Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that recent allegations about Turkey’s use of chemical weapons in northern Iraq is just an attempt by those who are the remains of communism in Turkey that follow the policy of “throw enough mud, some will stick” to throw dirt on the Turkish army.

Erdoğan said the Turkish government will pursue those who voiced such allegations, particularly Şebnem Korur Fincancı, the head of the Chair of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and a forensic expert, who told Media Haber this week that she went over the footage shared by Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq as evidence of Turkey’s chemical attacks and concluded that some toxic chemical gas that directly affected the nervous system was used.

Fincancı has become the target of a widespread smear campaign after the video of her broadcast with the Media News was shared on social media. “I told this to my colleagues and we repeatedly talked about it with Hulusi Akar Pasha,” Erdoğan said, referring to Turkey’s Defence Minister and the Turkish army’s former chief of staff.

“My colleagues immediately lodged lawsuits and we will never give up pursuing this,” the President said to reporters on his plane, returning from a trip to Azerbaijan.

Erdoğan strongly denied Turkey’s use of chemical weapons. “Our armed forces has never committed the fault of using chemical weapons. It has taken all its steps in accordance with the international law and it will continue to do so,” he said.

“It is not the first time they are casting aspersions,” Erdoğan said referring to people mentioning allegations on the use of chemical weapons. “This is some dirt they always fling on our army. They think if enough mud is thrown, some of it will stick.”

“This is one of the mottos of communism, the communists. And since these people are remains of those, they will always fling such dirt,” he said.

Erdoğan’s comments came a day after Turkey’s defence ministry said in a statement that allegations on the use of chemical weapons were completely baseless and untrue.

“All these disinformation efforts are the futile struggles of the terrorist organisation and its allies,” the ministry said after the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) said it had found indirect evidence of possible violations during a two-expert mission’s field trip to northern Iraq in September.