The north’s ‘health ministry’ issued an official denial that there had been a chlorine gas leak at the Teknecik power station in Kyrenia after four people had been hospitalised earlier in the week, though questions have been raised regarding the validity of the doctor’s report used to substantiate the denial.

‘Health minister’ Hakan Dincyurek had issued a statement late on Wednesday night saying that he had “taken the necessary steps from the outset to accurately inform the public”, and that he had ordered Beyhan Berova, the chief physician of Kyrenia’s Akcicek hospital, to investigate the matter.

As a result of that investigation, he said, “the allegations and claims in the controversial reports that toxic substances obstructed the respiratory tract” of the four people who were hospitalised, and “that toxic substance exposure was determined through examinations, are false”.

“The health of our workers is our top priority. We are closely monitoring every development on this matter and continue to inform the public transparently,” he said.

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Alongside the statement, the ‘ministry’ released a photograph of a report written by Dr Osman Hilmioglu that the test results related to all four people who were hospitalised “came back normal”.

“No toxic gases were detected in the patients. The patients completed their treatment and were discharged after making a full recovery,” Hilmioglu wrote.

However, on Thursday morning, newspaper Yeniduzen published a copy of a report written on Tuesday by Hilmioglu which stated that at least one of the four had “inhaled and ingested substances which caused respiratory constriction” and later described the incident as a case of “toxic substance inhalation”.

The newspaper alleged that Hilmioglu’s change of opinion on the matter came about after a “night operation” carried out by Dincyurek, and that Hilmioglu had been “ordered to prepare a completely contradictory report”.

Four people working at the Teknecik power station – three employees of the north’s electricity authority (Kib-Tek) and one cleaner – were hospitalised early on Tuesday morning after allegedly inhaling chlorine gas.

Kib-Tek workers’ trade union leader Ahmet Tugcu told Yeniduzen that the company which had been assigned the task of disposing chlorine gas from Teknecik had “gone bankrupt”, and that as such, the tender to award them the assignment “needs to be questioned”.

He also described the fuel being used to power the generators at Teknecik as “pirate fuel”, saying that “our demand is that they tell us which refinery the pirate fuel came from”, and that “no statement has been made on this matter to date”, before criticising Kib-Tek’s management for not checking in on the hospitalised workers.

“No one from Kib-Tek’s management has contacted us regarding the health of our fellow workers. There is no team at Teknecik to provide first aid. We have asked for this before, too. These people are putting their lives at risk to work here. Those in power do not care,” he said.

On Tuesday, Kib-Tek had alleged that the report of a chlorine gas leak had been fabricated by trade unionists after the ruling coalition had placed a 60-day banning order on planned strike of electricity workers on Monday afternoon.

“While nothing happened between midnight and 8am, the strike was banned, and while statements were being made to the press, an attempt was made to evacuate the power station on the ground that an empty cylinder containing purified, non-toxic, non-flammable, and non-hazardous nitrogen gas had a leak in its valve,” it said.

It added that the reports of a chlorine gas leak constituted “nothing but an attempt to make the strike, which was banned by cabinet, happen in a different way”.