ONE MINEFIELD TO ANOTHER

Al-Ahram Weekly

2 – 8 July 2009

The Turkish government’s attempt to clear mines along its southern
and eastern borders triggers nationalist sentiment amid accusations
that reclaimed land will be leased to Israelis, writes Gareth Jenkins
in Ankara

On Thursday, opposition parties in the Turkish parliament formally
applied to the Turkish Constitutional Court for the annulment of
a law that would enable foreign companies to lease land along the
country’s southern and eastern borders free of charge in return for
clearing it of landmines. The move follows speculation in the Turkish
media that the ruling Justice and Development Party (JDP) planned to
award the contract to companies from Israel.

There are estimated to be nearly 900,000 landlines along Turkey’s
southern and eastern borders: approximately 600,000 along the border
with Syria, 75,000 on the border with Iraq, 190,000 near Iran and
22,000 on the border with Armenia. The landmines no longer serve
any military purpose. Around 3,000 Turkish citizens are thought to
have been killed in landmine accidents over the last 50 years, with
over 7,000 seriously injured. In 2004, Turkey signed the 1997 Ottawa
Treaty and undertook to dispose of all of its landmines by 2014,
including 2.5 million believed stored by the Turkish military.

Initially, the mine-clearing task was to be given to the Turkish
military. However, after several years of studies, the Turkish
military concluded that the cost would be too high — both in terms
of the equipment needed and the likely death toll among its conscript
soldiers during mine-clearing operations. Earlier this year, the JDP
announced plans to put the task out to tender, in expectation that
the contract would eventually be awarded to a specialised foreign firm.

Government officials estimated that clearing the mines would take five
years at a cost of approximately $500 million. Rather than increase
the burden on the state’s already overstretched budget, lawmakers
decided to allow the successful bidder to lease the reclaimed land
free of charge for a period of 44 years following the clearing of the
mines. The expectation was that the land bordering Syria could be used
for agriculture, integrated into the massive hydropower and irrigation
scheme in southeast Turkey known as the Southeast Anatolian Project.

In trying to clear one minefield, the government walked straight
into another. Commentators in the Turkish media, including several
newspapers and television channels that are close to the JDP,
immediately accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of planning to
award the mine-clearing contract to Israeli companies. They noted that
not only are several leading mine-clearing companies owned by Jews but
that Israel was also at the forefront of irrigated agriculture. In a
country where anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic sentiment is widespread,
the result was a public outcry as Erdogan was charged with planning
to give away thousands of square kilometres of Turkey to the Israelis.

"Our borders are our honour," declared Canan Aritman, a member of
parliament for the nationalist Republican People’s Party (RPP). "We
can’t just give them away to foreigners."

There were also claims that Erdogan was trying to ingratiate himself
after infuriating the Israelis at the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland, in January this year, when he stormed out of a televised
debate with Israeli President Shimon Peres in protest at the brutality
of Israel’s military assault on Gaza.

Erdogan has reacted angrily, describing his critics as racist and
religiously prejudiced and having a fascist mentality. He claimed that
the government’s plans would provide jobs for local Muslims, rather
than foreign Jews. "Money has no religion or race. They will invest
here and Ahmet, Mehmet and Ayse will find work, not Yitzhak," he said.

But his critics were unconvinced. "It is very strange for him to
characterise opposition to the presence of Israel, which is the
main troublemaker in the Middle East, in a critical area like the
Turkish-Syrian border, as hostility to foreign capital," commented
Hakan Albayrak in the daily Yeni Safak, which is usually unreservedly
supportive of the JDP.

"If reacting to Israel is a fascistic act, then he became the leading
fascist when he reacted to Israel in Davos," Albayrak added.

There are numerous calls for the mine- clearing tender to be restricted
to Turkish- owned companies and for the reclaimed land to be donated
to local people, starting with those injured or who lost relatives
in landmine accidents.

Nevertheless, when the draft bill — which retains the possibility
of foreign tenders — was brought before parliament in early June,
Erdogan ensured that enough JDP parliamentarians were onboard to vote
it into law. What happens next remains unclear. At first sight, there
would appear to be nothing in the law that contravenes the Turkish
constitution. But the Turkish Constitutional Court often appears to
follow its own logic. It is possible that it finds a reason to annul
the law. What is undoubted is that until the court issues a ruling
the contract cannot be put out to tender.

Whatever the court eventually decides, and despite public outcry
over the possibility of leasing land to Israeli companies, merely
by forcing Erdogan to justify the law, the Turkish opposition has
probably inadvertently repaired some of the damage to Turkish-Israeli
relations that was caused by Erdogan’s outburst at Davos.