WRITTEN QUESTION E-0670/01 by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Council. German chemical weapons in Turkey.
Date: 2001-03-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Germany, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Türkiye, UN convention, arms control, arms trade, chemical weapon, export licence

C 261 E/172

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.9.2001

(2001/C 261 E/198)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0670/01

by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(8 March 2001)

Subject: German chemical weapons in Turkey

In mid-December 1999 the German Ministry of Defence admitted that it wanted to help Turkey construct
a military chemicals laboratory. The project would have a (cid:145)purely defensive function(cid:146). Yet the (cid:145)Kennzeichen
D(cid:146) programme on ZDF television has quoted military sources as maintaining that on 11 May 1999 the
Turkish army was using chemical weapons on the Kurdish PKK movement. Twenty Kurds had apparently
been killed. Research at the University of Munich also shows that the Turkish warheads on the chemical
weapons used were supplied by the German firms Buck and Deyfag.

Fourteen months ago questions were tabled to the Commission, the Council and the Belgian Minister of
Foreign Affairs to obtain clarity about these two issues. In its joint answer to written questions E-1203/00,
E-1204/00 and E-1205/00 (1), the Council stated that the specific points made in the questions had not
been raised in the Council or in any of the Council bodies. However, on 31 January 2001 the Belgian
licence for German
Minister of Foreign Affairs provided some information on the dubious export
warheads: (cid:145)The warheads, filled with tear gas, received a licence because of their use for purposes of law
and order(cid:146).

In view of the dramatic events in Turkish prisons, the violations of human rights, the persistent use of
chemical weapons in Kurdistan and the fact that the arms supplies are in contravention of the Chemical
Weapons Convention, I should like to ask: Does the Council subscribe to the Belgian Minister(cid:146)s attitude
towards the export licence for German warheads for Turkey ((cid:146)The warheads, filled with tear gas, received a
licence because of their use for purposes of law and order(cid:146))? If not, why not?

(1) OJ C 46 E, 13.2.2001, p. 146.

Reply

(30 May 2001)

All EU Member States as well as Turkey are States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the
Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (CWC).

Article VIII of the Convention established the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
(OPCW) (cid:145)to ensure the implementation of its provisions, including those for international verification of
compliance with it(cid:146). All States Parties to the CWC are members of the OPCW. This is the organisation
entrusted with the verification of compliance by States Parties with the provisions of the Convention.

Requests by a State Party for clarification on situations which may be considered ambiguous or which give
rise to a concern about the possible non-compliance of another State Party with the Convention are
processed in accordance with the provisions of Article IX of the Convention.

The specific issue referred to by the Honourable Member has not been raised within the Council or the
Council bodies.