Turkey-PKK conflict: Life inside Iraq’s ‘Forbidden Zone’

Nestled within the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan sits the picturesque village of Sergele.

For generations villagers have made a residing rising pomegranates, almonds and peaches and foraging within the surrounding forests for wild fruits and spices.

However Sergele, situated 16km (10 miles) from the border with Turkey, has grow to be more and more surrounded by Turkish army bases, that are dotted throughout the slopes.

One, perched midway up the western ridge, looms over the village, whereas one other within the east is below development.

At the very least seven have been constructed right here over the previous two years, together with one by a small dam that regulates Sergele’s water provide, rendering it off limits to villagers.

“That is 100% a type of occupation of Kurdish [Iraqi Kurdistan] lands,” says farmer Sherwan Sherwan Sergeli, 50, who has misplaced entry to a few of his land.

“The Turks ruined it.”

Sergele is now in peril of being dragged into what’s identified domestically because the “Forbidden Zone” – a big strip of land in northern Iraq affected by Turkey’s conflict with the Kurdish militant group the PKK, which launched an insurgency in southern Turkey in 1984.

The Forbidden Zone spans nearly your complete size of the Iraqi border with Turkey and is as much as 40km (25 miles) deep in locations.

Group Peacemaker Groups, a human rights group based mostly in Iraqi Kurdistan, says that a whole lot of civilians have been killed by drone and air strikes in and across the Forbidden Zone. In accordance with a 2020 Kurdistan parliamentary report, hundreds have been pressured off their land and complete villages have been emptied out by the battle.

Sergele is now successfully on the entrance line of Turkey’s conflict with the PKK.

When the BBC World Service Eye Investigations group visited the realm, Turkish plane pummelled the mountains surrounding the village to root out PKK militants, who’ve lengthy operated from caves and tunnels in northern Iraq.

A lot of the land round Sergele had been burned by shelling.

“The extra bases they put up, the more serious it will get for us,” says Sherwan.

Turkey has been quickly rising its army presence within the Forbidden Zone in recent times, however till now the dimensions of this enlargement was not publicly identified.

Utilizing satellite tv for pc imagery assessed by consultants and corroborated with on-the-ground reporting and open-source content material, the BBC discovered that as of December 2024, the Turkish army had constructed a minimum of 136 fastened army installations throughout northern Iraq.

By its huge community of army bases, Turkey now holds de-facto management of greater than 2,000 sq km (772 sq. miles) of Iraqi land, the BBC’s evaluation discovered.

Satellite tv for pc photos additional reveal that the Turkish army has constructed a minimum of 660km (410 miles) of roads connecting its amenities. These provide routes have resulted in deforestation and left an enduring imprint on the area’s mountains.

Whereas a couple of of the bases date again to the Nineteen Nineties, 89% have been constructed since 2018, after which Turkey started considerably increasing its army presence in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Turkish authorities did not reply to the BBC’s requests for interviews, however has maintained that its army bases are essential to push again the PKK, which is designated a terrorist organisation by Ankara and quite a few Western nations, together with the UK.

The sub-district capital of Kani Masi, which is simply 4km (2.5 miles) from the Iraqi-Turkish border and components of that are inside the Forbidden Zone, might provide a glimpse into Sergele’s future.

As soon as well-known for its apple manufacturing, few residents stay right here now.

Farmer Salam Saeed, whose land is within the shadow of a big Turkish base, hasn’t been capable of domesticate his winery for the previous three years.

“The second you get right here, you should have a drone hover over you,” he tells the BBC.

“They’ll shoot you for those who keep.”

The Turkish army first arrange right here within the Nineteen Nineties and has been consolidating its presence since.

Its foremost army base, that includes concrete blast partitions, watch and communication towers and house for armoured personnel carriers to maneuver inside, is far more developed than the smaller outposts round Sergele.

Salam, like another locals, believes Turkey in the end needs to assert the territory as its personal.

“All they need is for us to go away these areas,” he provides.

