Kurds, Turks join forces to take care of business

SULAYMANIYA, Iraq - As they attempt to secure their hold on a semi-independent slice of Iraq and rebuild its economy, Kurdish leaders have turned in a surprising direction -- toward Turkey.

For much of the last century, Turks and Kurds have been bitter enemies. Starting in the 1930s, Turkey banned the language of its Kurdish minority and violently suppressed Kurdish independence movements on its soil.

In recent weeks, Turkish security forces and Kurdish protesters clashed in riots that claimed more than a dozen lives. Across the border, the Turkish government has opposed Kurdish moves toward self-rule in Iraq's three northern provinces. And Turkish leaders have accused the Kurds of harboring militant groups that attack civilians and military targets in Turkey.

But today, Kurdish leaders are seeking investment from Turkish companies. To date, 314 Turkish companies have signed contracts for projects valued at more than $1 billion, officials of Iraqi Kurdistan have said.

Visitors to Kurdistan can fly into one of two airports built by companies based in Turkey, drive Turkish-built roads and see Turkish-built housing and university buildings.

''Turkish companies are everywhere in Kurdistan and doing everything,'' said Ilnur Cevik, a Turkish businessman whose Cevik Ler company claims more than $100 million in Kurdish government construction contracts.

''Soon my company will be generating electricity in collaboration with the Kurdistan government,'' he said.

The influx of Turkish companies is part of a policy to thaw relations with its wary neighbor, Kurdish officials say.

''We really have been flooded with Turkish companies,'' said Safeen Dizayee of the Kurdish Democratic Party which controls western Kurdistan. ''This is healthy because it helps to develop good international relations. Naturally if Turkey, or any other country, has a vested interest here, their politicians are going to be obliged to be flexible.'' In Iraqi Kurdistan, some Turkish leaders see a chance to renew a large nearby market, which could strengthen their own nation's economy.

''Northern Iraq is an especially lucrative market because it is the most stable part of Iraq and because it borders Turkey,'' said Turkish legislator Reha Denemec, a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

''Turkish companies are lining up to do business there, especially in construction. So much Turkish cement is going there that this has driven up cement prices in Turkey.''

Many Western companies shy away from the region because of violence and political interference with contracts.

''Many international institutions consider the risk in Irbil (capital of Kurdistan) to be the same as the rest of Iraq,'' said Douglas Mellor, an American living in Britain who advises the Kurdish government.

Global companies such as Coca-Cola Co. have declined to send executives into any part of Iraq, Mellor said.

Regionally based companies, with more knowledge of Kurdistan and its influential people, are better able to exploit opportunities here. Turkish businesses, along with companies from Lebanon, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and, to a lesser extent, Iran, have launched an unprecedented building boom in Kurdistan.

''Until 1991, there were about 200 or so public projects over the past 120 years,'' said Dizayee, the KDP official. ''Since then, there have been about 1,200 projects.''

Some Kurdish business owners complain that Kurdistan officials' strategy of luring Turkish companies has sidelined them and forced them to pay off top functionaries of Kurdistan's ruling parties -- the Kurdish Democratic Party, which controls western Kurdistan, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which controls the east.

An owner of a construction business in Irbil said he rarely won large contracts because the government puts so few out to public bid. And when he did win a significant deal, it required taking a party official as a partner.

''I shared some of my profits because I was obliged to do so,'' said the businessman, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. ''They are like snakes. If they know about any project, they're going to bite you.''

Party influence on businesses has hindered economic growth and goods available to Kurds. Cellphone users in Kurdistan, for example, go with one of two companies, both with party ties -- Korek in the west or Asiacell in the east. Users of the two services can call international phone services but not each other.

Cevik said he owed his success to his long personal relationships with Massoud Barzani, head of the KDP and president of the regional Kurdish government, and Jalal Talabani, the leader of the PUK and Iraq's head of state.

Cevik said he met the two Kurdish leaders when he was an editor for a Turkish newspaper. Over seven years they remained in contact -- despite strong opposition in his home country.

As U.S. warships massed in the Persian Gulf in 2003, Cevik sat down with Barzani and Talabani outside Irbil. It was a rare meeting between the two Kurdish rivals, who had fought each other in a civil war during the 1980s.

''Mr. Talabani and Mr. Barzani asked me to bring some reliable Turkish companies -- they wanted handpicked companies -- into Kurdistan,'' Cevik said. ''We did a partnership with some of these companies.''

Since that meeting, his company has become one of the leading businesses in Kurdistan, with government contracts that include the $44-million Sulaymaniya airport and a $65-million dormitory project for Salahuddin University.

''I think the Kurds realize that with the uncertainty of the future in Iraq, they can't put all the eggs in one basket,'' Cevik said. ''So they are trying to forge closer ties in Turkey.''

This doesn't surprise me, in fact I expect this.

The dynamic between the Kurds and Turks is changing now that they have defacto independence. Kurds have oil, Turks have refineries. They are going to be business partners, whatever happens.

Kurds have security concerns from Turkey, but greater concerns from Iran and possibly from arab Iraq. As odd as it may sound, Turkey may in the end be guarantor of Kurdish autonomy. The Kurds can't choose their neighbors, and their neighbors will be there when the US leaves. Their best out is to kurdify Iraq if they can, but if they can't, if Iraq falls apart, or turns on them, their only fallback plan is an alliance with Turkey.

Probably most Kurds wince at the thought. But if Iraq falls apart they'll get used to it.

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