On 15 June, the Turkish military launched a new military offensive inside Iraqi Kurdistan. Local social media was buzzing with images of Turkish soldiers patrolling on foot or driving through towns in armoured vehicles; something not seen in this part of Iraqi Kurdistan before.
On paper, the offensive is the latest in a series of operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) designed by Turkey to carve out a “sterilized security buffer zone” in the northern Iraq-Turkey border region, similar to what it attempted to create in north Syria. Cries of “a battle against terrorism,” that old, worn-out quote used by Erdogan—much like his Western counterparts twenty-plus years ago—fill accompanying government press conferences and media releases.
On the ground, the operation has brought Turkish soldiers, and the subsequent fighting, from mountaintop bases into the populated streets of well-known towns such as Amedi and Deraluk. This unprecedented development in the conflict dramatically increases the risk of harm to civilians already suffering from Turkish bombardments and the presence of Turkish bases near their villages and farmland. It is a landscape of the terrified but defiant.
Recently, CPT-IK travelled to the Amedi region to meet with the Mayor and discuss the effects of the Turkish offensive on civilians. While returning to Duhok, the team stopped beside a mosque overlooking the valley between the Gara and Metina mountains to document fire damage from Turkish bombardments on agricultural land. We met a man named Kak Bashir, who had tried to build a cafe here. His dreams of a cafe had been shattered by Turkish artillery and small arms fire coming from the Turkish base on the hillside nearby. He was originally from Sigire village but had been displaced to Kane village by the Turkish military five years ago. Due to the loss of his farm in Sigire, he has planted some vegetables next to the site of his cafe. He gave each CPT member some sweet basil and invited us to his village.
When we arrived, a man dressed in immaculate traditional Kurdish clothes stood transfixed, staring into the valley. He was staring at Mizhe village below, his home. Mizhe is one of at least nine villages displaced by the recent Turkish operation. Kak Bashir told us that displaced people from the valley would visit this place daily to gaze upon their cut-off towns and farmland below.
We ask you to pray for an end to military offensives in Iraqi Kurdistan and for an end to attacks on civilians. We ask you to pray that the civilians who are cut off from their land are allowed to return and that peace and freedom are allowed to bloom in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan.
