Turkey, America and Iraq

[robinturner]

The sleepless nights have paid off: my page on the position of Turkey vis va vis America and Iraq is now up at The Center for Co-operative Research. Well, I say "my page" - I wrote about two -thirds of it.

Comments

hmm

[cf.livejournal.com]

Your paper was an interesting read, and I felt discussing GAP would be a positive contribution. It is the largest and easiest target in Turkey to any angry Iraqi fighter pilots, and gives Turkey the 'ability to hold the same water in our reservoirs for up to a year without it overflowing our dams' in the indirect word of the project's manager.

Also, it is my belief that the numbers on Iraq's trade with Turkey are wrong. Unfortunately, I can't check right now, because I can't remember if its on the DIE or the MFA's publications.

If there is anything you can do about it, I would highly recommend that the section of CCR's site on alleged insider trading be updated. AFAIK, it was a red herring--the trades probably didn't happen--and a urban myth. If the CCR believes it the issue is real, they should get the SEC briefing letters on it on their site.

Re: hmm

[solri.livejournal.com]

GAP is a serious vulnerability - big hydroelectric dams to go boom-splash (I suspect one of the reasons Egypt-Israeli relations improved was the Aswan dam - if the Israelis wanted to, they could wash half of Egypt into the sea). On the other hand, I'm not sure if Iraq seriously has the capacity to hit them. I can't see any Iraqi bomber planes getting through Northern Iraq, and destroying a dam with a missile would require pinpoint accuracy and a really big payload, and I don't think they can manage that either. Still, you never know - sabotage is also a possibility.

I don't know anything about the insider trading issue. Maybe you could contact CCR yourself about it - there's an email address on the site.