Baku, Azerbaijan, May 17
By Orkhan Quluzade - Trend:
Radiation from the Metsamor nuclear power plant may be the cause of the recent growth of cancer cases in eastern provinces of Turkey, including the Igdir province, MP of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey Mehmet Emin Adiyaman told Trend May 17.
"Metsamor nuclear power plant was built in the days of the Soviet Union," the MP said. "This is a nuclear power plant of Chernobyl type. The Chernobyl accident led to an increase in cancer cases, birth of children with a variety of pathologies in the region, and the consequences of the accident are still being felt in Turkey."
"There are suspicions in radiation leaking at the Metsamor nuclear power plant," said the MP. "In recent years the border areas of Turkey, including Igdir province, experience growth of cancer cases, pathologies regarding the newborns. There are suggestions that this is due to radiation from the Metsamor nuclear power plant."
He went on to add that the radiation effects are also noticeable in the provinces of Kars and Agri.
"The international community must take responsibility to solve this problem and increase efforts in this direction," said Adiyaman, stressing that Armenia's operation of outdated Metsamor nuclear power plant under the pretext of solving economic problems isn't more important than life and health of people both in Turkey and Armenia itself.
Armenia has a nuclear power plant, Metsamor, built in 1970. The power plant, which is 15 kilometers away from the border with Turkey, was closed after a devastating earthquake in Spitak in 1988. But despite the international protests, the power plant's operation was resumed in 1995. Moreover, a second reactor was launched there.
According to the ecologists and scholars all over the region, seismic activity of this area turns operation of the Metsamor nuclear power plant in an extremely dangerous enterprise, even if a new type of reactor is built.