Duhok villagers urge return: PKK-Turkiye conflict threatens farmlands

Shafaq News/ Displaced villagers in northern Duhok Province of Iraqi Kurdistan, caught in the crossfire between Turkish forces and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, are demanding access to their farmlands as the planting season approaches in the Kurdistan Region.

Residents of dozens of villages in the Berê Gare area, along the slopes of the Gara Mountains in Al-Amediya district, have been barred from returning since October. The ongoing conflict has emptied communities and halted agricultural work, cutting off the main source of income for hundreds of families.

“We’re worried about devastating losses,” Ali Mousa from Bêyê village told Shafaq News, citing the risk of crop failure and fires due to overgrown weeds and untreated fields. “The area is known for producing sumac, grapes, and walnuts—crops now in danger of withering without care.”

Sleem Gezi, another resident, stressed that farming has sustained generations and urged the Kurdistan Regional Government to act quickly. “This land is our livelihood. We need to go back before the season slips away.”

As in several areas of the Kurdistan Region, years of clashes in Berê Gare have scorched thousands of dunams of farmland and forest, destroyed infrastructure and homes, and forced large-scale displacement—deepening a humanitarian and environmental crisis with no clear end in sight.

Although the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan urged the dissolution of the militant group and an end to the armed struggle in February, near-daily clashes with the Turkish military continue, causing both human and material losses.