Greece and Turkey join the Mine Ban Treaty!

(Wednesday 01 October 2003 )

On 25 September 2003, Greece and Turkey formally joined the Mine Ban Treaty, during a joint ceremony organised with the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs George Papandreou and Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gulon on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.

Back in April 2001, both countries announced simultaneously that they would ratify and accede to the Convention jointly. Greece completed its domestic ratification procedure on 19 March 2002 and the Turkish Grand National Assembly adopted the accession law on 12 March 2003.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) warmly welcomes this joint move and thanks both countries for this expression of their commitment in the fight against antipersonnel landmines, and removal of them from their territories forever. This is an example of how the Mine Ban Treaty can play a role in confidence building between two neighbouring countries.

The ICBL trusts that both Greece and Turkey will start implementing the Convention on their own soil without delay, and thereby put an end to the suffering and deaths caused by antipersonnel mines in these two countries. This urgent need was highlighted once more on 29 September 2003, when seven illegal immigrants were killed when entering a minefield, after crossing the Evros River that separates the two countries.

Greece's ratification of the treaty and Turkey's accession, follow on from other recent successes in universalising the Mine Ban Treaty: Guyana ratified on 5 August 2003 and Belarus and Serbia and Montenegro acceded on 3 September and 18 September respectively.