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Turkish response to several letters of Syria's representatives

United Nations
Security Council

S/2016/446

Distr.: General
16 May 2016
Original: English

Letter dated 12 May 2016 from the Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council

I write to you, upon my Government's instructions, with reference to the letters of the Syrian regime's representatives dated 5 May 2016 and numbered PM/2016/200 and PM/2016/079; dated 3 May 2016 and numbered PM/201/189; dated 11 April 2016 and numbered PM/2016/170; and dated 28 March 2016 and numbered PM/2016/140.

The baseless allegations contained in the letters referenced and others to the same effect are aimed at diverting the international community's attention from the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons and its other brutal crimes against the Syrian people.

The use of toxic chemicals as weapons is a violation of international law, in particular the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction and the relevant Security Council resolutions.

However, the Syrian regime has acquired a well-established record of committing atrocities involving the use of toxic chemicals as weapons.

While the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Declaration Assessment Team reports count the still-unresolved gaps, discrepancies and inconsistencies in the regime's declarations and related submissions on its chemical weapon stockpiles, reports of the OPCW Fact -Finding Mission in the Syrian Arab Republic include detailed descriptions of how chemical weapons were used brutally and repeatedly.

In this context, I wish to reiterate the importance of the full implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular those pertaining to the immediate elimination of the regime's chemical weapons programme and the identification by the OPCW -United Nations Joint Mission of those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

I would be grateful if the present letter could be circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Y. Halit Çevik
Permanent Representative

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