The special war in northern Kurdistan is also directed against the region's environment. Again and again, large forest areas are burned down by the Turkish army in the summer in order to deprive the guerrillas of retreat areas. In addition, forests are systematically cut down in order to sell the wood for profit.

Armed village guards began cutting down forest areas in the Banê Kokê and Banê Ezîza areas on Thursday and transporting the felled trees away for sale. MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) Güçlükonak district chairman Emin Ilhan and AKP district chairman Cüneyt Aktuğ are said to have "won" the tender for the contract to transport the trees.

Village guards

Village guards are paramilitary units used in Kurdistan against guerrillas and unwelcome opposition members. They consist to a considerable extent of tribal leaders, large landowners, families, and individuals who have often worked with the state for decades in an attempt to advocate for the state's interests in Kurdistan. Some of the village guards join this system voluntarily, while others are threatened with murder, arrest, and expulsion and must become village guardians under pressure. The Hamidiye regiments in the Ottoman Empire are considered the historical model of the village guards. Today's village guard system came into being in 1985, a year after the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) launched its armed struggle. At that time, the Turkish government under Turgut Özal began recruiting and arming Kurdish tribes and clans in the war against the PKK. Thousands of Kurdish villages that rejected the village guard system were burned and razed to the ground by the state in the 1990s.