‘Another Anfal’: Duhok villagers bear brunt of Turkey-PKK clashes

Karwan Faidhi Dri

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish forces are marching across the border into northern Duhok province in pursuit of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and villagers caught in the path of destruction caused by the conflict compare it to Saddam Hussein's genocidal Anfal campaign of decades ago.

“We have lost everything in the fire. We have seen another Anfal,” Tahir Sadiq, an elderly resident of Kavnamje village told Rudaw, comparing their misery to the 1988 genocide of over 182,000 Kurds by Iraq’s toppled Baathist regime. The purpose of Anfal was to eradicate Kurdish aspirations for autonomy and greater rights by destroying the village way of life and ripping communities apart. The painful memories of the genocide still live in every Kurdish family.

The recent clashes between the Turkish army and the PKK have been focused on the Amedi area, close to scores of villages. They have sparked a wildfire that burned for days, damaging the orchards of Sadiq and other farmers. 

“The only difference [from the 1988 Anfal] is that we have not had casualties. We have lost our properties and orchards instead,” he said, on the verge of tears. 

“We have been working [on the orchards] since 1961,” he added. No longer able to control his emotions, he burst into tears.
 
Several villagers, including the Kurdish grandfather, watched helplessly as their orchards burned as a result of bombs that hit the vicinity of the village. It is not clear who did the bombing. Turkey and the PKK have traded accusations of blame for the wildfires. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this year repeatedly said that his country planned a military campaign in the Kurdistan Region to “secure” the border. 

“We are about to complete the circle that will secure our Iraqi borders,” he said in March. “This summer, we will have permanently resolved the issue concerning our Iraqi borders.”

The following month, he visited Baghdad and Erbil, signing dozens of agreements with the Iraqi government, including security ones. 

"I believe that my visit and the agreements we signed will be a turning point in the relations between Iraq and Turkey," Erdogan said. 

Baghdad listed the PKK as a “banned” organization ahead of Erdogan’s rare visit. 

Prof. Dr. Hasan Oktay, head of the Caucasus Strategic Research Center (KAFKASSAM) think tank, told Rudaw on Friday that during Erdogan’s visit to Baghdad, the Turkish, Iraqi and Kurdish governments decided to carry out a joint operation against the PKK. “This is an extremely critical decision for the future of the Erbil government,” he said.

Oktay believes that Erdogan is waiting for Israel to carry out a threatened military operation against Lebanon’s Hezbollah and will use that as cover for Turkey’s long-anticipated offensives against the PKK in Iraq and Kurdish forces in northeast Syria (Rojava). Turkey accuses Syrian Kurdish forces of having links with the PKK. 

There is a “partial” opposition to potential Turkish operations in Syria and Iraq from Western countries, but a possible Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah will ease this pressure, Oktay explained.

A US State Department spokesperson told Rudaw on July 2 that while Washington recognizes “the ongoing threat posed by the PKK, we also urge the Turkish government to respect Iraqi sovereignty and coordinate military operations.” 
 
The spokesperson also called on Ankara to “protect civilians from harm.”

The Turkish analyst also said that Turkey is using its alleged international rights in the fight against terrorism to justify its potential military incursions into Iraq and Syria. 

“The international system, especially NATO, seems to be on Turkey's side in its fight against terrorism, considering Turkey's rightness,” said Oktay.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told reporters in Washington on Friday that Iraqi and Turkish security and political delegations will meet in Ankara on August 15. He did not disclose details of the meeting. 

He denied that Turkey has carried out any recent attacks in Iraq. Regarding reports of Turkey’s new troop deployments, he said there are “movements of the Turkish troops present in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq. Some of them have been present since 1991." 

Erdogan told reporters on his return flight from the NATO summit in Washington on Friday that the Iraqi government has taken “very concrete steps on the ground” in the fight against the PKK. He added that Ankara-Erbil security coordination is also “satisfactory” and they have a “good relationship” with Iraq’s defense ministry and intelligence. 

New military posts

The US-based Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a rights group that closely monitors the Turkey-PKK conflict, on Sunday published a report and a map showing Turkey’s new deployments to Duhok province. 

“On June 15th, Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) started a new ground military operation in the Berwaly Bala area - maneuvering inside six villages in the area,” CPT said, adding that the Turkish army has established several military bases near Batifa. 

“Villagers of Dergale Musa Bage informed CPT that on June 27th, Turkish Armed Forces had forced them to leave their village,” read the report, noting that Turkey has advanced 15 kilometers into Kurdistan Region territory since mid-June. 

Kamaran Osman, a member of CPT, told Rudaw on Thursday that at least 182 families have been displaced since Turkey’s latest deployments to Duhok province, eight villages near Amedi town have been evacuated, and 602 other villages are at risk of having the same fate. 

