The Christian peace organization Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) has accused Turkey of systematically clearing forest areas in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and transporting the timber across the border. CPT member Kamaran Osman said that large-scale deforestation has been taking place since September, particularly in the Zap and Avashin regions near the city of Amêdî in Duhok province.
Video footage obtained by the Roj News agency shows tree trunks being loaded onto vehicles in the affected areas and transported to Turkey. Osman emphasized that the trees are not only being felled, but that entire trees, including their roots, are being removed from the ground using heavy equipment such as excavators and bulldozers. They are then cut up using modern machinery and transported across the border by tractors.
According to Osman, some of the wood is used as fuel, while some is used to produce furniture such as tables, chairs, and houses. “Some of these products are then brought back to the Kurdistan region and sold here,” he said. For the local population, this practice brings neither economic nor ecological benefits, but rather causes irreparable damage to the forests and ecosystem in the border region, he added.
The activist accused political leaders in the KRI of not taking decisive enough action against deforestation. “Which Kurdish party has the protection of forests and border ecosystems in its program? Who is opposing the plundering of Kurdistan?” asked Osman.
The affected areas are located in a border region characterized by illegal occupation by Turkey, where the Turkish army has been conducting military operations against Kurdish guerrilla positions for years and committing war crimes, including against the civilian population of South Kurdistan. The international community is ignoring these violations of fundamental human rights.
Source: ANF News
