Turkish-PKK conflict continues to cause death, mass displacement in Kurdistan Region
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey has carried out more than 270 airstrikes within the Kurdistan Region against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in less than a year, leading to the displacement of the residents of dozens of villages, according to an official from the autonomous region of Iraq.
Dindar Zebari, the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Coordinator for International Advocacy, said in a press conference on Tuesday that the disastrous results of Turkish bombardment along border areas have been continuing regularly since 1995.
"During July of 2020 alone, Turkey carried out 33 raids on areas in the Kurdistan Region, while Iran and Turkey also carried out 185 artillery attacks on the Kurdistan Region," Zebari said, adding that Turkey launched a total of 272 such raids over the past 10 months.
The PKK, headquartered in the Kurdistan Region's Zagros Mountains, has been fighting a decades-long conflict against Ankara over Kurdish rights in Turkey that has led to tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. Rural residents and the local environment continue to suffer from ongoing clashes, including multiple civilian fatalities and other casualties.
In the past decade, Turkey has regularly shelled areas inside the Kurdistan Region, but operations this year have intensified and widened in terms of scope and territory covered. In some areas, Turkish forces have mobilized as far as 30 kilometers deep inside the autonomous region’s border.
As civilians, agriculture, trade, and the local environment continue to suffer from the clashes, residents and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials have repeatedly asked the PKK and the Turkish government to take their fight elsewhere.
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Although the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has repeatedly asked the PKK and the Turkish government to take their fight elsewhere, tensions between the KRG and the PKK have reached new levels recently, to the point of actual armed conflict.
On Wednesday PKK fighters in three separate attacks targeted Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces resulting in two deaths and five injuries.
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The attacks have led to widespread condemnation, including by the United States.
In his assessment on Tuesday, Zebari continued by stating that 28 villages that sustained serious damage in Turkish attacks in the Kani Masi sub-district have not been rebuilt, in large part due to the presence of PKK members in those areas. Some 85 villages in the Sheladzi area have stood empty since 1995 due to the clashes between the PKK and Turkey.
“There are 169 villages in Amedi district whose residents were prevented from working and managing their farmlands by the PKK, who stopped them from even visiting their villages,” Zebari added, indicating that "there have been 28 civilians killed as a result of the bombing since 1995 and during 2020 only, we have five dead and 10 wounded as a result of the bombing."
According to the KRG, the conflict has caused damage to, or displacement from, roughly 4,500 villages.
Editing by John J. Catherine