Why is the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons silent?

Does the world order really promote a humanist mentality as claimed by the global powers that maintain the current world order, or does it just protect the interests of a dozen elite capitalists and state bureaucracies which know no laws?

There is an urgent need to understand and define the contemporary world order in a proper way. The current world order has been shaped over thousands of years. Most importantly, we know that the two world wars have brought the history of humanity and our ecological and social systems to ruins. How can we explain the tendency towards a similar and more destructive period while the atrocities of recent history are still evident thanks to the age of technology and communication?

After the Second World War, the great powers such as the US and European states established a new humanitarian legal order that protected universal human rights. In fact, this was what was expected of Western states, because the industrial revolution first developed in the west, and they had a monopoly over the entire conventional weapons technology. Thus, chemical and nuclear weapons were prohibited within the same legal framework due to the destructive effect of chemical weapons produced by the thriving chemical industry in western states. Contrary to Europe and the US, it was not possible for the Middle East states to develop nuclear and chemical weapons because of their lack of infrastructure and scientific know-how. Even if they can develop chemical weapons, they need to purchase raw materials from Europe and the US. In this context, all responsibility lies with the United Nations (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons), Europe and the US.

The use of chemical and toxic gases has come to the fore following the Turkish incursion into the Garê area in February 2021. After the meeting between Erdogan and Biden on April 23, a second large-scale operation was launched against the Medya Defense Zones, and the Turkish army has used toxic gases and chemical weapons for six months. Documents and findings that reported the use of chemical weapons during the six-month period did not galvanize international institutions into action. The main reason was the lack of sufficient findings!

In the last month, HPG Press Centre reported that the Turkish army repeatedly attacked the battle tunnels in Girê Sor and Werxelê areas with a new chemical weapon which was different from the previous ones. As a result of these chemical attacks, five guerrillas in Werxelê and six guerrillas in the Girê Sor area were martyred. Furthermore, the HPG released an interview with the three guerrillas who survived the chemical attacks in the Girê Sor area.

Six guerrillas were martyred in the battle tunnels in the Girê Sor area, near the Iraq – Turkey border line, where poisonous gases and chemical weapons were used intensively by the Turkish army. Three other guerrillas were slightly affected. It is reported that it was very difficult for the three guerrillas who survived the chemical attacks to find their fellow fighters. Two guerrillas are said to have been seriously affected by the chemical weapons. The accounts of the guerrillas are quite remarkable, which reveal how the Turkish army brutally used poisonous gases and chemical agents against the battle tunnels for days without a pause even though the tunnels were closed. Moreover, the battle tunnels were bombed many times with large amounts of explosives.

The question that all Kurdish institutions and democratic public opinion should ask is this: Why does the OPCW, an institution within the United Nations, still remain silent despite so many findings? There is only one reason why the OPCW keeps silent despite all these reports and findings: to protect the fascist Turkish state. Given all these allegations and reports, it is necessary for the OPCW to act immediately. An official explanation should be requested from the Turkish state, which is a signatory to the OPCW, and a team of experts should launch an investigation into the areas mentioned above. The Turkish state promised to fulfil all its obligations in the convention it signed, so the blame should be put on the OPCW.

The latest attacks of the Turkish state remind us of the Anfal campaign launched by Saddam Hussein in 1986. The Saddam regime initially used chemical weapons against villages in the mountainous regions where Peshmerga forces were based. Encouraged by the silence of international institutions and world states, the Saddam regime started to act more recklessly and used weapons of mass destruction as its next move. Currently, we have been experiencing a similar situation again. It is the same states and international institutions that encourage the Erdogan regime. When it comes to guerrilla forces, nobody seeks legitimacy, on the contrary, this situation prompts the Erdogan regime to behave more recklessly. It is hypocrisy to recognize one genocide and to pave the way for another at the same time. 106 years ago, when the Armenian people were subjected to genocide with the weapons developed by the western states, all these states chose to remain silent for their own interests. Let alone remaining silent, the German state was even helping the Turkish state in coordinating the genocidal attacks by deploying its own officers and generals to the region. We should not allow these self-interested groups to make us watch the same movie again for the sake of their own interests. Therefore, we should call on international institutions and especially the US and European states to embrace their own laws.

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