US embassy cable - 05ANKARA648

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000648 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/01/2015 
TAGS: ETRD, IZ, MARR, PREL, PTER, TU 
SUBJECT: THE TURKEY-IRAQ BORDERS CROSSING WORKS DESPITE 
APPARENT CHAOS 
 
Classified By: DCM Robert Deutsch for reasons 1.4 b & d. 
 
1.  (C) Summary and Introduction:   At the Turkey-Iraq border 
crossing, officials and facilities are strained but still 
functioning.  The lines on the Turkish side waiting to enter 
Iraq are relatively short and orderly, in contrast to the 
apparent chaos across the Iraqi border where hundreds of 
trucks wait in makeshift lots along the highway for 
southbound escorts, while 10,000 more wait in a series of 
muddy lots or a long line stretching over the Zakho pass. 
The cause of the backlog in Iraq is a manual security 
inspection conducted by the Turkish Jandarma.  In the midst 
of this, Iraqi customs officials, truck company expeditors 
and KBR employees try to bring some order to the process 
while a thousand Peshmerga patrol the area to keep the 
simmering frustrations from exploding.  Customs officials are 
doing as much as can be expected to process the never-ending 
lines of trucks and respond to special requests from the U.S. 
 Despite the frustration of the long waits, needed supplies 
continue flowing, largely because of the coordination among 
Turkish, Iraqi and U.S. officials at the border.  End Summary 
and Introduction. 
 
2.   (SBU)  On January 12-13, Mission Turkey personnel 
visited the Turkish-Iraqi border crossing at Habur 
Gate/Ibrahim Khalil, the single border crossing between 
Turkey and Iraq and an important route for coalition supplies 
and SOMO-purchased fuels.  AMCON Adana PO, Ankara econoff and 
EXBS adviser, Marine Attache, along with Zakho MCT personnel 
and accompanied by EUCOM LNO to TU SF and TFF, visited the 
Turkish Habur gate border crossing, attending the weekly 
meeting of Turkish, Iraqi and U.S. officials at the border. 
There we pressed for better communication between GoT and IIG 
border officials and a sustained effort to reduce the 
northbound backlog of about 10,000 trucks.  GoT officials 
expressed a desire to cooperate on pushing southbound 
sustainment loads as expeditiously as possible, but regretted 
that heavy security screening causing the northbound backlog 
was a direct result of the need to "protect Turkish citizens 
from the security threats in northern Iraq and elsewhere in 
Iraq from spilling into the Turkish Republic."  Both GoT and 
IIG officials noted that a dialogue on a second border 
crossing was underway without elaborating on that 
discussion,s progress or timetable. The northern Iraq SOMO 
representative stressed that fuel imported from Turkey was 
being transported regularly as far south as Baghdad and was 
not "only for local consumption,"  a statement noted by the 
Turkish MFA representative who chairs the weekly meeting. 
Turkish driver representatives also complained that coalition 
sustainment cargo was being prioritized for transit at their 
expense and that this was increasing the already significant 
hardship that they faced in the over a week to ten day-long 
waiting line to return to Turkey. 
 
3.  (SBU)  In parallel meetings in Iraq with the Ibrahim 
Khalil Customs Director, we pressed for better communication 
on the timing of cross-border pushes to alleviate the 
clogging of the one-lane transit bridges north- and 
southbound.  We also pressed for demonstrably better Iraqi 
security pre-screening to mitigate some of the GoT concerns 
about the nature of potential returning trucker cargoes.  The 
Ibrahim Khalil Director acknowledged the need to work on 
security pre-screening and said a U.S. contractor in March or 
early April would deliver prototype x-ray and other 
unidentified non-invasive security screening technology to 
that end.  He predicted that this technology would address 
some GoT concerns, once it was brought on-line. 
 
