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Syrian War Clouds Turkish Plan To Clear Land Mines

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  • Syrian War Clouds Turkish Plan To Clear Land Mines

    SYRIAN WAR CLOUDS TURKISH PLAN TO CLEAR LAND MINES

    The Associated Press
    November 28, 2012 Wednesday 10:05 AM GMT

    By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press

    For two people walking into a Turkish minefield, they looked awfully
    assured.

    The pair strode in from Syria on a recent afternoon, following a faint
    track across the grassy plain. They slipped into Turkey through a fence
    near a vacant military watchtower and vanished into an olive grove.

    Such hazardous crossings are a smuggler's tradition at the border,
    where Turkish plans to clear a vast belt of land mines have been
    clouded by Syria's civil war. Last week, Turkey asked NATO allies to
    deploy Patriot missiles as a defense against any aerial attacks from
    Syria after shells and bullets spilled across the border, killing
    and injuring some Turks.

    Starting in the 1950s, Turkish forces planted more than 600,000
    U.S.-made "toe poppers" mines designed to maim, not kill and other
    land mines along much of its 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with
    Syria, which runs from the Mediterranean Sea to Iraq. The aim was to
    stop smugglers whose cheap black market goods undercut the Turkish
    economy and later to thwart Kurdish rebels from infiltrating Turkey's
    southeast.

    However, the mines also killed and maimed civilians, took arable land
    from Turkish farmers and are now considered by many as a crude method
    of policing.

    Turkey says it plans to clear anti-personnel mines on the Syria
    border by 2016, missing a March 2014 deadline required by the
    international Mine Ban Treaty. The International Campaign to Ban
    Landmines, a Geneva-based group that won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize,
    has criticized Turkey for its slow progress.

    The European Union has committed (EURO)40 million ($52 million) to
    demining and surveillance equipment near Turkey's borders with Iran
    and Armenia on the basis that Turkey could eventually become the EU's
    most eastern border. Turkey, adjacent to the Middle East and Central
    Asia, has long been a drug trafficking route and a transit point for
    migrants who enter Europe illegally.

    Since last year, nearly 200,000 Syrian refugees have crossed into
    Turkey, mostly through border posts or areas known to be free of
    mines. A Syrian man and two children were reported killed in August,
    however, by an explosive in an area of Mardin province that had been
    mined by the Turkish military. Syrian forces last year were also
    suspected of laying some mines to stem an embarrassing refugee flight
    into Turkey.

    A Turkish smuggler in the border village of Akinci, south of the
    city of Gaziantep, said he has charged Syrian refugees up to 25
    Turkish lira ($14) each to lead them through Turkish minefields. He
    has also acted as a lookout, monitoring shifts of Turkish military
    sentries and telling another smuggler who escorts Syrian clients,
    usually before dawn.

    "I don't know where they are going. I don't care," said the gaunt man,
    who would not give his name and claimed he was desperate for cash. "I
    know it's risky for me, but I have to do it."

    According to lore, villagers used to enter the Akinci mosque, which
    lies beside a minefield, for prayers and then sneak out the back into
    Syria for business.

    On foot, mule or motorcycle, smugglers traditionally brought in
    items from Syria, including tea, gasoline, cigarettes, electronics
    and livestock, to sell for a profit in Turkey. The Syrian war has
    disrupted but not extinguished the trade among communities that were
    abruptly divided when the border was drawn in the last century.

    Some smugglers try their luck at border posts, which became easier to
    cross when visa requirements were removed in 2009 after the warming of
    ties between Turkey and Syrian President Bashar Assad, now an enemy
    because of his attacks on the Syrian opposition. A few weeks ago,
    a Syrian man was detained while trying to enter Turkey with gold bars
    in his waistband.

    Approved traffic moves the other way, as Turkey and other nations that
    oppose Assad send logistical and humanitarian aid to Syrian rebels
    and civilians. While Turkey says it is not arming the insurgency,
    Syrian rebels have told The Associated Press they receive some weapons
    and ammunition from the Turkish side with only sporadic interference
    from border patrols. According to rebels, these weapons are bought
    with funding from rich Syrians or sympathetic Gulf Arabs.

    Fences are down and cars can cross in some parts adjoining Syria's
    Idlib province, an opposition stronghold.

    The first mines on the Syrian border were planted after smugglers
    killed two customs agents in 1956. Turkey laid more mines in the 1980s
    and 1990s, at the height of its war with the rebel Kurdistan Workers'
    Party, or PKK, which was backed by Syria. Turkey is again worried
    about possible infiltration by Kurdish rebels who are cheered by an
    autonomy grab by their ethnic brethren in Syria.

    The Turkish defense ministry told the AP it started evaluating bids
    from demining companies in July and would sign contracts once the
    assessment is complete.

    "Developments in Syria to this day have not affected our plans or
    work," the ministry said. NATO said it is assisting with "technical
    preparations" for the mine clearance.

    Cenk Sidar, managing director of Sidar Global Advisors, a
    Washington-based consultancy, said he believed that Turkey would sign
    contracts but wait until the Syrian civil war is resolved.

    "According to plans, the government will build electronic border
    surveillance systems simultaneously with the demining. Even this seems
    too risky at this point," Sidar wrote in an email. "It may take a few
    years, and some qualified/selected firms may change their pricing or
    conditions due to the increasing instability."

    Between 2010 and 2011, a Turkish firm, Nokta, and a partner from
    Azerbaijan cleared more than 1,200 mines around an archaeological
    site, Karkemish, on the Syrian border. They found anti-tank mines
    and M14 mines known as "toe poppers." It was hard to work with metal
    detectors because the soil also contained remnants of coins and other
    ancient fragments; some mines had to be dug out by hand rather than
    detonated to avoid damaging cultural treasures.

    There is no reliable data for casualties from mines laid by the Turkish
    military, whose fight with the PKK has claimed tens of thousands of
    lives. The rebels, who regularly target security forces with mines and
    roadside bombs, took up arms in 1984 in the name of Kurdish rights;
    Turkey and the West label them terrorists.

    Residents around Akinci recalled a villager who lost a limb to a mine
    several years ago while cutting trees for military sentries. Halil
    Kaya, 64, said he had heard of several dozen people over the decades
    who were killed or injured by mines. A deep furrow runs down Kaya's
    right forearm from a Turkish military bullet in his days as a smuggler.

    Mehmet Dagdeviren, 49, said the Turkish military had softened and
    now might only fire warning shots at smugglers. He interrupted the
    chat to take a phone call, then rushed to a car and drove away.

    A delivery from Syria needed collection.

    Umut Colak in Akinci, Turkey, Bulut Emiroglu in Istanbul and Ben
    Hubbard in Beirut contributed.

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