On the ridge of Kur A Zhor, a mountain overlooking the town of Chiladzi in the heart of Iraqi Kurdistan, the threatening outlines of Turkish outposts loom large. The emergence of these military installations in the spring of 2022 undermined all hopes for peace in this agricultural region of Duhok province. Until a few years ago, these hilly landscapes dotted with rivers were popular with Iraqi tourists seeking to escape the scorching heat. But the ruthless war between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters is gaining ground.
On June 19, 2020, a Turkish drone dropped a deadly charge on the edge of the town. Three villagers who had gone on a picnic after their day's work – Azad Mahdi, Moukhlis Adam and Deman Omar – were killed in their car as they crossed a PKK checkpoint. Today, the inhabitants of Chiladzi are within range of the Turkish soldiers posted on the heights. The town and its neighboring hamlets are now cut off from the land that stretches north to the Turkish border, some 30 km away as the crow flies. The area has been emptied of its population, which is no longer allowed to enter.
"In the past, they used to fight on the border. The PKK is coming toward us, the Turks are chasing them and they are getting closer every day," said Rizgav Obeid, Chiladzi's mayor. In this part of the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, where Masoud Barzani's party (Kurdistan Democratic Party, KDP) and its powerful intelligence service reign supreme, inhabitants choose their words carefully before assigning blame. "There are no winners or losers, only two foreign parties occupying our country," lamented Barzani, himself an elected member of the KDP. "We want them to withdraw, but how can a small region like ours impose its will on Turkey?"
Carte blanche
In Erbil, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has given the Turkish army carte blanche to hunt down the PKK separatists, labeled terrorists by Ankara but also by the United States and the European Union, and who have established rear bases in northern Iraq. This policy has enabled the region to strengthen its economy, being heavily dependent on the oil it exports via Turkey. The KRG does not publish its production figures, but experts estimate it at around 440,000 barrels per day, most of which is intended for export.
We are interested in your experience using the site.
Turkey has increased its military presence in northern Iraq, where it now has 87 outposts, up from 29 in 2019
In Baghdad, the Iraqi state had authorized Turkish incursions into a 5-kilometer-wide strip inside its borders as early as 1983, during Saddam Hussein's rule. Weakened by internal divisions since the 2003 US invasion and by the war waged against the Islamic State (IS) group from 2014 to 2017, the federal government adopted a wait-and-see approach in the face of repeated infringements on its sovereignty. Taking advantage of these vulnerabilities, Turkey has increased its military presence in the country, where it has now established 87 outposts, up from 29 in 2019, according to estimates published by Reuters on January 31. Dohuk province, which shares the longest stretch of border with Turkey, is the province harboring the largest number of these outposts. It is also where civilians are most exposed to collateral damage from Ankara's increasingly brutal operations against its arch-enemy.
You have 82.91% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.