Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty

Policy

The Republic of Turkey acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 25 September 2003, becoming a State Party on 1 March 2004. Turkey has not enacted domestic implementation legislation, but has indicated that its constitution and criminal code, and directives from Turkish Armed Forces General Staff, give legal effect to the treaty’s provisions.[1]

Turkey submitted its eighth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in 2011, covering calendar year 2010.[2] The report includes voluntary Form J with information on casualties and victim assistance.

Turkey participated in the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2011 and in the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010, where it provided updates on its stockpile destruction process.

Turkey is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. Turkey submitted its annual report required by Article 13 in April 2011. Turkey is not party to CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

In June 2011, Turkey restated its strongly held view that engagement by NGOs with armed non-state armed groups with respect to the Mine Ban Treaty requires the prior consent of the relevant State Party.[3]

Production and transfer

Turkey halted production of antipersonnel mines concurrently with a moratorium on the transfer of mines in January 1996. Its production facilities were then gradually phased out of service.[4] Turkey is not known to have exported antipersonnel mines. It imported mines from Germany and the United States (US).

Use

Turkish Armed Forces

Even prior to joining the Mine Ban Treaty, the Chief of the Turkish General Staff issued a directive banning the use of antipersonnel mines by the Turkish Armed Forces on 26 January 1998.[5] However, in 2010 there were serious allegations of at least two instances of use of antipersonnel mines by the Turkish Armed Forces in southeastern Turkey near the border with Iraq, in Sirnak province (April 2009) and Hakkari province (May 2009).

In April 2010, the Turkish newspaper Taraf published a document allegedly belonging to the 23^rd Gendarmerie Division Command indicating that on 9 April 2009, members of the Turkish Armed Forces laid M2A4 antipersonnel mines in Sirnak province.[6]

In the second incident, seven Turkish soldiers were killed and eight wounded by an antipersonnel mine near Cukurca on 9 May 2009.[7] The Turkish Army alleged that the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, PKK) planted the mine, but in June 2009, the Turkish media reported that the mine was in fact laid by Turkish forces not long before the detonation.[8] An investigation by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Van determined that the mine belonged to the Turkish military and was planted on the orders of a Turkish Commander.[9] The case was forwarded to the Turkish General Staff Military Prosecutor’s Office.[10] 

In September 2010, a report on the incident to the Military’s Prosecutor’s Office found that the device used was an “anti-personnel landmine.” Brigadier General Zeki Es, who allegedly ordered the emplacement of the mine, was arrested in November 2010 and a case was opened in the Turkish Martial Court.[11] General Es was however released in February 2011 after several soldiers recanted their previous testimony.[12] In October 2011, a second expert’s report found that General Es ordered the planting of mines in 2009 in the area where the explosion took place in May 2009.[13]

Under the Mine Ban Treaty, Turkey must take every measure to prevent the use of antipersonnel mines, including the application of penal sanctions. The ICBL has called on Turkey to investigate the use allegations and undertake measures to prevent further use.[14] It has also emphasized the need to establish the origin of the mines used, which could have been lifted from the ground and re-emplaced, or taken from stocks retained for training purposes.[15] In recent Mine Ban Treaty meetings, Turkey has stated that it cannot comment on the mine use allegations while the judicial proceedings are underway.[16]

PKK/Kongra Gel

Turkish officials have continued to accuse the PKK/Kurdistan People’s Congress (Kongra Gel) of ongoing use of antipersonnel mines.[17] According to Turkey’s latest Article 7 report, in 2010, 26 military personnel and civilians were killed and 78 wounded by landmines laid by the PKK/Kongra Gel. This was an increase from 25 killed and 58 injured by landmines laid by this group in 2009, but it was still significantly lower than the casualty numbers for 2007–2008.[18] In 2010, two PKK members who laid a mine which caused the death of four civilians in Batman in August 2010 were sentenced to 20–24 years in prison.[19]

Turkey’s transparency reports do not differentiate between casualties caused by antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), nor do they distinguish between victim-activated and command-detonated mines/IEDs.[20]

According to the Turkish General Staff, a total of 132 mines were recovered or disarmed from 1 January to 3 December 2010. The types and locations of the mines were not specified.[21] Turkey has not specifically reported on recovered mines and their disposition in its transparency reports.

