Turk sanctions on Iraq may stoke Kurd separatism

By Thomas Grove

HABUR, Turkey (Reuters) - Ankara's threatened economic measures against Iraq would drain sorely needed money from Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast and stoke social tensions that could in turn fuel Kurdish separatism, trade leaders say.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's cabinet is due to decide on Wednesday what measures to take against groups backing separatist Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq after Turkey's National Security Council (MGK) last week recommended action.

The MGK's intended target was widely seen as the autonomous Kurdish administration of Masoud Barzani, which has infuriated Ankara by refusing to clamp down on the rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Among measures mooted by members of the ruling AK Party are cutting off electricity to northern Iraq and halting or slowing traffic at Habur border gate. But this would hurt Turkey too.

"If they close the Habur border gate, the region will explode and you can easily see an increase in terrorism in the region," said Halil Balkan, head of the chamber of industry and commerce in Sirnak, near the Iraqi border in southeast Turkey.

Nearly 60 percent of the region gains some income from the transport of goods. In Sirnak province alone, some 28,000 trucks are registered for international transport, Balkan said.

These are telling statistics in a region blighted by decades of separatist violence. Unemployment in the southeast is officially 15 percent, against a national average of 10 percent, but economists say the real figure is probably much higher.

LINES OF TRUCKS