Kurdistan24 Follow-Up Finds Timber Trucks Entering Duhok From Türkiye

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - A Kurdistan24 follow-up into recently circulated claims over tree cutting and timber transport has found that trucks seen carrying wood through Duhok are bringing timber from Türkiye into the Kurdistan Region, rather than transporting timber out of the Region toward Türkiye.

Baha Salim Ali, head of the Media Department at the Duhok Directorate of Forest and Environmental Police, told Kurdistan24 that authorities have been monitoring the trucks for some time.

He said officers at the Kani Masi station had stopped the vehicles on several occasions and examined their movements.

According to Ali, those checks showed that the trucks leave the Kurdistan Region empty, enter Türkiye and later return carrying timber.

He rejected claims that timber is being transported from the Kurdistan Region into Türkiye.

"The trucks are not transporting timber from the Kurdistan Region to Türkiye in any way," he said, explaining that the flow is in the opposite direction.

The latest findings add to statements made Sunday by Duhok Governor Dr. Ali Tatar, who said footage circulating online and presented as evidence of tree cutting inside the Kurdistan Region had actually been recorded inside Türkiye.

Tatar said timber from those areas was being transported into the Kurdistan Region through the Sarzeri border crossing.

He maintained that no trees had been cut inside the Kurdistan Region during the current period, while acknowledging that tree cutting had occurred in border areas in previous years.

According to the governor, the current cutting sites are farther inside Turkish territory rather than along the immediate border.

He said details visible in the footage, including the terrain, road layouts and vehicle license plates, supported that conclusion.

Read More: Duhok Governor Says Timber Seen in Footage Comes From Türkiye

The issue has generated a series of claims on social media, including statements attributed to officials that Kurdistan24's follow-up found were either inaccurate or taken from older remarks.

One widely circulated claim alleged that the Turkish consul in the Kurdistan Region had said: "We bought the trees."

Kurdistan24 found no such statement from the Turkish consul during the current period and no remarks of that nature linked to the present controversy.

Another claim attributed comments to Safeen Dizayee, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government's Department of Foreign Relations, suggesting that Turkish forces had cut down trees with the knowledge of KRG authorities.

Dizayee rejected that account.

Speaking to Kurdistan24, he said the claim was "completely false" and explained that social media pages had republished comments he made in 2021 as though they were new.

Dizayee said tree cutting had taken place at that time and that the KRG had raised the issue with Türkiye, telling Turkish authorities that such actions should not continue.

According to Dizayee, Türkiye subsequently stopped the process.

He stressed that those remarks concerned events in 2021 and had no connection to the present situation.

Dizayee also said he had not recently spoken to any media outlet about the current reports.

The latest follow-up therefore distinguishes between documented tree-cutting concerns from previous years and the present movement of timber trucks through Duhok.

Current information from the Duhok Directorate of Forest and Environmental Police and the Duhok governor points to timber entering the Kurdistan Region from Türkiye.

Authorities say the trucks have been inspected, their routes monitored and their direction of travel established.

The dispute has been fueled largely by videos and claims circulating online, some of which officials say have been misidentified or taken out of their original context.

For the current period, the position of Duhok authorities is clear: trucks are leaving the Kurdistan Region without timber and returning from Türkiye loaded with wood, while the footage cited in recent claims does not show active tree cutting inside the Kurdistan Region.

Kurdistan24's journalist Biryar Seyedamin contributed to this report.