Jewish groups label Erdogan administration as supporting terror

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) has urged Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to launch an investigation into the incident in which Turkey had used chemical weapons against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas, Rudaw agency reported. 

The request follows a confirmation by German experts and in particular a German expert on forged photographs Hans Baumann that a series of photos show bodies of eight Kurds killed by chemical weapons. Experts from the Hamburg University Hospital said in a statement “it was very likely the eight Kurds died due to the use of chemical substances.”

Dutch and German politicians are now demanding on immediate international investigation into the incident and asked for clarifications from Turkey, according to Rudaw agency.

PKK has regularly accused Turkey of using chemical weapons over the past fifteen years, but there were not independent evidences. The mentioned photos were handed over to German delegation by Kurdish activists in March. The Der Spiegel edition published an article about the photos in late July.

If the claims are confirmed, the Turkish government will likely be under more pressure from the international community. This can strongly affect Turkey's accession process to the EU and can even question Turkey’s membership in NATO.

The director of a pro-Israeli organization, known as CIDI in the Netherlands, Ronald Maurice Naftaniel told Rudaw that Israeli lobby organizations show more interests in human rights conditions in Turkey after the May 31 flotilla incident. According to the agency, Naftaniel himself has been calling for the Kurdish autonomy in Turkey as a condition for EU-membership.

Jewish groups, who until recent months supported the Israeli-Turkish alliance, are now labeling the Erdogan government as supporting terrorist and extremist regimes, Rudaw reported citing the Jewish Forward edition.