Turkey, wary of Kurds, raps Iraq oil trade demand
ANKARA, Jan 29 (Reuters) Turkey today rejected demands from the Iraqi national oil company SOMO that its firms should deal in future with Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq when doing business there.
Ankara is worried about Kurdish moves towards greater autonomy in northern Iraq, fearing they could spark separatism among its own Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
It insists on dealing only with the central Baghdad government and halted transport of refined oil products to Iraq over the weekend via its Habur border crossing in protest at a letter from SOMO to Turkish exporters.
''Our counterpart is the Iraqi central government. We expect the central government to honour its contracts. Nobody should test us,'' Foreign Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen told a news conference.
''We have never seen such an irregularity in Iraq,'' he said, adding that Turkey would review its petroleum trade policy with Iraq if Baghdad did not comply with existing deals.
Iraq accused Turkish politicians last week of fomenting division in its northern areas and said it might bring some form of economic pressure to bear on Ankara.
Turkey has accused Iraqi Kurds of systematically settling the city of Kirkuk, at the expense of resident Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmen, with the aim of incorporating its oil wealth into an independant Kurdish state. That, Ankara fears, could in turn fan Kurdish separatism on its own territory.
Turkey has almost no crude reserves of its own and imports most of its needs, but re-exports refined oil products to neighbouring Iraq.
Turkish territory also provides crucial land routes for Iraq's oil exports to the West. Convoys of trucks from Turkey brave dangerous roads to supply Baghdad and other cities as well as US troops based in Iraq.
Witnesses say a 40-km long queue of trucks has built up at Habur border gate since the weekend decision.
Kartet, the only Turkish energy company selling electricity to Iraq, said it had no plans to cut electricity exports to the country.
''Our electricity exports are continuing with no interruption,'' company coordinator Nuray Atacik told Reuters.
REUTERS
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