KONYA - Chairmen of chambers of drivers in Turkey made some proposals to the Turkish government about measures to ensure the safety of Turkish drivers in Iraq.
Speaking to the A.A on Thursday, Bekir Duvarci, the chairman of the Association of Drivers & Transporters in Konya, said that chairmen of chambers had held several meetings under umbrella of Federation of Turkish Drivers and discussed the issue.
Stressing that, as it suffered the burden of war the most, Turkey had the right, more than anybody, to make business in Iraq which was going through a rebuilding process, Duvarci said that they were not planning to stop transporting goods to Iraq and Turkish lorries and trucks would continue ferrying goods to that country.
''However, our drivers who have to go to Iraq to earn money, are worried about the law and order situation in this country. In our meetings, chairmen of chambers unanimously decided to make proposals to the government to ensure the safety of our drivers. First of all, we asked the government to prepare a joint plan with the Iraqi authorities to make secure their trips and to find a safe place to unload their cargo. We said that lorries can travel into Iraq in convoys escorted by armed troops. If their safety can't be guaranteed in this way, we also proposed several other measures. Among them, we proposed that either lorries can be driven by Iraqi drivers after they crossed the Turkish-Iraqi border, or lorries carry Iraqi license plates,'' he said.
Duvarci added that officials were still assessing their proposals and they had not received any response.
(MS-ULG) 05.08.2004