Turkey began clearing more than 80,000 anti-personnel mines on its border with Iran, one of the largest ongoing demining operations in the world, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said on Wednesday.
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The project provides for the clean-up of anti-personnel mines placed "on the eastern border of Turkey between 1953 and 1996 to prevent illegal crossings and smuggling, as well as to ensure their security," said Faik Uyanik, director of communications for UNDP in Turkey.
In the 1990s, the Turkish army made extensive use of anti-personnel mines as part of its fight against the Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The European Union released $21.5 million to finance the third phase of the project, initiated in 2016.
