Turkey

The Republic of Turkey has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In both 2010 and 2011, Turkish officials informed the Monitor that Turkey’s position on joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions had not changed from the position previously articulated in 2009.[1] In March 2009, Turkey said it shares the “humanitarian concerns behind the efforts limiting the indiscriminate use of cluster munitions” and was “not making use of cluster munitions.” Turkey, however, stated that its primary aim was to fulfill its obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty and, “for the time being, [it was] not considering to sign the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.”[2]

In early August 2011, a government official informed the Monitor that, “Turkey no longer produces, transfers, exports or imports cluster munitions; has not produced cluster munitions since 2005; and has never used cluster munitions in the past.”[3]

Turkey is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty, but missed its antipersonnel mine stockpile destruction deadline in 2008. It has declared, however, that it will complete the destruction of its remaining antipersonnel mines by the end of August 2011.

Turkey has also expressed its support for cluster munitions to be addressed within the framework of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).[4]

Turkey attended several of the diplomatic conferences of the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but participated in both the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and in Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008 as an observer only and thus did sign the convention.[5]

Turkey has shown interest in the convention despite not joining. It attended an international conference on the convention in Santiago, Chile, in June 2010. Turkey attended the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010 as an observer and made a statement on its Armed Forces Rehabilitation Centre, which is also open to civilians and provides assistance to victims of mine and explosive remnants of war. Turkey also noted its work on victim assistance in the framework of the Mine Ban Treaty.[6] Turkey did not participate in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2011.

CMC member, the Initiative for a Mine-Free Turkey, has continued its work to garner domestic support for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[7]

Convention on Conventional Weapons

Turkey is a party to the CCW, but has not ratified CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Turkey actively engaged in the CCW deliberations on cluster munitions in 2010 and the first half of 2011. For many years, Turkey has repeatedly argued in favor of a CCW instrument on cluster munitions on the basis that it would include the major users and producers.

In August 2010, Turkey reaffirmed its willingness to work to reach a consensus on a CCW protocol on cluster munitions and said it did not agree that a protocol would be counter-productive for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[8] In September 2010, Turkey maintained that the CCW’s objective was not to pursue a total ban on cluster munitions and asserted that the use of cluster munitions would remain legitimate.[9]

In November 2010, Turkey supported a continuation of CCW work on cluster munitions, noting “we have come a long way,” but also appealing to CCW participants to “rise above political differences and not turn a deaf ear” to the prospect of a CCW protocol that “will make a difference on the ground.”[10]

In February 2011, Turkey acknowledged that the chair’s draft text could “be improved,” but said “even as it stands it will make a difference of the ground” and be complementary to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[11]

Throughout CCW work in 2010 and the first half of July 2011, Turkey continued to oppose the inclusion of a definition of cluster munition victims in the draft chair’s text that would match that of the Convention on Cluster Munitions on the grounds that combatants that are casualties from the “legitimate use of cluster munitions…cannot legally be described as victims.”[12]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In June 2010, a government official informed the Monitor that “Turkey does not use, transfer, produce or import cluster munitions.”[13] In early August 2011, a government official informed the Monitor that, “Turkey no longer produces, transfers, exports or imports cluster munitions; has not produced cluster munitions since 2005; and has never used cluster munitions in the past.”[14]

A US Department of State cable issued in February 2008 and made public by Wikileaks in May 2011 states that, “there exists a de facto moratorium on the use of cluster munitions by the Turkish armed forces [but] Turkey’s military doctrine continues to call for the use of cluster munitions in the event of an ‘all out war.’”[15]

In March 2009, Turkey stated that it “is not making use of cluster munitions.”[16] It is not known if Turkey used cluster munitions in the past.[17]

In the past, Turkey has produced, exported, and imported cluster munitions; and it currently has a stockpile.

According to its website, the Turkish company Makina ve Kimya Endustrisi Kurumu (MKEK) produces an extended range M396 155mm artillery projectile which contains self-destructing M85 dual purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions.[18] MKEK has also produced, under license from the US, M483A1 155mm artillery projectiles with DPICM submunitions.[19] It is unclear if this latter projectile is still in production.

The firm Roketsan has produced the TRK-122 122mm rocket, which contains 56 M85 DPICM submunitions.[20] Turkey sold 3,020 of the TRK-122 122mm rockets to the United Arab Emirates in 2006–2007.[21]

A media article in August 2008 reported that Turkey and Pakistan were looking at potential cooperation in the “production of cluster bombs with 300–400 bomblets each for different missions,” as well as “the sale and production of 122 millimeter short-range and long-range multiple rocket launcher ammunition.”[22]

The US supplied Turkey with 3,304 Rockeye cluster bombs, each with 247 submunitions, at some point between 1970 and 1995.[23] In 1995, the US announced that it would provide Turkey with 120 ATACMS missiles with submunitions for its Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) launchers.[24] Turkey also possesses US-supplied M26 rockets, each with 644 submunitions, for its MLRS. The US announced in October 2004 its intent to transfer to Turkey two CBU-103 Combined Effects Munitions cluster bombs, each with 202 submunitions, and two AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapons, each with 145 submunitions.[25] In September 2005, it announced the proposed sale of another 50 CBU-103 and 50 JSOW.[26]

Slovakia reported the export of 380 AGAT 122mm rockets, each containing 56 submunitions, to Turkey in 2007.[27]