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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Local residents in northern Duhok province on Wednesday reported heavy clashes between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), restricting freedom of movement and exacerbating mass displacement for the villagers.
“The bombardment was very intense,” Fayeq Balavai, a resident in the Niheli area in Amedi district, told Rudaw on the phone. Videos sent to Rudaw verified the intensity of the bombardments and the clashes.
The citizen mentioned that the continuous fighting near their village has made life difficult, to the extent that "there is no life left, and our villages are becoming abandoned."
Turkey began intensifying its decades-long war against the PKK, especially in Duhok province, last year with the goal of cutting the Kurdish armed group off from its borders.
PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan called on the group to disarm and disband in late February, requesting them to take the struggle for Kurdish rights into the political sphere. Nevertheless, despite constantly showing rhetorical support, neither the Turkish government nor the PKK has so far leaped towards actual peace.
The PKK has repeatedly stated it is unable to dissolve fully without Ocalan's attendance at an official congress to ratify such a decision.
Ocalan’s message sparked hope for an end to the conflict that has taken 40,000 lives.
The Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a human rights organization monitoring the conflict, noted in its early March report that the "Turkish government has made no comment about how Turkey would support a peace process and the reintegration of PKK members."
The Kurdistan Region has long been a battleground for settling scores between Turkey and the PKK. As of March, the conflict has caused the “full or partial” displacement of 1,190 villages and claimed 721 civilian lives, according to CPT.
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