The Monitor has not been able to obtain from Turkey specific dates and locations, or other concrete details, of the use of antipersonnel mines by the PKK/Kongra Gel or of specific incidents that led to casualties from antipersonnel mines.

Previously, the PKK/Kongra Gel had admitted to use of command-detonated mines, but denied any use of mines or other explosive devices which can be activated by a person or a vehicle.[22] In July 2006, the NGO Geneva Call reported that the PKK had unilaterally halted antipersonnel mine use by signing the Geneva Call Deed of Commitment. In April 2010, Geneva Call stated that in light of the allegations of use of antipersonnel mines by Turkish forces, which were originally attributed to the PKK, an independent verification mission to determine whether banned antipersonnel mines were used by the PKK was needed.[23]

Stockpiling and destruction

Turkey did not meet its 1 March 2008 treaty-mandated deadline to complete destruction of its antipersonnel mine stockpile. Turkey is in violation of the Mine Ban Treaty until stockpile destruction is completed. Turkey has reported that its munitions disposal facility was not officially inaugurated until 8 November 2007.[24] 

Turkey has stated that in 2004, when it became a State Party, it had a stockpile of 2,973,481 antipersonnel mines.[25] In early 2006, Turkey indicated it had a stock of 2,866,818 antipersonnel mines to destroy. It subsequently destroyed 94,111 mines in 2006, 250,048 mines in 2007, 913,788 mines in 2008, and 972,524 in 2009.[26] In 2010, it destroyed 707,697 antipersonnel mines.[27] In its 2011 transparency report, Turkey stated that 2,938,060 mines had been destroyed in total.[28] In June 2008, Turkey told States Parties that it had removed and destroyed the fuzes of all remaining mines.[29] It said, “Those remnant parts of the anti-personnel mines cannot be used. This is an important and irreversible step accomplished within the destruction process, the stockpiled landmines are not useable.”[30]

In the first half of 2011, Turkey declared that 631 stockpiled ADAM artillery projectiles (each containing 36 mines) or a total of 22,716 ADAM mines had been transferred for destruction.[31] On behalf of Turkey, the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) signed a contract in November 2010 with Spreewerk Lübben GMBH, a company in Germany, to destroy the ADAM mines as Turkey’s Munitions Disposal Facility cannot complete this task. Destruction of the first ADAM mines began in Germany in March 2011 and in June 2011 Turkey stated that it expected destruction of the mines to be completed by 31 August 2011.[32] However, as of October 2011, Turkey had not announced the completion of the destruction program.

In the past Turkey also reported possession of 18,236 M18 Claymore mines, but in 2007 it reported that M18 mines were removed from stockpile destruction list, due to their “specific technical features” and “will not be used as victim activated.”[33] In 2008, officials said that the tripwires for M18s had been destroyed.

Mines retained for research and training

On becoming a State Party in 2004, Turkey initially retained 16,000 antipersonnel mines for training and research purposes.[34] In its Article 7 report submitted in 2011, Turkey reported that it currently retains 15,100 mines for training, as well as for research on a modification project for mine-proof boots.[35]

Turkey continues to retain the largest number of antipersonnel mines among States Parties. It has said that the “large size, as well as the different types of mine action units, necessitate the Turkish Armed Forces to retain a certain number of APLMs [antipersonnel landmines] for training purposes.”[36] 

Turkey said in June 2010 that “these mines which are held for permitted purposes will be subject to review, once the stockpile destruction process comes to an end.”[37] Similarly, in May 2006, it stated that “after covering some more ground in mine clearance, Turkey may review the number of mines retained for training purposes.”[38] In June 2005, Turkey said, “This figure [16,000 mines] may be reassessed as the process of downsizing the armed forces progresses.”[39]