Forest fires in the Kurdish majority provinces of Turkey need to be analysed in relation to the country’s policies of war. Forests in eastern Turkey have reportedly been set alight and the fires inflamed as a result of ongoing military operations by Turkish armed forces against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
While forest fires in Tunceli (Dersim), Diyarbakir (Amed) and Mardin (Merdin) continue to rage, news of a forest fire being lit came in from the rural area around Zêwê village on Gabar Mountain in the Bâsa district of Şırnak (Sirnex).
Eye witnesses claimed that during the military operations Turkish army soldiers intentionally set fire to the forest area in the region.
Last year it was reported that a number of fires broke out as a result of artillery fire from Akdizgin Police Station, also in the same region.
A fire still rages on Mount Cudi, and a fire in the forested areas of the countryside around Kerboran in Mardin has spread to the rural neighbourhoods of Su Çatı and Soğanlı and as far as Ulu Çınar hamlet.
Thousands of acres of woodland have been burned in a forest fire that started on Gorse Mountain after military operations were launched on 1 June at Prejman village in the Piran district of Diyarbakir.