‘Turkey sent tons of arms into Syria’

Turkey has sent over 47 tons of weaponry to the foreign-sponsored militants operating inside Syria since June, according to a UN report.

Based on data from the UN Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade), Turkey sent different amounts of guns, including shotguns and hunting rifles, to the militants, with the highest reaching nearly 29 tons in September alone.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Gumrukcu initially denied the statistics, but later confirmed that the UN figures were based on previous records from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK).

In November, Turkish security forces confiscated a truck carrying nearly 1,000 rocket heads in the southern city of Adana near the Syrian border.

At the time, the Adana governor claimed that the operation proved Turkey was not supporting radical groups in Syria.

Also in November, Turkish authorities seized a large quantity of chemicals on the country’s border with Syria, stating that the chemicals “could be transformed into weapons.”

Turkey’s army said in a statement that a convoy of three vehicles attempted to smuggle the chemicals across the border near the southeastern town of Reyhanli.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions of others displaced due to the crisis that erupted in Syria nearly three years ago.