Agreement on Water Supply, Anti-PKK Operations

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Military operation in Amed

In Dicle district Amed, several villages have been sealed off by the Turkish army due to a military operation. Local residents have been banned from entering and leaving the villages

In the Dicle district of Amed (Diyarbakır), several settlement areas have been besieged by the Turkish army since Monday. The background is an air-supported military operation against the guerrillas, which was launched last Friday. The villages of Pirejman, Heridan and Şingirik Cor, north of Dicle, are affected by the state of siege in the region.

The area of operation includes Mount Gorse in the border area between Dicle and the neighbouring province of Elazığ, and the wider surrounding area. The military also deploys so-called village guard units, which are used by the Turkish state as a weapon of war for "counterinsurgency". The Turkish army has imposed a curfew on local residents. Entering and leaving the villages encircled by armoured military vehicles is thus prohibited.

It is not yet known how long the curfews in the villages of Dicle will remain in force. For the affected population, the measure means a complete lockdown from the outside world. In fact, exit and access restrictions mean that even leaving the house is forbidden and not even food and medicine may be bought. Turkish military operations are currently also taking place in other regions of Northern Kurdistan.

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Turkey attacks Kurds in Van

Turkish gendarmerie forces on Monday raided a Kurdish neighbourhood in the southeastern province of Van, clashing with locals when attempting to arrest a suspect. The force has come under fire for extensively firing in the air

Footage shared by a number of lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) shows a group of Turkey's gendarmerie members attempting to arrest a man and firing in the air to disperse a crowd. An old man is seen confronting the force while many women cry.

Huseyin Kacmaz, an outspoken HDP lawmaker, was among those who shared the video. He said in a tweet on Monday that the soldiers were trying to arrest a person in Baskale district’s Esenyanac (Xashkan) neighbourhood but “fired for minutes and beat women who intervened.”

Başkale ilçesi Xaşkan Mahallesi’ne bağlı Sersul mezrasında K.A adlı yurttaşı gözaltına almak için gelen askerler havaya dakikalarca ateş açtı, duruma itiraz eden kadınları da darp etmiş. Görüntülerde bu kadar silah sıkmayı gerektiren tek bir emare var mı?! pic.twitter.com/n2sdaLStUn
— Hüseyin Kaçmaz (@avhuseyinkacmaz) June 20, 2022

Fatma Kurtulan, another HDP MP who is a member of the human rights investigation committee at parliament, said in a tweet that she has requested an investigation by her committee.

“This brutality cannot be covered up with baseless statements. There can be no justification for firing automatic weapons on civilians, including women and children, for minutes,” she said.

Van governor’s office released a statement regarding the incident on Tuesday, defending the force's act. It said that the gendarmerie force wanted to arrest a man who was wanted for alleged murder and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) membership.

“After M.E.A was arrested, his relatives began throwing stones at gendarmerie vehicles. Therefore, the gendarmerie forces dispersed the crowd by firing in the air,” read the statement.

It added that the suspect was taken to a police station to be tried later.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... y/21062022

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Military operation Curfew in Bitlis

The Turkish authorities have imposed a curfew in ten villages and the local people are terrorised by the army on the grounds that PKK fighters have been seen in Hizan

In the Bitlis province of northern Kurdistan, the residents of several villages are being terrorised by the Turkish army. On the grounds that PKK guerrilla fighters have been seen in the region, a curfew was imposed in ten villages in the district of Hizan on Sunday evening. The curfew was imposed by the governor's office for an indefinite period.

In the course of a subsequently launched military operation, fighting took place and houses were stormed in the affected villages. The rural areas of the villages under curfew were shelled by the Turkish army throughout the night. Following the bombardment all night long, ground attacks were launched in the morning.

In Xûlepûr village, three people were detained and taken to the gendarmerie (military police) district headquarters. The detainees, Sakin, Muzaffer and Bedrettin Altın, were taken to Bitlis centre today and are expected to be referred to the prosecutor’s Office during the day.

According to local residents, all villages are besieged by the army. No one is allowed to leave the house. Villagers who wanted to go about their daily agricultural work were sent home by force. At night, state forces stormed into homes and asked: "Where are the terrorists?”

All villagers are subjected to criminal record check. In addition to military vehicles, there are also unidentified civilian cars in the area. People in the villages say that these groups are counter-terrorist forces and compare what is happening to the 1990s, when the Turkish state pursued a scorched earth policy in Kurdistan and destroyed thousands of villages.

The villages affected by the curfew are Bilgili, Akunus (Yaylacık), Govan (Sarıbal), Lanilan (Yeniçay), Xulepur (Yolbilen), Kekulan (Çalışkanlar), Sureh (Gedik), Pertavan (Akyazı), Kuran (Erencik) and Ureh (Otluk) and the surrounding settlements.

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14 areas ban access

Fourteen areas in Turkey’s southeastern Sirnak province have been declared as “temporary special security zones” and have been barred from public access for 15 days, according to a statement from the governor’s office on Wednesday. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is active in the province

Areas including the Mount Cudi region, Gabar Mountain, as well as parts of Cizre, Silopi, and Beytussebap have been declared as “temporary special security zones” in order to “prevent violence and prevent any negative situation that may occur,” the office of Sirnak’s governor said.

