Images of the villages evacuated by the Turkish state as part of the occupation attacks on South Kurdistan have emerged. The images published by Rojnews show the debris left behind from the villages that the KDP forcibly evacuated in order to facilitate the occupation attack by the Turkish state.

The KDP has forcibly evacuated dozens of villages in Behdinan in the past few. The villages, which were evacuated by citizens under threats and attacks, were completely destroyed after the bombardments by the occupying Turkish state.

According to RojNews, the KDP had previously forcibly evacuated the villages of Mijê, Kevne Mijê, Spindarê and Girgaşê in the Ber Garê region of the Amêdiyê district of Duhok. The villagers were forced to leave their villages without even taking basic items with them.

Some of the residents contacted Rojnews and said that after a long struggle, they were able to convince the KDP to allow them to go back to their villages and collect their belongings. The villagers said that when they went to their villages, they encountered only destruction and debris.

The villagers told RojNews: “We were able to convince the KDP to let us go back to our houses. Our entry to our villages was prevented. After convincing the KDP, the authorities told us that we needed permission from the Turkish state to enter our village.”

The images are reminiscent of the village burnings that took place in the Botan region of Bakur Kurdistan in the 1990s. The Turkish state had forced the Kurdish people into migration by burning 4,000 villages in the 1990s.

What happened in Behdinan reveals that the KDP is trying to re-implement the same practices.