Question:
What is the reality of the issue of planting mines on the Syrian-Turkish border? How and when did it happen? To what extent is the international conflict related to it? May Allah reward you with goodness.
Answer:
The decision to plant mines along a section of the border between Turkey and Syria was issued in 1956. Implementation began between 1957 and 1959 along 513 km of the total 877 km land border between the two countries—as drawn in colonial treaties after the collapse of the Khilafah—with a width of 350 meters. These lands are estimated at an area of 216 km², of which 186 km² belong to the state treasury, while the rest belongs to the state railway, other institutions, and private citizens. A total of 615,145 mines were planted in this area. Additionally, 75,115 mines were planted on Turkey's border with Iraq along 42 km; 191,142 mines on the Turkish-Iranian border along 109 km; and 21,984 mines along 17 km on the Turkish-Armenian border. Mines were also planted on the Turkish-Bulgarian and Turkish-Greek borders, but these were previously removed because they are NATO allies.
The reasons for Turkey planting these mines so densely on the border with Syria were the atmosphere of the Anglo-American conflict in the region and the threat of it reaching Turkey. Coups were alternating in Syria between British agents and American agents since 1949, and this intensified in the 1950s. This unstable situation affected Turkey, especially since America was serious in the 1950s about penetrating Turkey. The British and their agents in Turkey, particularly the "military," feared that America would exploit the unstable situation in Syria to transfer its "contagion" to Turkey. America's active movement toward Turkey was clear; at that time, the star of Gamal Abdel Nasser, America's chief agent in the region, was rising. He began attacking Turkey and British agents, targeting the Baghdad Pact, which was established by Britain and of which Turkey was a primary founding member. Turkey, led by President Celal Bayar—the godfather of the Baghdad Pact in the region—was working to include King Hussein's Jordan (a strong British base) and Lebanon under Camille Chamoun (a British agent). Although the Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was loyal to America, the one who held the reins and was the actual ruler of the country in Turkey was the military, which was closely linked to the British and steeped in loyalty to them. All of this coincided with the defeat of the British in the Tripartite Aggression they launched against American agents in Egypt in 1956, which eventually resulted in the British being expelled from Suez and losing their bases in Egypt. Their colony, Iraq, was also threatened with falling into American hands. This was in addition to the demands raised by Arab nationalists for the recovery of the Sanjak of Alexandretta, which was annexed to Turkey in 1939 by an agreement between France (which colonized Syria) and the British, in exchange for Turkey granting Greece 12 islands in the Aegean Sea.
Because of all this, the British and the military saw that the ideal solution to protect Turkey from the danger coming from the direction of Syria was to plant mines on the border. The British and the military worked vigorously to find justifications for placing a mine barrier between Syria and Turkey. Thus, Celal Bayar focused on the claim that communists were coming from Syria to sabotage the system in Turkey. He pointed to the Soviet Union's attempts to approach Syria to further mislead the people—since Soviet influence was actually far from Syria—and he also highlighted the unrest in Syria, focusing more on the atmosphere in Syria regarding the Sanjak of Alexandretta, which was being pushed by Abdel Nasser.
Thus, the military created justifications for planting mines, and most of the mined area was in the Sanjak of Alexandretta. It should be noted that Turkey's fear regarding Syria is old, dating back to Turkey's annexation of this Sanjak. After Ismet Inönü took the presidency of the Turkish Republic in 1939 following the death of Mustafa Kemal, he said in a speech that year that there are two sources of danger to the Republic: Syria and reactionism—by reactionism, he meant the natural religion, Islam. This speech is considered historically famous as it defined the features of Turkish foreign policy. He had said that Turkish foreign policy is built on the basis of the Anglo-Turkish Friendship Treaty signed in 1939. This speech was brought up again in 1998 when Turkey began massing its forces on the Syrian border, allied with Israel and Jordan, and was on the verge of attacking Syria to topple the Assad family and their American-agent remnants.
- These mines remained for a long time, and many Turkish soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded during the decades since they were planted. It was mentioned, citing official statistics, that in the ten years between 1993 and 2003, 299 soldiers and 289 civilians were killed, and 1,524 soldiers and 739 civilians were wounded, in addition to the killing of many cattle and other livestock. Complaints were raised among the locals, and demands grew for the removal of the mines, arguing that their harm outweighed their benefit and that they were useless. Furthermore, they sever the bonds of brotherhood between the two peoples and cut off kinship ties, as the people on both sides of the border—especially in and around the Sanjak of Alexandretta—are linked by kinship, and intermarriage was common. Additionally, the mines prevent them from trading with each other, serving to entrench division and separation under the pretext of preventing smuggling.
