ANKARA - The Turkish prime minister said on Monday that the Turkish military could clear the mine fields along the Syrian border.
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the government would not object if the Turkish Armed Forces wanted to sweep off the land-mines along the Turkish-Syrian border.
"We will not object if our Armed Forces says it will undertake the mission, and we will definitely ask them to fulfil the mission," Erdogan said in a TV program.
Turkey has to clear mine fields across its borders till 2014 under the Ottawa Treaty.
Erdogan said that the NATO, i.e. NAMSA, was also clearing the mine fields and designating sub-contractors.
"We also think of giving the project to NAMSA," he said.
Erdogan said that there was a security border 200-meters in width across Turkish-Syrian border, which would always be protected, and the mine clearing work would be carried out outside that area.
The prime minister also said that Turkey would not think of any other options if Turkish companies wanted to make organic agriculture in the mine-cleared area.
The Ottawa Treaty, or the Mine Ban Treaty, formally the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, bans completely all anti-personnel land-mines.
Besides stopping the production and development of anti-personnel mines, a party to the treaty must destroy all the anti-personnel mines in its possession within four years. Just a small number of mines is allowed to remain for training (mine-clearance, -detection, etc.). Within ten years after signing the treaty, the country should have cleared all of its mined areas.
As of May 2009, there were 156 States Parties to the treaty. Two states have signed but not yet ratified it. Thirty-seven states, including the People's Republic of China, India, Russia and the United States, are not party to the Convention.