Civil society supports sit-in against forest fires in Şırnak

There is a great rush to the sit-in protest in Şırnak, which was initiated yesterday by HDP member of parliament Hasan Özgüneş against the forest fires at Cudi. Today, women's organizations are taking part, and tomorrow more parliamentarians plan to join

"The great rush to the sit-in touched me deeply. It is a good sign," says Hasan Özgüneş. The deputy of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) initiated a sit-in strike in the center of the Şırnak city on Thursday to draw attention to the extermination at Mount Cudi. Today, several activists from the Free Women's Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad, TJA), the HDP Women's Council, the Initiative of Peace Mothers, and members of the various district associations of the HDP took part in the action in front of the headquarters of the HDP provincial association. Kurdish songs are sung and militant slogans are chanted.

For three months now, the mountain, including its flora and fauna, has been destroyed by the Turkish military through targeted forest fires. The flames are also destroying the livelihoods of many people who live in villages on the foothills of Cudi. However, the soldiers do not confine themselves to setting the fires, sometimes using tracer ammunition, but also prevent the local population or the local authorities from attempting to put out the fires, often in cooperation with the governor's office. The AKP-led government in Ankara limits its reaction to the ecological destruction in Kurdistan to taking benevolent note of it. The forest fires on Cudi have so far been unable to cause an outcry in the western regions within Turkish territory.