However, the emergence of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), which carried the banner of Kurdish nationalism and began launching attacks against Turkey from Syria across the border, caused these calls for mine removal to fail under the pretext of the PKK threat, even though these mines did not prevent the infiltration of members of this separatist party nor stop its attacks. In fact, it found and recruited its members within Turkey.
The first person to raise the issue of removing the mines planted on a section of the Syrian-Turkish border, and indeed the first to resolve to remove them, was Turgut Özal, who became the Turkish Prime Minister in 1983 and was loyal to America. However, the military prevented him from achieving his goal. Celal Hasan Gezal, who served as an advisor to Prime Minister Özal in his first government and as a state minister and official spokesman in Özal's second government, wrote an article on this subject on 26/05/2009 on the "Time Turk" page, saying: "Several attempts have begun since the eighties to clear the area of mines and reclaim it for agricultural production. I was personally tasked during the late Özal's government to work on this project. However, because it did not comply with the technical conditions of the Turkish Armed Forces, work on it stopped. This issue should not be considered outside of the Turkish Armed Forces. The story of mine clearance has continued until today." He said: "This situation appeared as a result of incorrect security policies at that time." He added: "The Turkish Armed Forces were assigned this task by a Council of Ministers decision regarding mine clearance in 1992 (during Özal's era), and preliminary work related to it continued until 2003." This former minister's words confirm that the military was behind the planting of mines despite Menderes, and naturally, the British were behind the military.
On March 1, 1999, an agreement was concluded among 146 countries in Ottawa, Canada, to remove and ban the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel mines. This treaty was against the problem of landmines spread around the world. The treaty stated, among other things: "...each State Party is responsible for removing all anti-personnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control no later than ten years after the entry into force of the Convention for that State."
On March 12, 2003, the bill related to the Ottawa Convention was accepted in the Turkish Parliament and was put into implementation on March 1, 2004.
On 1/3/2008, the Turkish government pledged to remove the mines by 1/3/2014, which is 10 years after the treaty was put into effect in accordance with the agreement.
- Erdogan exploited this agreement and prepared the mine removal law, then presented it to Parliament. It sparked sharp debates and tensions in Parliament that lasted for two weeks over several sessions until it was approved by the majority with some amendments to the draft law presented by the ruling party. On 4/6/2009, the Turkish Parliament approved the law for removing mines planted between Turkey and Syria with 255 members in favor against 91 opposing, while the number of abstainers and absentees was 204. The decision became effective when it was published in the Official Gazette on 17/6/2009. The General Secretariat of the Turkish Ministry of Defense issued a statement regarding the removal of these mines on 30/6/2009, stating that the work of mine clearance is assigned to the Ministry of National Defense and that it will be implemented in four stages. It will be carried out through NAMSA, which is the "NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency." According to the law, priority is given to the General Staff, and then to the Ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Finance to state how to work on it. With the approval of these institutions, the company that cleans the mines from the area will be granted the right to lease these lands for 44 years.
It reached public opinion and the media that the mine clearance project would be granted to an "Israeli" company. Especially since the ambassador of the Zionist entity (Israel) in Ankara, "Gaby Levy," went to the city of Urfa during the intensification of discussions between the opposition and the government regarding the law and stated: "It is of great importance for every Jew to come to these lands where our ancestors and our ancestors' ancestors came" [Source: Hürriyet newspaper on 26/05/2009]. Subsequently, he visited the Turkish Parliament while it was debating the relevant draft law, giving the impression that the Zionist entity (Israel) is behind the course of events.
The opposition parties exploited this and accused the government of selling Turkish lands to Israel, which destroyed Gaza, embarrassing the government. However, Erdogan's answers to the opposition's accusations confirmed these charges. During his speech at the regional meeting of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the city of Düzce, in response to opposition accusations that the government would give those lands to Israel (i.e., to the Jews) for free, he replied: "Now a global investment company wants to invest in our country, and if you look, you see voices coming out at us saying: 'That is not possible because it is a Jewish investment company.' My friend, listen, they are coming to invest in my country; they will invest 500 million dollars or a billion dollars. Listen, you are shouting about unemployment! Look, they will invest. When they invest, who will work here? Isaac will not work here, but Hassan will work, and Ahmed and Mehmet will work! Look, we are solving the unemployment problem, don't you like that! Do we reject a foreign company because it is of this religion or that! Money has no religion or nationality!" [Source: Radikal newspaper on 24/05/2009].
Thus, Erdogan deceives his people by saying he will employ them as workers in a company, even if it is hostile to these people, at a time when they are a people whom Allah honored with Islam and dignified with carrying it and performing Jihad in His cause for hundreds of years. The head of the Turkish government today wants to keep these people as servant-workers for everyone near and far across the globe.
