SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) said on Monday Turkey had used “chemical weapons” in its attacks against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the past five months.
Turkey regularly carries out air and ground attacks against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region. It says neither the Iraqi government nor the Kurdish government has taken measures to combat the group.
The Turkish military has established a dozen military bases in the Kurdistan Region’s border as part of a military campaign against the PKK.
“In the war that has been raging for five months in South Kurdistan in the vicinity of the guerrilla tunnels, the Turkish state is continuously using chemical weapons to annihilate the guerrilla and capture their tunnel positions,” the KCK said in a statement.
“The U.N., Europe, the USA and many other countries think only of their own interests. It does not matter to them that Turkey is committing a genocide against the Kurds,” it added.
“This attitude encourages the genocidal-colonialist Turkish state to use all conceivable forms of oppression and inhuman measures against the Kurds.”
In May, the People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the PKK military wing, accused Turkey of using “chemical and poison gases 12 times” against its fighters in the Kurdistan Region.
“Europe, the USA and the U.N. are jointly responsible for the crimes, the occupation and the massacres perpetrated through air strikes against the Kurdish people and the peoples of Turkey,” the KCK said.
The group called for “active action” against Turkey so as to stop it from using “chemical weapons”.
It also called on people in the U.S. and Europe to protest against the use of the weapons and bring Turkey to court for its “crimes against humanity”.
“The AKP-MHP government is committing crimes against the Kurdish people and all humanity. It will definitely be brought to justice and held accountable for this.”
