Christian villagers flee after Turkey strikes PKK in Kurdistan Region
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Residents are evacuating a Christian-populated village in the Kurdistan Region due to Turkish bombardment targeting positions held by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the area.
Meruk village, near the town of Chamanke, is located in mountainous border regions of Duhok Province. According to the villagers, most of the families have left out of fear of being injured or killed by ongoing nearby Turkish air strikes.
Andreus Tuma, an elderly villager in Meruk stood in his yard, expressing sorrow at the decision made by so many of his neighbors to leave their homes.
“To be honest with you, it [bombardment] has affected us a great deal. We are very scared. Our areas are damaged and our walls are broken,” Tuma told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday.
“People are evacuating. One of my neighbors went to Duhok [city] and the other went to Mosul. Many families have left. We are obliged to stay because we have no other homes. Otherwise, we would not have been here in the first place.”
Over the past decade, Turkey has conducted near-continuous attacks of PKK fighters in the area. Recently, bombardment has become more intense, according to villagers and local officials, with Turkish troops crossing the Kurdistan Region’s border by more than 20 kilometers in some instances.
In May, Turkey announced that it had constructed a military outpost in the district of Khwakurk to use as a base from which to launch attacks against the PKK. Those attacks, however, have caused the injury and death of local residents unaffiliated to the group.
Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani has repeatedly called both sides to take their fight out of the Kurdistan Region and accused the PKK of using the soil of the Kurdish semi-autonomous region to launch attacks on the neighboring country.
“These airstrikes have left no life for us," Yukhana Ishu, another Meruk resident told Kurdistan 24. "Now, all that is left in this village is five or six families.”
It was home to 21 families before the evacuation began a few years ago, he said, adding, “We ask the government [Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)] what they can do about these attacks. Our lives cannot continue like this.”
Duhok Provincial Council member Idris Harki stressed to Kurdistan 24 that the reason Turkey shells the area is the presence of the PKK fighters and that the best solution would be for them to withdraw. This, he said, would leave Ankara no excuse to continue its bombardment.
Turkish forces have fought the PKK since the early 1980s in a conflict that has resulted in the death of over 40,000 people on both sides. The group is designated as a ‘terrorist’ organization by Turkey, the European Union (EU), and the US.
Editing by John J. Catherine