6 civilians killed, 20 villages emptied in Turkey-PKK war this year: MP

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Six civilians have been killed and twenty villages evacuated in the Kurdistan Region this year because of the conflict between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the head of a parliamentary committee told Rudaw. 

“This year, 20 villages have been evacuated due to the fight between the PKK and Turkey, and six civilians have lost their lives,” Hikmat Mohammed, who leads the parliament’s Interior, Security and Local Councils committee, told Rudaw’s Hemin Baban on Sunday. 

The PKK is an armed group that has struggled for increased rights for Kurds in Turkey for decades. It has bases and its headquarters in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains. Turkey considers the group a terrorist organization and frequently sends its armed forces across the border. 

This year, Turkey has so far launched three military operations against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region. The first, dubbed Claw Eagle-2, lasted a few days in February and targeted alleged PKK positions on Mount Gara in Duhok province. It ended with the discovery of the bodies of 12 Turkish citizens captured by the PKK six years ago, and the body of one Kurd from Duhok. 

In late April, Turkey launched twin, large-scale ground and air operations along Duhok’s northern border with Turkey, named Claw-Lightning and Claw-Thunderbolt. They are still ongoing and are inflicting serious damage to the villages and countryside.

“A lot of damage has been done to historic sites and the electricity of areas where there is war,” said Mohammed. 

Villagers have fled their homes, and the conflict has sparked fires that are difficult to extinguish because of ongoing clashes. 

Verifying information of casualties and material losses over decades of conflict is a challenge. A parliamentary report last year concluded that at least 504 villages have been emptied across the Kurdistan Region since 1992 and hundreds of people have been killed. 

In Duhok alone, 366 villages have been abandoned since 1998, a dozen of them in the past year. Thousands of acres of land have been scorched in fires started by the conflict.