Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

FT: Smuggling Runs Deep In Blood Of Eastern Turkey

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • FT: Smuggling Runs Deep In Blood Of Eastern Turkey

    SMUGGLING RUNS DEEP IN BLOOD OF EASTERN TURKEY
    By Delphine Strauss in Ankara

    FT
    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5e2920b0-d230-11df-8fbe-00144feabdc0.html
    October 7 2010 17:48

    "Smuggled tea" advertises a rooftop sign in Van, the main city of
    Turkey's eastern region bordering Iran. In a bazaar tucked behind
    a central shopping street, a carpet dealer has stacked pale silk
    Persian rugs beside the deeper coloured local kilims.

    The minibuses shuttling along the nearby shore of Lake Van run on
    bootleg Iranian fuel, bought at back doors or behind petrol stations.

    And in a dusty street on the outskirts, a huddle of Afghan and Iranian
    refugees who have slipped past the border guards wait for legal advice
    on their asylum claims outside the gate of the local UNHCR refugee
    agency office.

    Poverty, unemployment and a punitive customs regime have made smuggling
    a way of life in the villages lining Turkey's long, porous border with
    Iran. From carpets to car parts, drug trafficking to human trafficking,
    illegal trade is thriving, served by Kurdish villagers taking convoys
    of horses over the mountainous boundary by night.

    "If there was no illegal border trade, this whole area would have died
    out," said one carpet dealer, who made three business trips to Tabriz
    in September and paid smugglers $10 per carpet to carry his wares
    back. The border trade that fuels the local economy has also fuelled
    decades of conflict with Kurdish rebels seeking regional autonomy.

    Although attacks on security forces are now rare in Van province,
    locals say the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK), listed by the US and
    European Union as a terrorist group, funds itself partly by taxing
    the smugglers.

    This is the region that could benefit most if Turkey's government
    reaches its goal of trebling legal trade with Iran, from about $10bn
    in 2008 to a targeted $30bn five years from now. Although Ankara is
    committed to honouring UN sanctions against Iran, it opposes them in
    principle, and will not adopt unilateral US or EU measures.

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish prime minister, has defied Washington
    by cultivating warmer ties with Tehran, and told a recent bilateral
    summit he saw no reason why Turkey's trade arrangements with Iran
    should not parallel those it had with Europe. But although some Turkish
    companies are keen to win new business in Iran as it loses partners
    elsewhere, the main Istanbul-based groups - including several with
    US shareholders - are unlikely to risk losing access to their much
    bigger western markets.

    Border history

    16th-mid 19th century The Persian and Ottoman empires clash at regular
    intervals over borders and Islamic doctrine

    1926 Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, signs a
    "friendship" treaty that defines relations between the two until
    the Iranian revolution 1964 Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan sign a treaty
    aimed at fostering economic exchanges and development

    1979 The Iranian Revolution and the reversal of Iran's foreign policy
    towards pro-western powers sparks tensions with secular Turkey 1985
    Economic Co-operation Organisation founded. It aims to promote economic
    co-operation among 10 regional states

    2003 Recep Tayyip Erdogan, chairman of the Islamic Justice and
    Development party, becomes Turkish premier

    2009 Mr Erdogan defends Iran's right to a civilian nuclear programme
    and opposes sanctions June 2010Turkey votes against UN sanctions
    despite international pressure - but commits to implementing them

    Sept Mr Erdogan and Mohammed Reza Rahimi, Iranian first vice-president,
    sign an agreement over border control and economic exchanges aimed
    at fostering more trade

    Iranian gas exports to Turkey account for the bulk of bilateral trade,
    and Turkey had a share of only $2bn of Iran's $68.5bn of imports
    in 2008.

    "Sanctions are good for no one . . . but we're not going to do trade
    under the table," said Murat Yalcintas, president of Istanbul's chamber
    of commerce. "You're not even sure if you're going to get your money
    or not, no one is going to take these risks."

    Zahir Kandasoglu, his counterpart at Van's chamber of trade and
    industry, said he hoped Turkey's opposition to sanctions would finally
    persuade Tehran to ease barriers to trade, by opening a new border
    gate near Van and setting up a free-trade zone. "I don't trust them
    - they've been talking for years . . . But maybe for other reasons,
    because of sanctions, they will change their view," he said. Van's
    prospects are already brightening, thanks to heavy public sector
    investment and hopes of an end to PKK violence. Bulent Karakas, an
    economist at the city's university, says the opening of a Migros
    supermarket a couple of years ago was a landmark, proving that a
    national chain could invest without security risks, and that families
    finally felt secure enough to go out shopping in the evenings. "Now,
    when a new shopping centre opens, we don't even notice," he added.

    Mr Kandasoglu's own construction business is benefiting from government
    projects to build new hospitals, schools, roads and dams.

    But the regional economy remains dependent on the public sector. Only
    an end to PKK violence and open borders to eastern markets are likely
    to bring big private sector investments.

    So just as other cities in Turkey's south-east have gained from freer
    trade with northern Iraq and Syria, Mr Kandasoglu is lobbying for
    new openings to Iran and nearby Armenia. He also wants Van to be the
    site for a planned Turkish-Iranian free-trade zone that could include
    textiles, machinery and petroleum.

    "At the moment Van is 76th [of 81 provinces] in terms of development.

    Almost all the eastern cities are at the same level. In all these
    eastern cities, if we don't trade with Iran, Iraq, Armenia, who will
    we trade with?" Mr Kandasoglu said.

    In the 1990s, a time of freer trade with Iran, Van prospered to become
    the 10th highest taxpaying province in the country, an official at
    the chamber of commerce notes. "When people make good money legally
    they direct it into investment and taxes."

    But at present, the legal border trade is confined to pitifully
    small quantities of textiles, for example, or seasonal produce such
    as kiwis or watermelon. Tougher border checks, with vehicles allowed
    to make only one trip across the border per day, have also damped the
    once-roaring trade in contraband fuel: smugglers who invested in trucks
    with extra large fuel tanks can no longer afford to pay off the loans.

    But the shiny jeeps in Van's streets, and the construction sites
    across the city, attest to the continued trafficking of drugs and
    migrants through the mountains.

    "Eighteen of my family are in jail," said a man from Van's Baskale
    district, who thought the government was "punishing this region" for
    voting for pro-Kurdish politicians by clamping down. But with migrants
    willing to pay $250 for help across the border, and a single kilo of
    heroin fetching $5,000 profit, the appeal of smuggling remains. "In one
    day you can be a billionaire - or you can lose everything," he said.




    From: A. Papazian
Working...
X