America's Voice

Turkish security authorities do not acknowledge or answer the e-mail messages they receive from citizens who are not in their pay; so you cannot know what the result was. In this case, however, the result was not late arriving because Turkey did not only ban scrapped war material importation from Iraq but also dates and other goods. Hurriyet of 3 October 2003 reads:

“It is suspected that the dates imported very cheaply from Arab countries as the real Baghdad dates may contain uranium radiation. Oktay Demirkan, Secretary of the East Mediterranean Environment Associations, said that during the Iraq war the United States used depleted uranium shells and that the American authorities have confirmed it. Demirkan said, ‘Uranium shells have been used to pierce the armour of tanks and vehicles with severe heat. That is why these radioactive radiations have been dispersed throughout Iraq.’ Demirkan also said that they were suspecting the dates recently sold very cheaply in the market as Baghdad dates. ‘Date consumption has gone up due to Ramadan. The most sold dates in Turkey are those called Baghdad dates. We must make analyses of these dates,’ he said,” ends the Hurriyet dispatch 18 months ago.