According to data compiled by officials in Amedi, Duhok province, a further three people were wounded this year and 10 schools forced to close.
Bayar Doski, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) member of the foreign affairs committee in the Iraqi parliament, past pledged to document the past 25 years of human and material losses caused by Turkish airstrikes and will demand compensation.
“Although the matter of bombing the Kurdistan Region areas is political and related to the PKK, we have plans to estimate and report all the damages incurred to the Kurdistan Region and raise it in the Iraqi parliament,” Doski said.
“We will call for the compensation for the damaged and through the parliament we will inform Turkey’s embassy of the matter.”
Imad Younis is from Aradnaia, a village in Amedi.
“In the past just the villages were the target of the airstrikes, but now we do not know what to do, as we are afraid,” said Younis.
“Now, even the residents of Amedi town are afraid they will be targeted by the airstrikes, too.”
Three people were recently killed in strikes near the village – two of them Peshmerga soldiers.
Duhok province has borne the brunt of the more than 30-year conflict between the Turkish military and PKK guerrillas. The residents of 360 villages have been forced to relocate, according to local officials. Up to 35 percent of Duhok’s territory is deemed unsafe.
“Whenever our area comes under bombardment, we inform our superiors about the extent of the damage, but until now, no one has been compensated,” said Hamid Zubair, the mayor of Bamarne – another town caught in the line of fire.
Town officials have told Turkish authorities they must avoid civilian areas when targeting PKK positions, said Zubair. Amedi mayors and officials will soon meet to discuss the problem.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has called on the PKK to cease using the Region as a base from which launch attacks against Turkey. Ankara has previously deployed troops to the Qandil Mountains region, where the PKK is said to have its headquarters.
Turkey’s ambassador to Iraq insists the Turkish military warns Erbil and Baghdad in advance of its attacks.
The PKK, which is regarded as a terrorist organization by Ankara, is fighting for greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey.
