Hürriyet newspaper's Washington D.C representative Tolga Tanış wrote on Sunday that Turkey exports potassium and ammonium nitrate to Syria in significant amounts since the intervention, according to a report by Conflict Armament Research (CAR) stating that Turkey is among countries which supply raw materials that Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) uses in explosives.
Tanış stated that since the exporting company or the government institutions refused to provide further information, he could not continue to track especially ‘potassium nitrate’ supply to Syria which is particularly used in explosive making.
Tanış started his research based on CAR report which argued last week that there is a big supplier network of ISIS in Turkey and ISIS provided some of the raw materials used in rocket and explosive making from Turkey. The CAR report was drafted after the institution did research in 6 ISIS-controlled facilities in Mosul after the terrorist organization withdrew from the area. However, CAR had stated that officials refuse to respond questions on possible Turkish involvement in the explosive supplies.
Tanış, who obtained the serial numbers of potassium nitrates that were in the hands of ISIS apparently from CAR report, contacted the producer company named Doktor Tarsa based in Turkey and asked them which distributor bought these specific packages. After the company directed him to Turkish government institutions saying that such information could only be shared with the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), an official from the Ministry of Agriculture told the columnist that they could not track which distributor bought which serial numbered product specifically.
Potassium nitrate is particularly used in explosives while ammonium nitrate could be used in farming as a fertilizer. Tanış tracked Turkey’s exports of ammonium nitrate to Syria just to found out on the official web site of Turkish Statistics Institute (TURKSTAT) that there was a tremendous supply from Turkey in the recent years until its export was banned in June. Turkey exported ammonium nitrate to Syria before the war only in 2003 and 2008.
Russia had submitted a report to United Nations Security Council (UNSC) arguing that Turkey illegally sent weapons and military equipment to ISIS, before in April. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been denying such allegations repeating that Turkey has lost several lives in its fight against ISIS.
