Everybody would be happy.īut, well, it is hard to make Turks happy. We would get rid of the mines, people in the region would find new jobs and the foreign company would make money. But the government had a smart idea: Turkey could make back the expenses of de-mining by leasing the land to the same company for some 49 years, or perhaps less, for organic agriculture. So outsourcing the job to an expert company made more sense. The government asked the military, and learned that clearing the mines would necessitate the purchase of very expensive technical equipment that would be used only once. Moreover, the Ottawa Treaty that Turkey recently signed obliges the country to clear all its mines by 2014.
![mustafa akyol mustafa akyol](https://www.americamagazine.org/sites/default/files/inline-images/Mustafa_Akyol_author_photo.credit_Murat_Sariaslan.jpg)
The mines have not only been lethal to nearby villagers, they have also rendered this fertile strip of land useless.
Mustafa akyol full#
This 500-meter wide and 510-kilometer long "security zone" is full of thousands of landmines, a relic from Turkey’s "enemies, enemies everywhere" era. The issue at hand was the minefield on the Turkish-Syrian border. Last week Erdoğan made another surprise move, defending the right of an Israeli company to invest in Turkey, and criticizing the history of his own country, and his own political tradition, for having a "fascist mindset." While this comment came as a relief to Turkey’s liberals, it not only raised eyebrows, but also prompted heated protests among the country’s more numerous nationalists.
![mustafa akyol mustafa akyol](https://s3.amazonaws.com/talkstar-photos/uploads/c8c33315-b91c-4b2a-9ebe-efc946457ad0/MustafaAkyol_2011X-embed.jpg)
The way he stormed the international forum came as a relief to most Middle Easterners, but raised eyebrows among many Westerners.
![mustafa akyol mustafa akyol](https://commonreader.wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/IslamicJesus-2.jpg)
He surprised the world four months ago in Davos by bashing Israeli President Shimon Peres for "killing children" in Gaza. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a man full of surprises.