More than 4,000 dunams of Duhok land burned by Turkish airstrikes this year: forest police

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — More than 4,000 dunams of land and green spaces have been burned by Turkish bombardments in Duhok province so far this year, and there is nothing the forest police can do about it.

“Those war areas are called forbidden areas, and you know no one can go there. If a fire breaks out, the police will not go there. Although trees are sacred, humans are more sacred,” Captain Fuad Ahmed, head of media for the Forest Police and Environment Directorate, told Rudaw English on Tuesday.

“We can control the areas within control of the Regional Government … if there is war we can’t control it at all,” added Ahmed.

In other areas within reach, not having the necessary means to control the fire have left the forest police helpless. 

“We have asked for some things, but there is crisis after crisis. We have asked for a helicopter, the forest police should have helicopters. How are you going to control a fire at the top of a mountain?”

According to data sent to Rudaw English by the Kurdistan Region’s forest police directorate, 4,181 dunams of land has been burned by Turkish bombardments in Duhok province so far this year. 

Turkey regularly carries out airstrikes and ground operations in the Kurdistan Region, against what it says are positions belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed Kurdish group seeking more rights for Kurds in Turkey. 

Several operations have been launched this year, including Claw-Eagle 2, in Duhok’s Mount Gara in February, and the ongoing Claw-Lightning and Claw-Thunderbolt operations, which target Duhok’s Metina and Avashin areas, on the mountainous frontier with Turkey.

In the past ten years more than 1,000,000 dunams of land has been burned in the Kurdistan Region, Ahmed Mohammed, spokesperson of the Kurdistan Region’s Environmental Protection and Improvement board told Rudaw English on Tuesday. Around 35 percent of this was from Turkish and Iranian bombardments.

Numerous types of trees have been destroyed in the fires, including oak trees, pine trees, walnut and calypso trees, according to the spokesperson.

The problem is a recurring issue. Turkish and Iranian bombardments destroyed nearly 200,000 dunams of land in the Kurdistan Region last summer, according to a report from the Netherlands-based NGO PAX.

Duhok’s environmental police chief, Brigadier General Kamil Harki, estimates wildfires have increased as much as 70 percent because of the Turkey-PKK conflict.

Conflict is not the only issue ruining the Kurdistan Region’s natural areas, however.

PAX estimates 20 percent of the Region’s vegetation has been lost to fires and logging since 2014, and 47 percent since 1999. Deforestation is also a problem. 

Several people across the Kurdistan Region have recently been arrested for cutting down oak trees, including a man who cut down more than 1,000 oak trees in Duhok province. In Sulaimani, green spaces are drying up amid a lack of funds and care.

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani announced on Sunday that a 5.7 billion dinar budget will be provided for Sulaimani’s green spaces, but an end to the conflict ruining Duhok lands is harder to achieve.

The solution is neither with the forest police nor the environment board when it comes to war.

“The state should be on board and prevent the bombardments on the border areas,” Mohammed said.