European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 20, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sanctions on Iraq Hurt turkish truckers by j Kin Cruger Mediterranean Bureau a a a a he e-24 Highway the main Overland Trade. A i. Route Between Turkey and Iraq used to be. I swollen with traffic. H a Tanker trucks hauling crude Oil to a refinery in a Turkey fought Linos of trucks carrying shoes textiles and a hard to got food   to the people of raft a i y a ,. In the old Days 5,000 trucks a Day ran Over that route. Traffic was terrible sometimes you got stuck unable to Quot pass for hours behind Long lines of trucks. Night and Day a the traffic never stopped. You had to be very careful Quot a said an official irom the american consulate in Adana y Turkey a. /. V a a a the truck traffic stopped in August. For mile after mile the Road that runs through Southeastern Turkey to the. Quot iraqi Border was nearly deserted. A a by a. Now All but a handful of the hundreds of Gas a stations restaurants motels shops and. Repair stalls that once did a booming business beside the Highway Are. Shuttered. Most have been vandalized. Doors Are ajar. 1 windows Are shattered. They stand As forlorn reminders a of. The billions of dollars m Trade Turkey has lost a a y traffic has increased since the end of the War but. It is mainly trucks hauling equipment and supplies to the kurdish Rei geos and an occasional car carrying a. Reporters and photographers. A its a far cry film. The Days before the Gulf crisis. Much of the traffic a and tie  was from iraqi tankers carrying crude Oil to the targe refinery outside Batman a Turkey and then returning Vilh Rolinde products to Iraq. A a along the Way Many Tanker Drivers sold Gas and  Black Market outlets according to the consulate official. The bulk of the traffic going the other Way on the 450 mile route across Turkey to Iraq originated in Southern Turkey at the important seaports of Mersin and. Iskenderun. , Turkey s chief Mediterranean. Container port contributed 95 percent of the Highway traffic the consulate official said Quot a -.  the u n. Sanctions against Iraq went into effect a Turkey turned off the spigot on the fuel pipeline that ran. From Iraq s Northern oilfields to Iskenderun and halted All  Iraq. The trucking business plummeted y parking jots at scores of Gas stations along the e-24. Became littered with empty fuel tanks that were once a a mounted on truck Chassis  with Iraq stopped truckers took the tanks off their vehicles and converted the trucks to haul general cargo the official said some truckers headed for Northern Turkey to  a sea ports of Trabzon and Hopa and found work hauling cargo into ran said Joseph stat a partner in Atako the biggest shipping company in  that did t help the merchants along e-24. As the a truck traffic died so did their businesses and most of them deserted the area. A y a. The merchants Haven t been the Only ones  suffer elsewhere shippers and forwarding agents dependent a upon Trade with Iraq have seen their businesses go into Steep decline. A  Quot we have 40 trucks and they have been Idle since aug .2,�?� stat said ,. J. The Trade embargo has been a big disaster for us Trade has dropped by about 50 percent. We were t expecting it and we have suffered terribly Quot a a although the kurdish Relief Effort employs hundreds of. Turkish trucks and Drivers the Impact has not been a Page 14 the stars and stripes a amps map Peter Jaeger enough to turn around the trucking Industry. A a. 1 there Are so Many trucks chasing the Market to haul Relief supplies and Market rates Are so cheap that we Are not interested in that business Quot stat said,-"no.w, Trad with Iran is increasing and we Hope to get some of   have lost s7 billion As a result of the u.n.,. Embargo and other Side effects of the Gulf War said a / u s embassy official in Ankara. A a a. Stat said Southern and Southeastern Turkey lost half of that. H. A a some help for the turkish trucking Industry came with. The recent Long term lease of More than 500 trucks to a a saudi Arabia a. A a. Meanwhile with the turkish iraqi Border still closed to regular traffic the e-24 sits lonely and baking under the asian Sun. For most of its length it is a two Lane Road. Heading eastward it crosses Barren Plains snakes through rugged mountains and runs ruler straight past observation Tower after observation Tower along the a. Syrian Frontier. A a. A a Quot Quot a the  Border crossing located Midway Between silo i Turkey and Zakhoo Iraq was once a heavily guarded area of wartime tension. These Days the enormous customs zones located on either Side of the Border Are dilapidated and nearly deserted. A tributary of the Tigris River splits the countries and is spanned by a single Bridge another of the a a Crossings two Bridges a victim of the War is badly damaged. _ /. A few u s soldiers guard the Entrance to the iraqi. Frontier a Concrete no Man s land populated by a handful of bored iraqi police and customs officials a a there Are no signs of the hectic place this once was. ,. A monday or