The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has called on international organisations to investigate its claims that Turkey has used chemical weapons against Kurdish forces in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq more than 300 times. The party invited international delegations to visit the region and inspect the mountain tunnels where it alleges chemicals still linger and examine the bodies of PKK guerrillas whom it says were killed in the attacks.
The PKK has published videos of gases welling from tunnel entrances, as well as details of those who have allegedly been killed and accounts of survivors.
There are also reports of gases affecting local people who attempted to remain in their village homes. On 11 October, the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency reported receiving information that 548 people living in an area close to the site of the alleged Turkish attacks had been hospitalised due to complaints of ‘excessive tearing of the eyes, blurred vision, sudden headaches, nosebleeds, difficulty in breathing and rash’. The agency also reported that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which dominates the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, was working with Turkish officials to suppress news of what was happening.