4.  (SBU)  In subsequent tours of transshipment and muddy 
holding yards for the thousands of backlogged vehicles in 
Iraq, we saw the equivalent of 50-60 miles of trucks snaking 
through mud lots and four-wide lines awaiting a window to try 
to re-enter Turkey.  The Iraqi side is a sprawling and 
milling ant farm of tanker trucks, freight vehicles, 
make-shift food vendors, idled truck drivers playing 
backgammon or drinking tea, cargo office huts and rutted 
roads on which a handful of U.S. MCT personnel, a KBR 
contractor and a couple dozen Iraqi customs administrators 
try to run herd.  According to the Ibrahim Khalil Customs 
Director, approximately 1,000 Peshmerga provide perimeter 
security for the border crossing, utilizing the natural bowl 
geography as a proxy line of defense.  Miraculously -- and 
mysteriously -- it functions to the extent that cargoes keep 
flowing.  However, the northbound flow has been severely 
restricted by Turkish security checks. 
 
5.  (C)  Embassy Ankara EXBS adviser extensively surveyed the 
southbound (into Iraq) GoT Customs process, finding it 
lacking administrative support and funding, but functioning 
much like most busy international border crossings.  He was 
not permitted to approach the Jandarma unit screening trucks 
entering Turkey from Iraq.  Customs officials reported that 
the planned modernization of the customs facilities would 
commence in March and would improve truck processing.  (Note: 
 for the last two years this project has been a month or two 
from beginning.)  However, the 10-18 month project might have 
a negative impact on border throughput, they added, although 
they could offer little insight into how that aspect of the 
project might be addressed, reflecting that was an "Ankara 
issue." 
 
6.  (SBU)  In a January 13 meeting with Savas Unlu, Turkish 
sub-governor in charge of the crossing, the Mission Turkey 
team and MCT representatives heard positive comments on the 
improving cross-border information flow on the status of 
incident reports involving Turkish citizens, a GoT 
appreciation that recent IIG policies on exporting fuel were 
meeting some GoT fuel smuggling concerns and an assertion 
that the extensive inbound/northbound security was still 
necessary given the "PKK and insurgent threat across the 
border."  Unlu also stressed that Turkey had lost "almost a 
hundred citizen drivers since the start of the conflict, 
making Turkey, although not a troop provider, the third 
largest casualty-suffering country in Iraq." 
 
7.  (SBU)  Unlu also underlined that, although the GoT 
sincerely appreciates the Coalition effort to provide more 
information on incidents involving Turkish citizens in Iraq 
and wishes that information flow to broaden, it has seen its 
citizens "dismayed by the poor manner in which those remains 
sometimes return." 
 
8.  (C)  Comment:  Turkish and Iraqi officials on either side 
of the border do a surprisingly good job in miserable 
conditions and in a tense situation.  The Turkey-Iraq border 
has been operating 24 hours a day, full-tilt for over a year. 
 In that time, Turkey,s concerns about PKK infiltration from 
Iraq have increased, the condition of roads and bridges has 
deteriorated and more than 70 Turkish drivers have lost their 
lives in Iraq.  Nevertheless, our supplies are accorded 
priority treatment at the borders and the supply line 
continues to function.  When special requests are made, both 
sides have shown a willingness to help.  It has been our 
experience that for most problems, unforeseen events or 
special requests that affect the border, the coordination 
done on the ground by Turkish, Iraqi and MJLC is effective. 
The movement of trucks southbound -- from Turkey into Iraq -- 
runs well.  Turkish and Iraqi Customs officials have managed 
to process about 1500 trucks per day, and when there has been 
a backlog (the last time due to the December truckers 
strike), they have managed to quickly reduce the backlog. 
The process northbound is another issue.  Truckers wait long 
periods in miserable conditions to cross the border into 
Turkey.  Organizing the trucks into holding lots and lines is 
a monumental task.  Customs officials on both sides are doing 
their best to organize and process the trucks, but the 
backlog persists because of the manual searches conducted by 
the Turkish Jandarma. 
 
9.  (C) Day-to-day cooperation between Iraqi and Turkish 
customs authorities works reasonably well.  The involvement 
of the MCT at the weekly border meetings gives us important 
insights into emerging problems and some influence on 
decisions.  Turkish authorities have complained about 
security for their drivers in Iraq but they have done little 
to reduce the backlog that is a serious frustration and 
economic cost for the drivers, as well as a security risk in 
itself.   Embassy has raised concerns about the border 
backlogs repeatedly and at all levels with the GOT.  We have 
seen some improvements, but the government does not seem 
willing to address the biggest bottleneck --  the Jandarma 
inspection at the border.  End Comment. 
 
10. (U) Baghdad Minimize Considered. 
EDELMAN