The Turkish army’s bombardment has forbidden the citizens to get profits from their herbal products this year.
This has led to a surge in the price of herbs by around 300 percent.
“There is not a single day that they do not bombard us. People are afraid to go to these areas because there is a slight chance you come back from there. We received 400 to 500 kilos of mushrooms last year and the year before, but this year, we only received 60 kilos of mushrooms,” Omed Hashim, herb seller told Rudaw.
Hundreds of people in the mountainous areas of Duhok make a living from selling herbs.
Khame Khazim has been selling herbs in the market for about 25 years. She had been paying for all of her household expenses by selling spring herbs.
This year, Khazim has not made any decent income to pay her expenses.
"We do not dare go to the border areas because of the fight. We are afraid to go there. The sound of guns and artillery continues and we do not want to go there," Khazim told Rudaw.
The Secretary of the Duhok Provincial Council, Said Nerwai, told Rudaw that “poverty and unemployment rate was an issue because of the Turkish bombardment.”
“The continued bombardment of the Turkish army has had a major impact on the area in general and the lives of citizens in particular,” he added.
According to people who sell herbal products, they used to bring a large portion of spring herbs to the mountainous areas, but this year, they were only able to bring between 300 and 500 kilos of herbs into the market.
Turkey announced a new phase of a series of military operations against the PKK in Duhok province on Monday. Dubbed Operation Claw-Lock, the air and ground campaign heavily focuses on mountainous areas on Turkey’s borders with the Kurdistan Region.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed on Friday that 45 PKK fighters have been "neutralized" in the framework of his country’s latest offensive.
Turkish officials use the term “neutralize” to imply surrenders, killings, or capturing.
The PKK has claimed the death of 127 Turkish soldiers in Duhok since Monday.
Seven out of 92 villages are left inhabited for now. The rest have been abandoned because of the conflict between both the PKK and Turkey over the past decades, according to data from the Shiladze administration authorities.
More than 500 villages have been emptied in the Kurdistan Region over three decades of the Turkey-PKK conflict.
