State starts fires to turn Kurdistan into a military barrack

The Turkish state’s policies of war in Kurdistan target everything from people to nature.

Turkey is burning the whole region of Kurdistan from Şırnak to Amed, Bingöl, Dersim and Hakkari. The fire that started on Şırnak's Cudi Mountain is spreading in waves. When a fire goes out in the area, another begins. Failure to put out the fires by the authorities is cause for reactions. Hundreds of trees, vineyards and gardens have been burned down due to the fires which often threaten people’s houses.

Protection Platform spokesperson Vahap Işıklı visited the region and told ANF about the fire. He said that the fires were caused by the war and profit policies of the Turkish state.

Işıklı emphasized that we are witnessing an ecological destruction in the Şırnak region. Emphasizing that the fires in Cudi, Gabar, Besta, Lice and Eruh were actually started by state forces, while the fires in the west were “sacrifices” for profit, Işıklı added: "The fires in the region are started by the soldiers. The state wants to turn the area into military barracks. Currently, the fire has spread to 7 areas. Before the fire, village guards had been cutting down the trees in the area for a year. According to the information given by the villagers, especially trench trees are cut down. As it is known, these trees are the livelihood of the people of the region. In this way, they want to reduce the people of the region to poverty and force them to migrate.”

The fires are not extinguished by the authorities, and actually when people want to extinguish them, they are prevented from doing so by the state forces. Işıklı said that the fire spread everywhere in Cudi. “Preventing those who want to extinguish the fire reveals the purpose of the state,” said Işıklı, ending his speech with the following words: “The state is carrying out an ecological damage while at the same time preventing the public from extinguishing the fire. We visited the area and the fire still continues. It is closer to the city center. This is a wound that has been bleeding for years, and its cause is the Kurdish issue. For years, wars and conflicts have been going on in the region. Forests are burned by the state."