Inan, 42, a Turkish truck driver who has hauled oil from Iraq to Turkey for 15 years. These days, he supports his family of eight by making about one trip a month, which earns him perhaps $100.
"I could make 10 trips a day, but we have to respect all these concepts," he complained, as other truckers nodded. "The big states should come and see how we live and see if they could bear this type of poverty. But they just keep asking Turkey to do more and more."
Trade has been conducted for decades between the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. But the diesel fuel trade violates international sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Those sanctions require that all proceeds from Iraqi petroleum exports go to a UN-controlled escrow account to pay for humanitarian assistance for Iraq's 22.6 million people and to compensate victims from the Gulf War.
Oil analysts say the illegal trade -- and similar sanctions-evading trade between Iraq and its neighbors Jordan and Syria earns Iraq one billion dollars a year.
Experts told the paper that the neighbors are enticed into the transactions, because they receive the oil and fuel at deep discounts -- perhaps 40 percent below market value -- and the trade has become a critical part of their economies.
Trying to control this black market is a key goal of a US-British plan to revamp the UN sanctions, which have become hugely unpopular because of their devastating effect on Iraqis, particularly children. The UN Security Council
Iraq, protesting the new sanctions proposal, stopped selling oil under the existing UN program on June 1, withdrawing about 2.3 million barrels a day from the world market. It continues to sell outside the sanctions regime to Turkey, Jordan and Syria.
The US-British proposal has run into intense criticism -- particularly from Russia, which has been awarded billions of dollars in future contracts to develop Iraq's oil fields, according to the Post. Russia has threatened to veto the proposal -- and analysts say it now looks unlikely to be approved by the Tuesday deadline, which would be a serious political setback for the United States.
Many critics cited by the paper say that even if the new sanctions were adopted, they would not stem Iraq’s “weapons programs” or raise Iraqi living standards.
Furthermore, Hussein has threatened to cut off the oil trade to Jordan, Syria and Turkey if they implement the "smart sanctions," leading to a groundswell of opposition in frontline countries whose support is critical to the success of any sanctions program.
Turkey, Jordan and Syria import about 100,000 barrels a day from Iraq. Oil experts are skeptical of Turkey's claim that it imports only 12,500 barrels a day, although they acknowledge that the illegal trade with Turkey has recently declined.
Stopping this trade would be particularly devastating to Jordan, which has urged the Security Council to defeat the new sanctions proposal, even though the oil it imports from Iraq is permitted by the United Nations outside the oil-for-food program.
In a memo to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan two weeks ago, Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb said that his country imports $750 million worth of oil a year from Iraq, its largest trading partner, and that 37 percent of Jordanian industries are dependent on trade with their neighbor. If trade were cut off, he warned, Jordan's economy might collapse.
Turkey faces a similar, but less severe dilemma, said the report. Officials say that the diesel fuel trade through Habur Gate -- the only border crossing between Iraq and Turkey -- has become the economic lifeline for southeastern Turkey, a region that is still emerging from 16 years of civil war that left it economically ravaged.
"When there's a 10-day holiday here, it's like a dead city, so imagine what would happen if the trade is stopped completely. It would kill people all across the southeast," said Ahmet Uzen, who operates an oil distribution franchise near the depot.
"The US wants to close the border, and it looks like they're only doing it for their own interests. But they should also take into account the people living in this region," Uzen said. "We are all suffering from the embargo. Doesn't America know that? Particularly the people in Iraq. For 100,000 lira [about 8 cents] they are ready to die for you, those people are so desperate."
"If this border is closed, we'll all go hungry," said Gaffur Dagdelen, 31, who with three other family members owns a tanker that is their sole source of income. He was one of several truckers on the 12th day of a trip to the Iraqi diesel fuel loading station and back to the unloading depot in Turkey -- about 30 miles round-trip. He said that after expenses, he expected to make a $12 profit. "I'm very angry because these sanctions are not against Iraq but Turkey," he said -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
