Mystery lingers over Turkey’s missing weapons
The Turkish government is reluctant or unable to explain the extraordinary increase in lost or stolen guns in the country, including weapons distributed and now missing since the 2016 coup attempt.
ANKARA, Turkey — The 2017 annual report of the Turkish Interior Ministry, released in late February, raised fresh questions about a controversy ongoing since the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016. According to the report, 2,198,774 individuals lost their vehicle registrations, gun licenses, driver's licenses and professional IDs last year, while 106,740 guns were recorded as either lost or stolen.
News of the huge number of missing weapons comes amid concerns over the reported proliferation of unlicensed guns, including through online sales, and has reignited debate on weapons that were reported missing from military and police armories in the wake of the coup attempt.
In its 2014 report, the Interior Ministry had put the number of lost or stolen guns at 14,682, while the number of lost or stolen license plates stood at only 3,037. In its 2015 report, the number of lost or stolen guns increased more than 500% to 91,120, while the number of lost or stolen license plates hit 703,749. In the report for 2016, the year of the coup attempt, lost or stolen guns further increased, to 107,628, while lost or stolen license plates shot up to 900,383.
During the night of the attempted putsch, civilians who took to the streets to stop the putschists seized some soldiers' weapons, while some soldiers surrendered and voluntarily handed them over. Meanwhile, there have also been reports that weapons were distributed to civilians from police warehouses.
