Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council Co-Presidency said in a written statement about forest fires that the Turkish state wants to de-forestize the most beautiful areas of Kurdistan.

The KCK has called for action against forest fires, underlining that Europe, the United States and the United Nations remain silent about these fires.

The KCK statement said: "The AKP-MHP fascist government has broadened its policy of hostility against Kurds by making an attack on the Kurdish environments. In 2018, forest fires, deliberately chosen as a political tool, have intensified”.  

The statement continued: “There are forest fires affecting the areas of Dersim, Amed, Botan and Qandil: thousands of square kilometres burning and used as warfare tool. Those who try to extinguish the fires are targeted and prevented from doing so. Aircraft bombardments and helicopter attacks in forest areas increased; each bomb and each gunfire creates a new fire”.

It is the lungs of the Kurdish people and the peoples of the Middle East, said the KCK, that “are being targeted. Thus, the people's living environment is destroyed. They try to empty Kurdistan”. 

All these fires are actually the product of war planes and helicopters provided to Turkey by the US and many European countries, recalled the KCK that called on the international institutions and organizations to act and call en end to these forests burning all over Kurdistan”.

Likewise, the KCK called on Turkey's democratic institutions, environmental organizations, artists, intellectuals, politicians and the general public to step up their action and raise their voices against the fires. “These forests are the lungs of the people of Turkey. In this respect, we urge all the people of Turkey, environmental and human rights organizations, democratic political forces and all Turkey, to raise their voices against the fires deliberately started by the government”.