Village guards are involved in the cutting in the villages of Cevizdibi (Cifanê), Dağkonak (Nerex), Gilindor, Nêvava and Anıldı (Gundikê Remo) in Şırnak Cudi Mountain Region in Turkey.
Speaking on the issue, HDP Şırnak MP Hüseyin Kaçmaz drew attention to the fact that trees were cut and burned in Kurdistan as part of the war policies of the AKP.
Reminding that after the solution process was disrupted by Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan there was a return to the war policies implemented in Kurdistan in the 1990s, said Kaçmaz adding that the nature of Kurdistan was plundered on the grounds of ‘security’. Kaçmaz noted that the state forces cut down the trees on the one hand and burned many forests in Kurdistan, especially Cudi, Besta and Gabar, on the other.
Stating that tens of thousands of trees have been cut down in the region so far, Kaçmaz added that the trees were sent to Rojava and Idlib by village guards to be sold. Kaçmaz added that some of the cut trees were sent to state institutions. “The gendarmerie does not allow access to the areas where trees are cut. The state has been cutting down the trees and burning the forests in Kurdistan for years. They destroy forest areas to build outpost and barracks.
The people of the region reacted against this devastation of nature. Trees in Şırnak are cut down and sold by village guards. “The village guards in the village of Sêgirkê are sent to pillage the region.”
Underlining that a fire broke out in the Cudi forest as a result of the latest artillery fire from Botaş Gendarmerie Station near Silopi, Kaçmaz said that the institutions that were supposed to extinguish the fire did not intervene with the excuse of the area being a ‘special security zone’.”
Reminding of the fires in regions such as Izmir, Manisa and Bursa, Kaçmaz said: “Our hearts burned. But in the regions of Gabar and Cudi, forests are being burned by the state. State officials remain silent against months of fires in Cudi, Gabar, Besta, Lice, Bingöl and Dersim. Are the forests in Kurdistan not forests? The state’s hatred of Kurds has blinded them.”