Turkey is sitting on vast amounts of the mineral boron, whose extraction is prevented by foreign forces and the novel coronavirus was created by the Chinese government among the leading conspiracy theories believed by Turks, according to a news survey by pollster İstanbul Ekonomi Araştırma (IE).

A total of 47.2 percent of those surveyed said foreign powers prevented Turkey from benefiting from its boron mines while 39.5 percent said COVID-19 was a laboratory concoction of Beijing, T24 new site said, citing the IE survey.

Turkey has the world’s largest reserves of boron and is the mineral’s biggest exporter. The mineral found in food and the environment is used in supplements as medicine.

The novel coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December, has expanded to touch nearly every corner of the globe, claiming the lives of over 300,000.

That Turkey’s Lausanne Treaty had secret clauses, which would come into effect in 2023, was another conspiracy theory, which 38.5 percent said they believed, according to the survey conducted with 1,537 people in 12 provinces across the country.

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The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne fixed most of the borders of modern Turkey following the end of the country’s War of Independence.

Another 36.9 of those surveyed by IE said they believed COVID-19 was created by the United States to hurt China.

In March, a spokesman for the Chinese government promoted a conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was brought to the city of Wuhan by the U.S. military.

Read more: ahval