Erdogan then added in his response to the opposition: "Before us, the tripartite government which included the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP - Devlet Bahçeli's party), the Democratic Left Party (DSP - Ecevit's party), and the Motherland Party (ANAP - Yilmaz's party) had concluded many agreements with Israel. They must not deceive the people by acting as if they had never signed any agreement." (Radikal Turkish page 7/6/2009). It is as if he wants to say that everyone is equal in their love for the Zionist entity that usurped Palestine!!
- It is worth mentioning that what Khalifah Abdul Hamid said to the Jews regarding the land of Palestine is almost being repeated now, but regarding Turkish lands. In an era when the Palestinian cause was a global issue, Jewish leaders were negotiating with the West, especially the British, to possess the land of Palestine. They tried at that time to exploit the financial crisis suffering the Ottoman Khilafah to achieve their goal. They offered huge sums to cover the Khilafah's deficit in exchange for being granted the land of Palestine. However, Khalifah Abdul Hamid turned away "Herzl," the representative of the Zionist societies. Sultan Abdul Hamid's answer was:
"Advise Dr. Herzl not to take any further steps in this matter. I cannot abandon even a single inch of the land of Palestine, for it is not my own property, but rather it belongs to the Islamic Ummah. My people have fought for this land and watered it with their blood... Let the Jews keep their millions. If the Khilafah State is one day torn apart, then they can take Palestine without a price. But as long as I am alive, that will not happen..."
Khalifah Abdul Hamid—may Allah have mercy on him—possessed foresight and vision, and he was true in his outlook. Behold, Palestine was given to the Jews after the demise of the Khilafah without a price! Now, what happened to Palestine is being repeated on a smaller scale in Turkey. They want to give the lands adjacent to Syria to the Jews for 44 years under the pretext of clearing them of mines, to place a new dagger in the chest of the Islamic Ummah.
- This is regarding the government's position. As for the main opposition represented by the Republican People's Party (CHP); we know very well that if the CHP were in government, it would not hesitate to achieve the interests of the Jews. It is the legacy of Mustafa Kemal who destroyed the Khilafah and who was with the Jews to the bone. After all this, can it be imagined that the Republican Party is angry because Erdogan wants to give a Jewish company the right to exploit those lands?! However, the CHP exploited the issue of the government's intention to lease the lands to a Jewish (Israeli) company for 44 years in exchange for mine clearance to stir up public opinion. This was not due to sincerity or piety, but to achieve its political interests and goals of undermining the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Therefore, the CHP visited the southern regions and presented the matter intensely to the public in those areas to gain popularity. The CHP knows well that the Muslim people in Turkey possess intense anger and resentment toward the butcher of Muslims in Palestine (Israel), i.e., the Zionist entity! Thus, it wanted to exploit these angry feelings of the Muslims to undermine the AKP, and it achieved serious gains in this direction, as the CHP's actions were admired by Muslims to the extent that they were praised by some newspapers loyal to the AKP itself!
This is the reason for the opposition's noise against Erdogan—exploiting the feelings of Muslims against the AKP based on leaks that the government does not mind giving those lands to an Israeli company to exploit, due to the position of Muslims in Turkey who are severely hostile to the Zionist entity that usurped Palestine. This is the reason; otherwise, the CHP competes with the AKP in serving the interests of the Jews, and were it not for partisan competition, it would not have shown any opposition.
- It was the duty of the state, having committed the sin of planting mines between the lands of Muslims, not to return and commit another sin by giving the lands to a foreign company, especially an Israeli one, to invest in for 44 years in exchange for mine removal. The correct solution required by Islam is for the state and its institutions, especially the military, to remove the mines and invest in the lands, which are mostly public property and state property, while a small portion is private property to be returned to its owners after removing the mines from it.
No matter how much is spent on removing the mines and reclaiming these lands, they will generate a large income that covers all that was spent and more, creating an agricultural and industrial revival due to the oil and minerals they contain.
It is land that has been left for over 50 years, making it suitable for natural Organic farming, which has become more profitable in recent years. This is especially true since 80% of its area, which totals about 216 km² (of which 186 km² belong to the state treasury and the rest to government railways, other institutions, and private citizens), is suitable for agriculture.
Furthermore, production of 2,500 barrels of oil per day has already begun from 10 wells drilled by the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) in that region. On the other side of the area, the Syrian side, about 450,000 to 500,000 barrels of oil are produced daily from about 560 wells. According to Turkish parliamentary records, officials at TPAO say they could extract another 2,500 barrels per day if 12 new wells were opened.
Thus, the state's failure to exploit these lands and giving them to a foreign company for nearly half a century is a crime in Islam. How then if the company is affiliated with the Zionist entity that usurped Palestine, which occupies the first of the two qiblas and the third of the two Holy Sanctuaries, and spreads corruption and mischief therein?! It would then be a major crime, the sin of which falls upon everyone who contributed much or little to this extremely evil project.