On Sunday morning, the Iraqi army again started to surround the Maxmur camp in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq). The army is still trying to erect fences and watchtowers around the camp. Large contingents of troops have been assembled for this purpose. Meanwhile, the people of the camp continue to resist. People are active around the clock, keeping watch and blocking the army.

The Iraqi army has been besieging Maxmur since 20 May. Although the military siege was promised to be lifted after negotiations with the residents of the camp, this has not been kept. The Iraqi government is apparently taking action against the camp under pressure from the Turkish government and its ally, the KDP, the ruling party in southern Kurdistan.

The Maxmur Camp near Hewlêr (Erbil), founded by refugees from Northern Kurdistan, is intended to be fenced in and transformed into a huge open-air prison with watchtowers. The Iraqi army positioned hundreds of soldiers with armoured vehicles and heavy construction equipment in the vicinity of Maxmur in order to dig trenches and barbed wire and to surround the camp with watchtowers, despite the conducted negotiations with the People's Council of Maxmur.

In response, the people of Maxmur are resisting unabated. They have erected guard tents where people discuss and sing. The people of the self-governed camp are against the militarisation of Maxmur. The People's Council suspects that this sudden and persistent manoeuvre by the Iraqi army could be a signal of a wider political plan.

However, the People's Council locates the real source of the crackdown on Maxmur in Ankara. The Turkish state calls the camp a "breeding ground" for the PKK and repeatedly threatens to "cleanse" it. In recent years, Maxmur Camp has been repeatedly bombed by the Turkish air force. In August, a father of six was killed in a Turkish drone strike.