People’s Defence Forces (HPG) commander Murat Karayılan defended the group’s statements alleging the use of chemical weapons by Turkish forces and called for an independent investigation, reported ANF.
The HPG’s top commander spoke to ANF regarding Turkey’s attacks against Kurdish fighters and use of chemical weapons in Zap, Avaşîn and Metina in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).
Turkey has conducted operations in the KRI for years against the Kurdish fighters of the HPG, which Ankara says is a threat to Turkish security.
In the ongoing Operation Claw Lock, which Turkey launched in April, HPG guerrillas have filed numerous accusations of Turkish forces using chemical weapons. Meanwhile, Turkish bombardment of inhabited areas in Iraqi Kurdistan have killed multiple civilians.
Based on a question about footage released earlier in October which is said to show HPG fighters who had been exposed to chemical weapons, Karayılan apologised to the victims’ families.
“I think the families and people will make sense of what we had to publish in order to see the reality in the field in a striking way,” said Karayılan.
The commander said that there had been no exaggeration or inaccuracy in the information his group disclosed to the public regarding prohibited conventional and chemical weapons used by the Turkish Armed Forces in KRI.
“Everyone can be sure of the clarity of the information given in this framework,” he said.
The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), whose delegation investigated the chemical claims in northern Iraq earlier this year, noted that Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar’s admission that Turkish forces were using tear gas in combat amounted to a confession of the use of chemical weapons.
The Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Turkey is a signatory, states that tear gas and other riot control agents used in law enforcement count as prohibited chemical weapons in warfare.
But Karayılan said that despite this fact, Turkey used not only pepper gas, but also a wide variety of other lethal substances.
The HPG chief also touched on the denials from the Turkish Ministry of National Defence, which he said were telling given the refusal to allow independent verification.
“If your army is clean, these claims are false and there is no such usage, then provide the opportunity for independent delegations to arrive on the place and guarantee security,” Karayılan said.
“Let these delegations come and investigate and everything will be clear. If you are clean, your purity is revealed,” he said, adding that the HPG would take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of investigators.
Moreover, Karayılan said that the journalists and Şebnem Korur Fincancı, the chair of Turkish Medical Association (TTB), were arrested this month after discussing the chemical weapons allegations because the Turkish government feared the exposure of its crimes.
“The current regime, which is in a crisis in many issues, especially in domestic politics and economy, sees the only way to continue its existence as by strengthening hostility against Kurds and chauvinism in Turkey,” said Karayılan.
A doctor from the IPPNW said neither the Iraqi Kurdish authorities nor Baghdad would effectively investigate alleged Turkish chemical weapons usage, and called on European states to escalate the claims to the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
When Jin News, a Kurdish news website run entirely by women, posed questions to the OPCW on how any investigation could advance if relevant states failed to file appeals, the organisation responded by saying it had been “monitoring” allegations but could not launch an investigation without an application from a state party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
