Ankara police have enough pepper gas for 18 years

ANKARA

DHA Photo

Upon a court order, the Ankara police force has provided detailed information about its stock of pepper gas, revealing that it has “enough pepper gas stock to run for 18 years,” daily Radikal has reported.

The information was revealed due to the enforcement of the “Law to Receive Information,” brought about after police infamously used massive amounts of pepper gas against the Ankara leg of the Hopa demonstrations. Lawyer Emre Baturay Altınok applied to police and asked for the exact amount of gas used. However, police failed to provide satisfactory information and claimed the information requested was part of state secrets.

Altınok took the issue to court and the Ankara police force was ordered to provide exact information as the information requested was not a state secret.

A written statement from the Ankara police read that law-enforcing institution had 17,591 cans of pepper gas, while the Riot Police had 3,363 gas fuses, 2,604 gas bombs, 450 liters of OC gas solution, 3,699 bottles of OC gas spray. According to the written statement, it turns out the Ankara police had a total of 27,707 cubic meters of pepper gas in their inventory. The data refers to figures from early 2011.

“The Ankara police force used 452 gas fuses, 253 gas bombs, 148 liters of OC gas solution, 164 bottles of gas spray in 2010, totaling 1,474 cubic meters of pepper gas. The figures of 2011 are, 2,969 gas fuses, 2,351 gas bombs, 302 liters of OC gas solutions, 3,535 cans of gas spray, which totals 17,591 cubic meters of pepper gas,” the statement read.