ERBIL, Kurdistan Region— The ongoing war in and around the Turkish borders continues to claim victims in the battleground as well as in the homes of people like Sedat Bozan, a truck driver whose earnings over the past year have plummeted beyond his fears. “I could make a thousand dollars for each trip I made to and from Iraq,” said the father of two from Turkey’s Kurdish township of Batman. “It would take weeks, but it was worth while,” he said. “Now I make maybe hundred dollars a load and sometimes even less.” Bozan’s story largely reflects the deteriorated economic conditions for the majority of the families in the Kurdish areas of Turkey’s southeast. According to the Southeast Union of Entrepreneurs (GUNSIAD) nearly half of the trade through the main border gate of Habur has dropped over the past year. Habur, which is virtually the only gate from Turkey to Kurdistan region and Iraq at present, saw a surge of cross border trade until mid 2015, largely because of closure of the Turkish borders to Syria in the past years which often were also used for trade into Iraq. But the devouring armed conflict between the Turkish army and Kurdish guerrillas, resumed in July 2015, took its toll on Habur too. “Trade between Turkey and the Kurdistan region is almost close to zero now for us,” said Nihad Bilisik, head of the Sirnk Workers Union. “In 2014 we sent nearly 500 truck loads of construction material a month to the Kurdistan region and Iraq. Now we send only some 30 trucks every month. We’ve lost nearly 85 percent of our earnings.” He added. “We made around $1 million annually, now we have just over $50,000 a year.” Bilisik’s depressing figures are supported by Turkey’s ministry of trade and customs which shows that the number of truck loads to and Iraq dropped from 685,000 in 2014 to 606,000 in 2015 and 200,000 trucks from January to May this year. The ministry says that the trade volume between Turkey and Iraq in 2013 surpassed $12 billion but gradually dropped to $8,5 billion in 2015 as the war raged. According to Turkey-Iraq Association of Entrepreneurs, a number of other restricting laws have adversely impacted the overall trade volume. Head of the association, Newaf Celik, said the new passport and custom laws had kept many people at home on both sides of the border. “Currently you need to pay double customs to cross Kurdistan region to Iraq with a Turkish registered vehicle,” Celik said. “You need to pay $1000 when you enter Kurdistan region and another $1000 if you continue south to the Iraqi areas. And there are visa restrictions for Iraqi drivers coming to Turkey which is no good for business,” he added. Turkey facilitated visa applications for Iraqi citizens in late 2009 but imposed severe restrictions last year to contain the wave of mass migration to Europe through its borders. In its heydays between 2006 and 2014, Habur border gate was the hub that connected the emerging market of Iraq and Kurdistan region to the thriving economies of neighboring Turkey and generated jobs on both sides of the now martial-afflicted borderline, with no immediate recovery in sight. Luqman Yurdim, who owns an oil shipment firm in Turkey’s Kurdish city of Batman decided one day to sell 30 of his 50 trucks to cope with the demanding shifts in the economy. “My trucks went to Kurdistan region three times a month in the past and shipped lots of oil,” Yurdim said. “Now I send them only once every month, not for oil but to bring back asphalt cement to Antab,” he added unexcitedly.
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