Selahattin Demirtaş, the jailed former co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), called on the Turkish parliament and opposition not to remain silent regarding Turkey’s alleged use of chemical weapons against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. “To pass it off with silence is to confirm the crime,” he said via his Twitter account on Wednesday.
3- Hiç kimse bir an bile aklından çıkarmasın ki, kimyasal silah kullanımı insanlığa karşı suçtur ve insanlığa karşı suçlarda zaman aşımı yoktur.
Böyle bir suç işleyenler, bağımsız yargı önünde mutlaka hesap vereceklerdir.
— Selahattin Demirtaş (@hdpdemirtas) October 19, 2022
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP and Grand National Assembly of Turkey’s (TBMM) Human Rights Inquiry Committee member, Sezgin Tanrıkulu, announced that he would submit a parliamentary question on the accuracy of the images that support the allegations on Thursday.
Kimyasal silah kullanıldığı iddialarına ilişkin görüntüleri izledim. Kimyasal silah insanlığa karşı bir suçtur.Yarın itibariyle iddialara dayanak olan görüntülerin doğruluğu üzerine soru önergemi Meclis gündemine sunacağım.Bu iddialar karşısında açıklama yapılmamış olması ilginç
— Sezgin Tanrıkulu (@MSTanrikulu) October 19, 2022
Demirtaş noted that his lawyers informed him about the video footage released by the People’s Defence Forces (HPG) on Tuesday, which shows a group of Turkish soldiers with a device allegedly to deliver an explosive chemical device. The footage also shows guerrilla fighters suffering from the alleged chemical attacks.
After the video’s release, HPG announced that 17 guerrilla fighters were killed in Turkey’s chemical weapons attacks.
A lawyer and human rights advocate himself, Demirtaş, suggested that using chemical weapons is an international crime against humanity. He said that an independent international delegation should go to the region and investigate.
Stating that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) government has no bounds in its war policy, the prominent imprisoned Kurdish politician said, “Those who commit such a crime will be held accountable before an independent judiciary.”
The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Chair and forensic medicine specialist Professor Şebnem Korur Fincancı said in a Medya Haber broadcast that after she went over the footage she concluded that some sort of toxic chemical gas that directly affects the nervous system was used.
Presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın denied the accusations that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) used chemicals on Thursday.
Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, Emniyet ve İstihbaratımız, terör örgütünün oksijenini kestikçe yeni iftira kampanyalarına başvuruyorlar.
Kimyasal silah yalanı, terörü aklamaya ve estetize etmeye çalışanların beyhude çabasıdır.
Terörle mücadelemiz azim ve kararlılıkla devam edecek.
— İbrahim Kalın (@ikalin1) October 20, 2022
Demirtaş has been imprisoned in Edirne Prison in Turkey since 2016.
