Miscalculations by politicians are making life difficult for thousands of truckers trying to make a living off Middle Eastern roads. Turkish transporters now find themselves in dire straits after the closure of roads first in Syria and now in Iraq.

In June, when the Islamic State (IS, formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham) took 31 truck drivers from Turkey hostage, there had been more than 11,000 Turkish trucks — mostly huge 18-wheeler semis popularly known as TIRs — on Iraq's roads. IS members had already established themselves as the supreme bandits. Any trucker not paying IS extortion money, called taxes, risked being kidnapped. According to a source who spoke with Al-Monitor, the drivers taken hostage had not paid their “taxes” for four months.

When Iraqi roads became dangerous because of IS, transporters began searching for alternative routes. Such roads, however, cannot simply be selected from Google Maps. Each one must be tested, with risks of crossing borders and driving through towns determined. Knowing how perilous some of these routes can be, it was surprising to hear that the International Transporters Association (UND) had dispatched seven trucks to look for new routes. Their objective was to test the security along alternative routes to Baghdad and Basra given the closure of the traditional roads from Mosul and Kirkuk.

Iranian alternative routes