Nearly a month after Turkey’s deployment, Iraq’s National Security Council discussed the matter on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani chaired the meeting that addressed “the issue of interventions and violations by Turkish forces in the shared border areas, affirming the rejection of Turkish military incursions and the infringement on Iraqi territories,” read a statement from Yehia Rasool, Sudani’s military spokesperson. 

Sudani decided to dispatch a delegation, headed by the national security advisor, to the Kurdistan Region to “assess the general situation and develop a unified stance on this matter, which concerns Iraqi sovereignty.” The delegation visited Erbil but has yet to release the results of the investigation. 

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has yet to comment on the fresh escalations in its territory, but its interior ministry told reporters on Tuesday that Baghdad, Erbil and Ankara were discussing the matter.  

“The presence of the PKK gives [Turkey] an excuse to carry out such activities. The presence of the PKK is illegal,” said Minister Reber Ahmed, adding that the “PKK should leave these areas so that the residents of these villages no longer have to be displaced.”

"We cannot do anything"

The area around Mije, Dereshe, Girgashe, Spindare, and Kavnemje villages at the foot of Mount Gara in Amedi has been burning for days. Turkey’s new deployments are likely preparations for a ground operation against the PKK on the mountain - where the warring sides have clashed for decades. 

Azad Hamza, head of Mije village, told Rudaw that some 2,500 families live in these villages, and that a vast amount of the area has been burned, damaging this year’s yield of sumac and pistachio. The crops are an important source of income for villagers. The Kurdistan Region relies heavily on produce imported from Turkey and Iran and the limited produce harvested in these villages plays a key role in meeting local demand. 

Only three families remain in Derash village, including Khurshid Shero.

“We cannot do anything. We cannot go out or move at all. There is fire from this direction and bombardment from that direction,” he said, pointing his hand to the hill on his right where smoke was coming from the burning orchards and to his left - a constant target of Turkish troops attacking alleged PKK positions. 

“We are stuck on every side… We have lost [our land] in the vicinity of the village and orchards… We have lost everything,” he lamented. 

“In addition to eight civilians being killed this year, civilian infrastructure has also been destroyed and damaged,” said the CPT in its latest report, warning that if the Turkish operations continue “hundreds of families will be displaced.”

Turkey has also set up at least six new military bases in the Batifa area, escalating tensions with the PKK there. Villagers cannot visit their orchards.

“We used to go anywhere in the mountain but after they [Turkish troops] came we could not go to the places we wanted. We are allowed to go only nearly 300 meters away from the perimeter of the village,” Khalat Zubair from Shive village told Rudaw on June 26. 

The PKK claimed in a statement on July 1 that the Turkish army was “putting pressure on the civilian population to leave the combat zone” and blamed Ankara for the wildfires.

Daragle village in Amedi is among the most affected villages. Wildfires have left nothing for the farmers.
 
“Using civilians in the village of Dargale as [human] shields, the terrorists fired mortar bombs at our troops and began setting fire to the forests so that their location could not be determined,” the Turkish defense ministry said in a statement late last month. 

The Turkish defense ministry published footage showing the explosion of a house in Dargale village.



Khairi Hakim, the owner of the house, told Rudaw on Wednesday that he had borrowed money from the government and spent more than $60,000 building the house. He and his family have been displaced. 

“I don’t know what to do,” he said. 

The same footage showed the destruction the Turkish-PKK war has caused to the villages of Daragle and Miska. 

Rudaw has reached out to Turkey’s foreign and defense ministries for comment on the impact of Ankara’s fight against the PKK on civilians. 

Ilhami Isik, a writer who has mediated several peace talks between the Turkish government and the PKK, told Rudaw that a crippling economic crisis in Turkey is preventing Erdogan from conducting more military adventures in the region. 

"The severe economic crisis has created a situation that prevents Turkey from carrying out military operations," the Kurdish peacemaker said, adding that Ankara instead is trying to stick to its long-time plan of creating a 30-kilometer buffer zone on its borders with Iraq and Syria. 

The CPT said that Ankara has already advanced 15 kilometers into the Region's territory. This means that Turkey needs more than a major military campaign to finish the rest. 

The KDP, which has strong ties with Erdogan, has recently improved its relations with Iran. Isik believes that this will affect Turkey's role as a player in the Kurdistan Region.

"Turkey's operations will create an unacceptable situation for Iran, which has unlimited disruptive capabilities in the region," Isik noted. 

As Turkey and Iran pursue their agendas, Kurdish villagers can do nothing but watch their homes and livelihoods burn.

“If things go on like this, there will definitely be casualties,” said Sherwan Sargali, a resident of Sargale village. 


Gharib Majid and Hayder Doski contributed to this article.