The Kurdish-Iraqi Commission of Inquiry of MPs from Baghdad and Hewlêr (Erbil) has delivered its final report on Turkey's ongoing invasion to the central government and parliament in Baghdad. Iraqi MP Kati al-Rikabi, a member of the parliament's Security and Defense Committee, told the Iraqi newspaper Al Sabah that the report contains concrete recommendations for action aimed at ending the Turkish military presence on Iraq's territory.

"The report cites violations of Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity, environmental and natural destruction and forest clearing," Al-Rikabi said. The Turkish state wants to repeat in Iraq what it did in Syria, he said and noted that the commission of inquiry will work to ensure that the government in Baghdad addresses the report as soon as possible.

The commission visited villages and communities in Metina and the Zap region on June 8 and 9 for investigations. The trip was prompted by the unexplained explosion of an armored van belonging to KDP units in the guerrilla area, for which the Turkish state, the KDP and the German consulate in Hewlêr hold the PKK responsible. The HPG denied involvement and called for an independent investigation. A representative of the Peshmerga Ministry had also stated that it must have been the attack of an F-16 bomber or an armed drone. On June 8, another peshmerga was killed in Derkar under unexplained circumstances; the PKK has also denied involvement in this incident.

MP Şayan Eskeri had already published the results of the parliamentary commission's investigation on Saturday. Commenting on the death of the peshmerga in Derkar, Eskeri said, "He fell in the immediate vicinity of his base. There is no guerrilla presence anywhere in the area." The troop carrier attacked on June 5 was removed a day before they arrived, she said, although authorities were informed of the planned investigation.

Eskeri explained her impressions of the environmental destruction in the wake of the Turkish invasion, pointing to the forest fires that have been ignited and the systematic cutting down of trees, "Unfortunately, we were not able to go to the villages in the border area because airstrikes continue to take place and people have had to leave their villages because of this. The inhabitants of the region have told us that the Turkish state is clearing their forests and taking the wood to Turkey. The forest areas of sixty villages are affected."

Since April 23, a higher-intensity invasion by the Turkish state has been taking place in various areas of southern Kurdistan. In addition to combat drones and regular ground troops, Islamist mercenaries are also being used. According to the civil society organization "Nature Protection in Kurdistan," in the first forty days of the occupation operation, more than 700 hectares of cultivated land were burned as a result of the Turkish army's bombardments-an area the size of Gibraltar. In the same period, around 1,300 beehives were destroyed in the villages in Kani Masi and Avashin. In the village of Adne, a large water pumping station was destroyed.

According to the NGO, over 130 square kilometers of agricultural land and forests have been destroyed in southern Kurdistan over the past ten years. The Iranian regime is responsible for about one third of the destruction. The majority is the responsibility of NATO partner Turkey. The irreversible deforestation is also decimating the fauna. The decline of certain wildlife populations is accompanied by an increase in the frequency of conflicts. Around half of the forest cover in southern Kurdistan and Iraq has been destroyed by wars and attacks over the past 50 years.

The church-based peace initiative Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT-Iraqi Kurdistan) also regularly draws attention to the impact of Turkish military operations on the lives and livelihoods of civilians in southern Kurdistan. According to the latest figures from the organization, which has been active in the region since 2007, at least 103 civilians have been killed in Turkish attacks on southern Kurdistan in the past five years. The initiative names 148 villages that have been depopulated in the same period - 22 of them since the beginning of the invasion, which has been ongoing since late April. Another 500 villages are currently under acute threat of depopulation.

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