Military likely to have planted banned mines elsewhere, expert says

Official documents published by the liberal Taraf daily showed that the TSK had planted banned anti-personnel land mines in the outer regions of the southeastern province of Şırnak on April 9, 2009.

According to those documents, belonging to the 23rd Gendarmerie Command, the army installed M2A4 anti-personnel mines. These mines had been banned from being developed, produced, used, acquired or stockpiled by the Mine Ban Treaty, or what has come to be known as the Ottawa Treaty, for the 156 party nations. Turkey signed the treaty on Sept. 25, 2003, and started to enforce it on March 1, 2004.

Öğreten, who is working for the Initiative for a Mine-Free Turkey, an NGO in the global network of the 1997 Nobel Prize co-laureate ICBL, told Today’s Zaman that with the discovery it is understood that Turkey is fundamentally violating the Mine Ban Treaty. “This treaty is to rid the world of land mines to prevent damage to human life. We, however, see that Turkey is not complying with its provisions to which it became a party more than six years ago,” she said, underlining the uncontrollable damage those land mines cause to their victims. “They do not recognize whether it is a soldier, a civilian or an animal that touches them,” she said.

Officially titled the “Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction,” the Mine Ban Treaty required Turkey to completely destroy its stocks within four years, by March 1, 2008, and clear all such mines in its territory within 10 years, by March 1, 2014. However, Turkey failed to destroy its stockpiles before the deadline and the destruction process is still under way. “Turkey, therefore, has already been marked as a country violating the Ottawa treaty,” Öğreten said. The treaty, however, does not envision any sanctions for violator states because becoming party to it is entirely voluntary.

Land mines elsewhere?

She specifically drew attention to the possibility that those anti-personnel land mines had been planted in many other locations in the Southeast, too. She said they had received complaints from people in the region about the land mines since they started working in Turkey in 2002, and with the recent discovery of the TSK’s operations in Şırnak, those allegations have been confirmed. “Locals have been alleging that soldiers and village guards were planting those land mines for a long time. These allegations now seem to be confirmed with the recent news,” said Öğreten.

The liberal Taraf daily showed that the TSK had planted banned anti-personnel land mines in the outer regions of the southeastern province of Şırnak on April 9, 2009.

The documents obtained by Taraf also reveal that the army used the name “Special Alarm Warning System” to disguise the fact that it has been violating the treaty by planting anti-personnel land mines. The discovery sparked questions of whether the TSK had put the blame on the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the death of seven soldiers who were killed in a land mine explosion last year. It was later understood that the mines had come from the TSK’s own arsenal.

The Van Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office discovered that a land mine explosion which killed seven soldiers on May 27, 2009, was caused by mines planted by the Turkish military and not the terrorist PKK.

16,000 anti-personnel landmines kept for training in Turkey

Öğreten lastly pointed out that Turkey has expressed that it was going to keep 16,000 anti-personnel mines for training, citing various reasons including the size of the Turkish military and the fact that its neighbors are not party to the treaty. Turkey is one of the party countries having the largest number of anti-personnel land mines. Among Turkey’s neighbors, Georgia, Armenia, Iran and Syria have not yet joined the body of participating states.

However, according to Öğreten, whether the land mines planted in Şırnak last year are part of those 16,000 that were kept for training purposes or not should also be answered by the TSK. “But above all, one way or another, Turkey pledged not to plant any anti-personnel land mines whatsoever after March 1, 2004. Hence, what it has done in Şırnak and possibly in other locations are fundamental violations of the treaty,” she concluded.