Iraqi Kurds Pay Turks to Build a Civilian Airport

December 7, 2003

Iraqi Kurds Pay Turks to Build a Civilian Airport  
KurdishMedia, UK 

SULEIMANIYA, Iraq, Dec 7 (AFP) - 17h40 - Kurdish officials in the northern city 
of Suleimaniya have signed a 4.2-million-dollar contract with a Turkish firm to 
turn a former military airport once used to put down rebellion into a civilian 
facility for passenger airlines. 

"We put it out to tender in various countries and we selected the Turkish 
public works company EGS and the contract was signed on November 15," said 
Khalil Doski, the transport and telecommunications "minister" in the 
"government" of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). 

The work is due to take six months, Doski said. 

"The airport will then be able to handle up to seven medium-sized commercial 
aircraft and two large aircraft. At the start it will be for domestic flights," 
he added. 

Doski said the work would bring the airport up to international standards. 

PUK prime minister Barham Saleh thanked "US military officials for their 
efforts to bring about this strategic project for our region which suffered so 
much under the former regime." 

"Saddam Hussein’s government used this airport for military operations and 
planes took off from this place to bomb Kurdish towns and villages," Saleh 
said. 

The Bakarjou military airport, eight kilometres (five miles) south of 
Suleimaniya, was built in 1986. 

It was abandoned after the Kurdish uprising in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf 
War and Kurdish farmers used the runway to store grain. Before the US-led 
invasion in spring, the airport was rehabilitated for coalition aircraft. 

The 101st US airborne division last week announced the opening of the Hawler 
International Airport in the Kurdish city of Erbil, which is controlled by the 
Kurdish Democratic Party. 

The 1.2-million-dollar project "was the perfect opportunity ... to repay our 
Kurdish allies for the help they gave us during Operation Iraqi Freedom," the 
division said. 

Under US-British air protection, the rival PUK and KDP had controlled zones of 
Iraqi Kurdistan outside the reach of Saddam’s regime following the Gulf War.

 
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