Turkey to open second border gate with Iraq

     Ankara - Turkish Daily News
      June 9, 2001

    Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem has said Turkey will open a second border
    crossing with southern neighbour Iraq, a sign of easing relations viewed with some
    concern by NATO ally the United States.

    "We see this in the direct interest of our country," The state-run Anatolian News
    Agency quoted Cem as saying in an overnight television interview. Work on the new
    crossing point could be completed in one or two years.

    Ankara supports a U.N. embargo imposed on Baghdad for its invasion of Kuwait that
    ignited the 1991 Gulf War, but has also maintained an illicit oil trade through a border
    gate with the Kurdish-held break away enclave of northern Iraq.

    Turkey says it has lost more than $30 billion in trade with Iraq since the war. In
    January, Ankara restored full diplomatic relations with Baghdad and has sent
    humanitarian and trade missions in recent months.

    Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Faruk Logoglu will visit Baghdad on Sunday for two
    days.

    Turkish plans to edge closer to Iraq have already disturbed the U.S. administration
    that has long sought to topple or at least contain President Saddam Hussein's
    administration.

    According to Anatolian, Cem said Turkey took into consideration U.S. sensitivities
    regarding Iraq but would act according to its own interests.

    The United States and Ankara's other Western allies turn a blind eye on Turkey's illicit
    oil trade with Iraq. In return they use an air base in southern Turkey to patrol the skies
    of northern Iraq to protect Kurds there from any attack by Baghdad.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com