While Turkey’s cross-border operation into Iraqi Kurdistan has continued since 23 April against Kurdish fighters in Medya Defense Zones, there have been linked concerns relating to trees being cut down to open up pathways for the military vehicles of Turkey being sold in Turkey with the support of MIT, villages being forcibly evacuated, and an attack on Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) special units during a shipment to Metina on June 8-9, which ended with five peshmergas losing their lives.
These issues were discussed and investigated by a delegation which included parliamentarians from the Federal Kurdistan Region and the Iraq parliaments. The delegation conducted investigations in the region and completed a report assessing the basis of these concerns.
As a result of the investigations that were carried out in the regions where the cross-border operations by Turkey have been taking place against the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) fighters in Qandil Mountains, it was revealed that various rights violations have taken place and there has been destruction of nature.
‘Turkey wants to repeat in Iraq what it did in Syria’
The delegation, which included the Chairman of the Defence and Security Commission of the Iraqi Parliament and seven parliamentarians representing the Peshmerga of the Federated Kurdistan Parliament, Internal Affairs, Security, Agriculture, Environment and Health Commissions and twelve parliamentarians, presented their report to the Baghdad government and the Iraqi Parliament.
According to Rojnews, Kati Rikabi, a member of the Security and Defense Committee of the Iraqi Parliament, stated that they discussed Turkey’s practices in the region and said, “We referred to Turkey’s operations in the region, plundering nature and cutting trees. Turkey wants to repeat in Iraq what it did in Syria.”
Şayan Eskerî, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, who was in the delegation, shared the results of their investigations with the public on her Facebook account. Regarding the armoured vehicle explosion in which five KDP members lost their lives in Metîna, she said: “Although it was known that the delegation would conduct investigations on the armoured vehicle and the region, the armoured vehicle was removed from the region one day before the delegation’s visit.”
Şayan Eskeri stated that they also investigated Derkar, where the KDP affiliated press reported that a peshmerga had been killed. “A peshmerga was martyred very close to his headquarters in Derkarê. There are no guerrillas anywhere near here,” she said and continued: “KDP officials wanted to associate the incident with the PKK but there is no such relationship.”
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