Meetings Being Held Over Iraq's Decision to Stop Oil Exports to Turkey
DALTON TANONAKA, CNN ANCHOR: Three days of meetings are being held over Iraq's decision to stop oil exports to Turkey. Iraq cut the flow last month as part of a larger campaign to protest United Nations' economic sanctions. Turkey says it's lost $40 billion in trade revenue since those sanctions took place 11 years ago. CNN's Jane Arraf reports on what's at stake on the Habur border crossing in southeastern Turkey.</s>JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On this road, southeastern Turkey meets northern Iraq. The highway, a lifeline that binds the two neighbors. The trucks rumbling through this section of the ancient silk route are carrying crude oil from Iraq, hundreds of million of dollars a year of cut-rate oil in a deal between the Turkish and Iraqi governments. (on camera): There are hundreds and hundreds of these trucks, waiting to cross the border to load up on Iraqi oil for Turkish Refineries. Ankara says the trade is as essential to Turkey as it is to Iraq. (voice-over): The U.N. has no part of this oil trade. The supplies go directly to the Iraq oil fields to Turkish tankers through the Kurdish- controlled northern Iraq, where Kurdish authorities take a cut. The U.S. wants it stopped. But to do that, Turkey says, would be suicide. It says this region, where it has waged a war with Kurdish guerrillas for 15 years, is a breeding ground for unrest. Turkey says it has lost tens of billions of dollars in trade with Iraq since the Gulf War. Most of it came through this border. Sometimes the oil slows to a trickle, but on this day, the line of trucks to Iraq border stretches eight kilometers, five miles back. Ramazan Dahl (ph) has been waiting in line for five days. "If I had any other choice would I do this job," he asked. "We're coming here because we have to. If we didn't, we'd starve." It's 40 degree Celsius. There are now showers, and hardly any food or water. There is such a surplus of trucks, when they aren't waiting in line for the border, they are waiting for their turn to get into line. "There are 15,000 trucks in this area," says Marat Marin. "The most I can get from a trip is 150 million lira, and that's not enough." That's less than $150 dollars, the only income he'll get for a month. Alil Hajar (ph), who's bringing diesel from Iraq, complains he has to pay almost a third of the $500 he'll get to the Turkish government. Turkey said there's no way the U.S. could compensate it for stopping the border trade. It says, in fact, it doesn't need to crackdown. The money goes into a Turkish-controlled account, which Iraq uses to buy supplies, like televisions and steel pipes, goods permitted, though not checked by the U.N. This Muslim country said it would be wrong to deprive fellow Muslims in Iraq of goods they need, and wrong to prevent people here from trying to make a living. Jane Arraf, CNN, the Habur border crossing in southeastern Turkey.