Turkey has bought $21 million in tear gas and pepper spray — mainly from US and Brazil — over the past 12 years, Turkish media reported. The US is known for its exports of crowd control munitions to countries rocked by widespread protest.
In total, Turkey imported 62 tons of tear gas and pepper spray
between 2000 and 2012, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported.
Turkey is currently being rocked by its biggest wave of
anti-government protests in years. At least two people have been
killed and thousands injured from clashes with police since the
protests began on Friday. Videos and images have emerged on
social media showing police in riot gear firing tear gas, using
pepper spray and physically beating demonstrators.
Ankara has been criticized for its mass crackdown on the protests
and its widespread use of tear gas and pepper spray to disperse
demonstrators.
On Tuesday, the UN’s human rights office urged Turkey to conduct
an independent probe into how its security forces have treated
the anti-government protesters. “We’re concerned about reports
of excessive use of force by law enforcement officers against
protestors in Turkey,” UN high commissioner for human rights
spokesperson Cecile Pouilly said.
Opposition Nationalist Movement Party [MHP] leader Devlet Bahceli
condemned the police’s excessive use of tear gas: “Yes it is
true that the [ruling Justice and Development Party] AKP has
established gas chambers similar to the Nazis, it is true that
the AKP pokes its nose into everybody’s private lives,”
Bahceli told his party members in Parliament.
Human Rights Watch urged Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s
government to “end police violence and excessive use of force
against protesters across Turkey,” the group said in a
statement published on its website.
“The police’s record on abusive policing has been surpassed as
they use tear gas and water cannon fire against peaceful
demonstrators,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior Turkey
researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc apologized on Tuesday
for the initial treatment of the protesters at the planned
demolition of Taksim Gezi Park to build a mall. He said that the
police’s actions were wrong, and said that security forces have
been ordered not to use tear gas except in cases of self-defense.
“The excessive violence that was used in the first instance
against those who were behaving with respect for the environment
is wrong and unfair. I apologize to those citizens,” Arinc
said at a news conference.
However, Prime Minister Erdogan has referred to the protests as
the work of secular enemies who have failed to come to terms to
the electoral win of his own AK Party.
The US has a history of selling tear gas and other crowd
control munitions to countries wracked by widespread protest.
Amnesty International harshly criticized the US State
Department for approving export licenses for the shipment of
crowd control munitions and tear gas to Egypt amidst the
violent and often lethal crackdowns on protesters by security
forces in 2011.
Amnesty confirmed that one US companies had shipped 21 tons of
ammunition to Egypt — enough for 40,000 rounds of tear gas
grenades and canisters — in addition to a separate shipment of
17.9 tons.
In 2013 alone, Egypt’s Interior Ministry ordered 140,000
teargas canisters from US, amounting to nearly $2.5 million.
Egypt’s opposition has said the purchase recalls the rule of
ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.
This article originally appeared on: RT