PKK-Turkey conflict damaged 50 square kilometers of Duhok forest: official

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Around 50 square kilometers of woodland have been damaged in Duhok in 2021 due to the conflict between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the head of Duhok’s forestry and agriculture directory told Rudaw on Wednesday, as he lamented the destruction of the Region’s forests.

For years, Duhok has played host to the decades-long conflict between the PKK and Turkey in the Kurdistan Region, being the subject of constant bombardment and other offenses that have harmed Duhok, its people, and its environment greatly.

Kawa Sabri, head of Duhok’s forestry and agriculture directory, told Rudaw on Wednesday that some 18-20,000 dunams (between 45 and 50 square kilometers) of forest and over 1,200 dunams (three square kilometers) of agricultural fields in Duhok - from the Zakho border to Amedi - were damaged last year due to the continuous conflict. An Iraqi dunam is roughly 2,500 square meters.

On April 18, Turkey marked the start of a new military operation, dubbed Claw-Lock, which aims to target PKK hideouts and ammunition on Turkey’s border with the Region’s Duhok province.

Sabri noted that the damage to the land has also greatly affected the animals in the area, adding that people can no longer collect spring herbs, which used to be a major source of income for families in the past, because of the blemished nature of the land.

Discussing the estimated cost of the damages, Sabri told Rudaw that it was “immeasurable.” There were over 120 trees in each dunam, he added, and some of the woodland’s trees were over 100 years old. “We are very saddened by how this conflict has affected our area,” he added.

Turkey launched its first military operation against PKK in the newly-established autonomous Kurdistan Region in the fall of 1992 with the involvement of thousands of troops, hoping to remove the Kurdish rebels on its borders with Iraq and Iran.

Updated at 7:08 pm