Shafaq News- Duhok

Timber trucks are leaving forested mountain areas along Duhok province's border every day and heading toward Turkish military positions, villagers in Iraq's Kurdistan Region told Shafaq News.

Between five and 15 loaded trucks pass each day, one resident of the Amedi district said, coming from mountain areas including Metina (Mateen), Derkla Misabk (Derkla Musa Bek), Khanki (Khanke) and Barukhi.

The logging coincides with work to open and pave roads leading to Turkish observation points and hilltop outposts in areas including Gire Biye, Bin Brifka and Miska, according to a villager from the Barwari Bala area.

The cutting happens every year around this time and continues until late autumn, removing large numbers of mature trees, another resident said. Villagers are barred from felling trees or even gathering firewood for heating, he added, while large-scale logging goes on around them.

In the Barwari, Nerwa (Nerwe) and Rekan (Rekani) areas, a man displaced from his village said the loss of forest cover could make it harder for families like his to return home.

Read more: Discover Iraq: Duhok —haven and hardship in Iraqi Kurdistan's frontier

Many of the felled trees are more than a century old and could take decades to replace, environmental and agricultural specialists told Shafaq News. They warned that continued logging also threatens wildlife and biodiversity and could upset the balance of the mountain ecosystem.

The reports come as Turkiye's military presence in Iraq faces fresh scrutiny. On September 23, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed that Turkish forces would gradually hand over the Bashiqa-Zilkan camp near Mosul to the federal government under an agreed mechanism and timetable. No date was set, and the deal did not cover Turkiye's other positions in the Kurdistan Region, including those in Duhok.

On Thursday, al-Zaidi listed an agreement on the withdrawal of Turkish forces and members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) among the pillars of what he called Iraq's new "sovereignty phase," which followed the end of the US-led coalition's military mission on September 30.

Turkiye has kept military positions in Duhok province for years as part of its campaign against the PKK, a Kurdish armed group that has fought the Turkish state since 1984 from bases in the border mountains. The conflict has emptied scores of border villages. In February 2025, the PKK's jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, urged the group to disarm and dissolve, giving new momentum to a peace process with Ankara.