Turkey denies Iraqi demands for Atropine

The Turkish health ministry secretary Safar Eidjan has denied news reports that Iraq had asked one of the Turkish companies to provide it with large amounts of Atropine, an immunizing agent for certain chemical gases that has the potential of being used for military purpose.

In a press conference he held yesterday with the director general of the medicine and pharmacy, Orhan Jakmak, and the director general of the Turkish medical treatment services, Tahsin Adjar, Eidjan stressed that these news are baseless.

He continued that the two said establishments did not receive a request from the Iraqi government to buy Atropine, nor they had exported any of this material.

Meantime, Turkish companies producing Atropine in Istanbul stressed it did not receive any request from Iraq to buy this material. The director general of Dour Ghassan company which manufacture this sort of medicine said that his company has no trade links with Iraq, while Bousel company for medicines said it had not not produced this sort of medicine for a long period of time.