“It is forbidden for our citizens to enter the aforementioned areas for the safety of life and property,” it added, with the ban starting on June 30 until July 14.

Sirnak is a small Kurdish-majority province in southeast Turkey, bordering the Kurdistan Region. It has seen frequent clashes between the Turkish military and the PKK - an armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey and designated a terrorist organization by Ankara.

In mid May, at least three Turkish soldiers and two PKK members were killed during a Turkish military operation in Sirnak. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the time said that “we will resolutely continue our fight against the separatist organization PKK and its extensions inside and outside our borders, and we will not stop until the last terrorist is eliminated.”

In November, Turkey launched a domestic operation targeting PKK fighters in Sirnak - an extension of an earlier campaign across several provinces seeking to remove the PKK from the countryside.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeas ... y/28062023

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New special security zones

Numerous regions in the northern Kurdish provinces of Bitlis and Şırnak have been declared temporary special security zones. The process is related to military operations against the guerrillas and also includes curfews

In the provinces of Bitlis and Şırnak in northern Kurdistan, numerous regions have been declared temporary special security zones due to operations by the Turkish army against the guerrillas. For the local population, the measures, which will initially last for 15 days, mean a de facto state of emergency.

In Bitlis, among other places, a mountainous forest area that lies within the jurisdiction of the gendarmerie was declared a restricted zone. According to the governor's office for the province, the aim is to prevent national security and public order from being jeopardised and to prevent "activities by members of terrorist organisations". A de facto curfew is in force in the region.

The affected region in the Hizan district includes a hazel forest, which is known to keep the adjacent village economy alive, as well as ten densely populated villages and hamlets, on which a curfew had already been imposed at the beginning of July in the course of an air-supported military operation. For five days, the inhabitants of the affected villages were forbidden to leave their homes and people were cut off from the outside world. During the operation, fighting took place and the army carried out bombardments in the immediate vicinity of villages.

Bombardments are also taking place in the current military operation in Hizan. The Mezopotamya news agency (MA) reported that heavy shelling by attack helicopters took place on Friday in the vicinity of the villages of Xûlepûr (Yolbelen) and Kekulan (Çalışkan). According to the report, the attacks continued for several hours and the aircraft circled in the sky over the bombed region again today. A resident who wanted to irrigate his fields and apparently had no knowledge of the ban on access has been in the custody of the gendarmerie since Saturday morning.

In Şırnak, a total of eleven areas have been declared a temporary special security zone by the Turkish authorities. The order applies to highlands in the districts of Cizîr (Cizre), Silopiya (Silopi), Basan (Güçlükonak), Qilaban (Uludere), Elkê (Beytüşşebap) as well as in the province of Şırnak. Among others, Mount Cudi, the Besta region, Kureşin, the Serin Valley and the Faraşîn region are concerned.

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Agreement on Water Supply

Iraq and Turkey are reportedly working towards renewing a previous agreement that encompasses several key issues, including water supply and anti-PKK operations. A pivotal aspect of this agreement involves Turkey's condition for Iraq to allow strikes against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in exchange for water release

Iraq currently faces a severe water crisis, with projections indicating that by 2040, the country could lack its two main rivers. To address this, an element of the proposed agreement entails Turkey providing additional water to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which are experiencing scarcity and depletion in various parts of Iraq.

Media sources have suggested that the Iraqi federal government is awaiting the visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, scheduled for the final weeks of August, to finalize the agreement with Turkey during the tenure of former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

The initial agreement, signed during the term of Abadi, allowed Turkey to undertake operations against the PKK in Kurdistan Region’s Qandil area in exchange for water release from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Turkey has once again called upon Iraq's new government to secure its border against PKK fighters in exchange for ensuring the flow of water back into Iraq.

At the time, Jassim Mohammed Jaafar, a former Iraqi lawmaker close to Abadi, confirmed the Iraqi government's agreement with Turkey's anti-PKK operations, stating, "The Iraqi government agrees with Turkey to fight the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, and for this purpose, it has allowed Turkey to enter Iraqi territory to attack the PKK."

Recently, on December 10, 2023, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone conversation discussing economic cooperation, border strengthening, and the expulsion of terrorist groups from the shared border. The leaders also emphasized water-sharing and cooperation in trade, investment, and infrastructure projects.

Erdogan reiterated Turkey's commitment to eliminating the PKK presence in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

Khalil Ibrahim, professor at Salahaddin University, noted that Turkey has historically employed control over the Tigris and Euphrates waters as a political leverage in the region. Turkey's dam projects on these rivers have raised concerns of potential environmental consequences for neighboring countries.

Ibrahim pointed out that Turkey employed water as political pressure, such as pressuring Syria to expel Abdullah Ocalan in 2011. The construction of large dams by Turkey has also directly impacted Iraq's water resources, leading to apprehensions of water scarcity in Iraq if Turkey does not manage these resources carefully.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/819272