AJC Calls on Turkey to Respond to Chemical Weapons Claims

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Aug 15, 2010, 02:57 ET

NEW YORK, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Jewish Committee urged Prime Minister Erdogan to investigate claims that Turkey recently used chemical weapons against Kurdish separatists.

"Turkey owes the world a clarification of the photographs of corpses whose injuries are consistent with chemical weapons use," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "Since chemical weapons are proscribed under international law, it is imperative that Turkey take credible steps to allay the concerns of many in the international community that these weapons may have been used against Kurdish separatists."

The charge of chemical weapons use appeared in a recent article in the German magazine Der Spiegel, which received photographs allegedly showing the victims of a September 2009 attack in southeast Turkey. The PKK, a Kurdish separatist group defined as a terrorist organization in both the United States and the European Union, has regularly accused Turkey of using chemical weapons over the past fifteen years, but no independent evidence has emerged to substantiate their claims.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee