• About
  • Contact
  • News Tips
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Nordic Monitor
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
Nordic Monitor
No Result
View All Result

Turkish military lost maps showing landmine locations on Syrian border

by Abdullah Bozkurt
June 30, 2019
Turkish military lost maps showing landmine locations on Syrian border

The Turkish-Syrian border is riddled with some 615,000 land mines planted since the 1950s to prevent smugglers and outlawed PKK terrorists from crossing the borde

Abdullah Bozkurt

The Turkish military lost track of the location of some of the landmines it had planted on the Syrian border, confidential military documents have revealed.

The document, filed by Lt. Salih Alasu on July 15, 2016, recorded an incident in which the Turkish military discovered six landmines during the construction of a concrete wall on the Turkish Syrian border. The lieutenant submitted the report informing his superiors that the location of the Turkish mines was not indicated on any mining map that the military had, prompting questions of how many unknown mines were still buried along the Syrian border.

 

 

The wall, being built as part of the multi-billion-lira Physical Border Security System (SFGS), is expected to cover all 911 kilometers of the Turkish Syrian border. The mines, not identified on any landmine map, were found by Special Mine Search and Clearing Teams (Özel Mayın Arama Temizleme, or ÖMAT) during construction near the Sakızlık border guard post in Hatay province.

All the landmines were manufactured by Turkey, and some were not marked on any mining map the military had, or else the maps were lost.

The report reveals the challenging task of landmine clearing by Turkey as part of its commitment under the Ottawa Treaty for the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and their Destruction, known informally as the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. Turkey ratified the convention on March 1, 2004 and agreed to to clear all its landmine fields by 2014. However, that promise was not kept. Turkey had asked for eight additional years to finish clearing the landmines, but even that extension does not appear to have resulted in clearing all of them.

More than 1 million landmines are estimated to remain undetected in Turkey. Thousands of mined areas are not cleared, and some are not marked on military maps. Ankara had destroyed over 3 millions stockpiled mines and kept some for training purposes.

The Turkish-Syrian border is riddled with some 615,000 landmines planted since the 1950s, first to prevent smugglers and then Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists from crossing the border. Turkey suspended the clearing activity when the Syrian crisis started in 2011.

demining
Previous Post

Gülen’s interview with Wall Street Journal deemed to be evidence of terrorism in Turkey

Next Post

Turkish troops in Doha monitored daily developments in Qatar, reported back to Turkey

Abdullah Bozkurt

Abdullah Bozkurt

[email protected]

Next Post
Turkish troops in Doha monitored daily developments in Qatar, reported back to Turkey

Turkish troops in Doha monitored daily developments in Qatar, reported back to Turkey

Donate

Nordic Monitor

Nordic Monitor is a news web site and tracking site that is run by the Stockholm-based Nordic Research and Monitoring Network. It covers religious, ideological and ethnic extremist movements and radical groups, with a special focus on Turkey.

Tags

al-Qaeda Andrei Karlov Andrei Karlov China coup Cyprus Diyanet Egypt espionage Germany Greece Gülen Movement Hakan Fidan Hulusi Akar IHH Iran IRGC Quds Force ISIL ISIS Isis al-qaida Israel Libya Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu MIT Muslim Brotherhood NATO President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Profiling Qatar Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Russia SADAT Saudi Arabia spying Spying Activities Suleyman Soylu Sweden Syria The United States Torture Turkey Turkish Intelligence Agency Ukraine United States Yasin al-Qadi

Recent News

Failure to deliver aid and send rescue teams to quake disaster area is turning into anger against Erdoğan

Failure to deliver aid and send rescue teams to quake disaster area is turning into anger against Erdoğan

February 8, 2023
Secret military intel shows most foreign jihadists let go in Turkey after detention

Turkey released two-thirds of ISIS detainees, sent over 1,000 ISIS jihadists to Europe

February 6, 2023
Turkey to ratify a military agreement with Hungary that includes intelligence sharing

Turkey to ratify a military agreement with Hungary that includes intelligence sharing

February 3, 2023

Copyright © Nordic Research and Monitoring Network All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Extremism
  • Military
  • Terrorism and Crime
  • Intelligence
  • Foreign Policy
  • Contact Us
    • Give us a tip!
  • About Us

Copyright © Nordic Research and Monitoring Network All rights reserved.