SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Turkey’s Ministry of Defense as well as top government officials on Thursday have strongly rejected allegations that the Turkish Armed Forces had used chemical weapons in their operations against Kurdish militants.
Media close to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) group published videos this week that it said showed chemical weapons being used by the army against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region.
Separately, an international medical groups’ federation published a report this month seeking an independent investigation of possible violations of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention.
“Allegations that ‘the Turkish Armed Forces used chemical weapons’ are completely baseless and untrue,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
“All these disinformation efforts are the futile struggles of the terrorist organization and its allies,” it said, adding that ammunition prohibited by international law and agreements was not used by, or in the inventory of, its armed forces.
The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union, and the United States. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the fallout from the insurgency that it launched against the Turkish state in 1984. It mostly established its footholds in the Kurdistan Region.
