The land mines, which were buried by the Turkish military along the Turkish-Syrian border area as well as the boundary areas of other neighboring countries in the 1950s, have claimed the lives of thousands as well as leaving many people in the region disabled. A 14-year-old boy died on Friday as a result of an explosion triggered when he unknowingly stepped on a mine in the Yüksekova district of the southeastern province of Hakkari. In another incident in March of this year, two soldiers were killed after they stepped on a land mine in the eastern province of Ağrı.

Following the settlement process with the Kurdistan Workers‘ Party (PKK) launched in October by the Turkish government to end the decades-old terrorism problem in Turkey, the borderlands ranging from eastern Black Sea province of Artvin to the southern province of Hatay will be cleared of land mines. The current situation is, in fact, alarming and constitutes a real danger, as there are nearly 1 million land mines buried in Turkey. There are 615,149 land mines along the 510-kilometer Turkish-Syrian border and 75,115 mines along the 42-kilometer Iraqi border. There is a 109-kilometer-long minefield along the Iranian border with 191,428 mines and another 21,000 mines along the 17-kilometer Armenian border.

Pointing to the agricultural potential of the border regions, TMMOB İstanbul Branch Chairman Atalık said that if the government is able to remove the land mines and put the land to use for agricultural purposes, it can make a TL 30 million profit annually. The TMMOB has conducted an examination of the borderlands to determine their agricultural potential, their possible contribution to economy in the future and the possible role in providing employment to people living near these areas. The TMMOB engineers intensified their examination of the lands near the Turkish-Syrian border, in particular. Stating that those lands are highly productive and suitable to be used for agriculture, Atalık stated: "The size of the area with land mines at the Turkish and Syrian border is 216,000 hectares and 170,000 hectares of this land is productive agricultural land. In other words, 80 percent of the land with land mines along Turkish-Syrian border is fit for agricultural production. Twenty-six percent of the territory with land mines is in Şanlıurfa province, 25 percent of it lies within Mardin province, 15 percent is in Hayat and Kilis provinces, 10 percent in Şırnak and 9 percent in Gaziantep province. We suggest the production of wheat, barley, corn, lentils, chickpeas, vegetables, fruits, olives, grapes, pistachios, almonds, cotton and broad beans in these areas."

Positive effect on employment in eastern regions

According to the TMMOB studies in the area, once the lands are cleared of mines and used for agricultural activities, 14,405 people could be employed to work in agriculture. Atalık stated that when people in the eastern and southeastern provinces can be employed locally, they will no longer travel to other parts of Turkey as agricultural workers.

Speaking to Today‘s Zaman, Initiative for a Mine-Free Turkey Coordinator Muteber Öğreten said that despite the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which Turkey signed in 2004, there has been no government effort to remove land mines from Turkish soil in that nine years. Recalling the withdrawal of terrorist Kurdistan Workers‘ Party (PKK) members from Turkey as part of a settlement process launched by the government last year, Öğreten stated that the government has to start efforts to destroy all the land mines, adding, "Yes, PKK terrorists are leaving, but there are still some people killed in the area despite the end of terrorism in the area due to the existence of land mines in the eastern regions of Turkey."