From the Bosphorus: Straight - Van needs more than empty slogans

The plan we revealed yesterday to convert the eastern city of Van into an international free industry and commercial zone with Iranian energy and Turkish know-how is a good one. The vision of Industry and Trade Ministry Nihat Ergün is one we applaud. But before our applause gets too loud, we would like to share a few concerns.

Yes, a manufacturing hub connected to Central Asian markets via the existing rail link passing through Van and on to Tabriz is a good one. It’s basic outlines strike us as a sound industrial policy and Turkey is in dire need of an intelligent industrial, technology and energy policy.

But let us not forget that Van has been a boulevard of broken dreams for many past schemes that never got off the ground. The existing industrial park dating to the 1960s, for example, has space for about 200 factories. However, fewer than a dozen were ever constructed and today only two or three have any activity at all.

A major World Bank project more than 30 years ago, “Van Et,” or “Van Meat,” was supposed to transform animal husbandry in the region. It took 12 years before production even began and was a commercial failure. Privatized in 2006, the prospects and products of the company are looking better but any ripple in the 70 percent unemployment rate has yet to be felt.

Visit the local “100 Yıl” University: There’s a project to protect and nurture the local Van cats for which the city is famous. They’ve all gone feral. Meanwhile, students complain of no computers and poor instruction.

Ask any tradesman in the city what the basis of the local economy is – the answer is invariably “toz,” or “powder,” the local slang for the drug trade. Hopes to develop abundant geo-thermal energy in the region have faltered amid squabbling among municipalities. The indigenous fish that migrate between Lake Van and its tributaries are threatened and may soon disappear. There are hopes tied to the tourism industry in this breathtakingly beautiful city. The news we report today that Christian worship will at last be allowed at the lake’s Akdamar Armenian church is welcome. A government-sponsored entrepreneurial development program has helped a few enterprises and there are signs of life in the traditional jewelry trade.

But this is a city that has heard many promises many times. And, all too often, the people of Van have been disappointed. They are skeptical. So must we be.

“We can surely create a new China, Bangladesh or Egypt along the Turkey-Iran border for the textile sector,” the local governor breathlessly told reporters. We believe he and others can create that and far more. But it will take far more than bold statements; it will take planning, discipline, serious investment and long-term commitment. Can the government deliver? We hope so. So does Van.