Turkey
Casualties
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Casualties |
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All known casualties (between 1984 and 2017) |
6,360 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties (1,269 killed; 5,091 injured) in the period 1984–2010; 404 mine/ERW casualties in 2011–2017 (98 killed; 306 injured)* |
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Casualties in 2017[1] |
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Annual total |
42 |
Decrease from |
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Survival outcome |
7 killed; 35 injured |
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Device type causing casualties |
14 antipersonnel mine; 5 improvised mine; 23 ERW |
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Civilian status |
37 civilian; 4 deminer; 1 military |
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Age and gender |
19 adults: |
23 children: |
Casualties in 2017–details
The Monitor identified at least 42 new mine/ERW casualties in 2017 in the Republic of Turkey. Media reports collected by the Initiative for a Mine-Free Turkey (IMFT)included 38 casualties, including 37 civilian casualties and one military personnel. The majority of civilian casualties were children (23).[2] Four deminer casualties were also included among other casualties in Turkey’s Article 7 report.[3] The 2017 total represents a decrease from the 57 new mine/ERW casualties in 2016, but an increase from the 34 new mine/ERW casualties in 2015.[4]
Turkey reported that there were 23 civilian antipersonnel mine casualties in 2017, including nine people killed, and seven children among the injured. In a marked change from previous years, Turkey reported on civilian casualties and deminer casualties and excluded military personnel from its casualty reporting.[5]
Total casualties, details*
The total number of mine/improvised explosive device (IED)/ERW casualties in Turkey is unknown. Turkey had reported 4,602 mine/ERW casualties, including 919 people killed and 3,683 injured, as of the end of 2015.[6] However, according to a media report in April 2010, the Ministry of Internal Affairs had recorded 6,360 mine casualties since 1984; 1,269 people killed (625 security personnel; 644 civilians) and another 5,091 people injured (with the number of civilians compared to security personnel injured not reported) in mine incidents.[7] In 2007, a demining specialist reported at least 10,000 mine casualties (mostly civilians) along the Turkish-Syrian border since the 1950s (more than 3,000 killed and 7,000 injured).[8]
In its Article 5 deadline Extension Request of March 2013, Turkey provided information on antipersonnel mine casualties occurring between 2004 and the end of 2012: 882 military personnel (260 killed; 622 injured) and 168 civilians (56 killed; 112 injured). Turkey also included disaggregated information on the age and sex of civilian casualties for a similar time period (10 years); of the total civilian casualties reported, 15 were female and 50 were children.[9] In contrast, Monitor reporting, which included IMFT data for the period from 2004 to the end of 2012, counted more than twice the number of civilian mine/ERW casualties; 377 civilian casualties of 979 casualties recorded in total.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, casualty data for 2017 is based on email from Muteber Öğreten, Initiative for a Mine-Free Turkey (IMFT), 25 July 2018; and Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Reports (for calendar year 2017), Form H.
[2] Monitor analysis of data in email from Muteber Öğreten, IMFT, 25 July 2018.
[3] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Reports (for calendar year 2017), Form H.
[4] Email from Muteber Öğreten, IMFT, 17 May 2016.
[5] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2017), Form H. See previous Monitor casualties and Victim Assistance profiles on Turkey for examples of past reporting.
[6] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Reports (for calendar years 2006–2014), Form J; response to Monitor questionnaire by the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations in Geneva, 31 August 2005; and presentation of Turkey, Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration, Geneva, 13 May 2003.
[7] Melik Duvaklı, “Türkiye, 26 yılda 1.269 canını mayına kurban verdi” (“Turkey, in 26 years 1,269 lives victimized by mines”), Zaman, 13 April 2010.
[8] Email from Ali M. Koknar, President, AMK Risk Management, 5 July 2007; and Ali M. Koknar, AMK Risk Management, “Turkey Moves Forward to Demine Upper Mesopotamia,” Journal of Mine Action, No. 8, 2 November 2004.
[9] Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 Extension Request, 28 March 2013, p. 7.