Close to Kani Masi, the BBC noticed first-hand how Turkish forces have successfully pushed again the Iraqi border guard, which is answerable for defending Iraq’s worldwide boundaries.

At a number of places, the border guards have been manning positions nicely inside Iraqi territory, immediately reverse Turkish troops, unable to go proper as much as the border and probably danger a conflict.

“The posts that you simply see are Turkish posts,” says Common Farhad Mahmoud, pointing to a ridge simply throughout a valley, about 10km (6 miles) inside Iraqi territory.

However “we can not attain the border to know the variety of posts”, he provides.

Turkey’s army enlargement in Iraqi Kurdistan – fuelled by its rise as a drone energy and rising defence price range – is seen as a part of a broader overseas coverage shift in the direction of larger interventionism within the area.

Much like its operations in Iraq, Turkey has additionally sought to determine a buffer zone alongside its border with Syria to include Syrian armed teams allied with the PKK.

In public, Iraq’s authorities has condemned Turkey’s army presence within the nation. However behind closed doorways it has accommodated a few of Ankara’s calls for.

In 2024, the 2 sides signed a memorandum of understanding to collectively struggle the PKK.

However the doc, obtained by the BBC, didn’t place any limitations on Turkish troops in Iraq.

Iraq depends upon Turkey for commerce, funding and water safety, whereas its fractured inside politics have additional undermined the federal government’s means to take a powerful stance.

Iraq’s nationwide authorities didn’t reply to the BBC requests for remark.

In the meantime, the rulers of the semi-autonomous area of Iraqi Kurdistan have an in depth relationship with Ankara based mostly on mutual pursuits and have typically downplayed the civilian hurt resulting from Turkey’s army motion.

The Kurdistan Democratic Occasion (KDP), an arch enemy of the PKK, dominates the Kurdistan Regional Authorities (KRG) and has formally been in cost since 2005, when Iraq’s structure granted the area its semi-autonomous standing.

The KDP’s shut ties with Turkey have contributed to the area’s financial success and have strengthened its place, each in opposition to its regional political rivals and with the Iraqi authorities in Baghdad, with which it tussles for larger autonomy.

Hoshyar Zebari, a senior member of the KDP’s politburo, sought guilty the PKK for Turkey’s presence in Iraqi Kurdistan.

“They [the Turkish military] will not be harming our folks,” he instructed the BBC.

“They don’t seem to be detaining them. They don’t seem to be interfering in them going about their enterprise. Their focus, their sole aim is the PKK.”

The battle exhibits no indicators of ending, regardless of the PKK’s long-jailed chief Abdulla Ocalan calling in February for his fighters to put down arms and disband.

Turkey has continued to shell targets throughout Iraqi Kurdistan, whereas the PKK claimed duty for downing a Turkish drone final month.

And whereas violent incidents in Turkey have declined since 2016, in response to a tally by the NGO Disaster Group, these in Iraq have spiked, with civilians residing on the border area going through rising danger of dying and displacement.

A type of killed was 24-year-old Alan Ismail, a stage-four most cancers affected person hit by an air strike in August 2023 whereas on a visit to the mountains together with his cousin, Hashem Shaker.

The Turkish army has denied finishing up a strike that day, however a police report seen by the BBC attributes the incident to a Turkish drone.

When Hashem filed a grievance in an area court docket in regards to the assault he was detained by Kurdish safety forces and held for eight months on suspicion of supporting the PKK – an accusation he and his household deny.

“It has destroyed us. It is like killing the entire household,” says Ismail Chichu, Alan’s father.

“They [the Turks] don’t have any rights to kill folks in their very own nation on their very own land.”

Turkey’s Defence Ministry didn’t reply to the BBC’s requests for remark. It has beforehand instructed the media that the Turkish armed forces comply with worldwide regulation, and that within the planning and execution of their operations they solely goal terrorists, whereas taking care to forestall hurt to civilians.

The BBC has seen paperwork suggesting Kurdish authorities might have acted to assist Turkey evade accountability for civilian casualties.

Confidential papers seen by the BBC present a Kurdish court docket closed the investigation into Alan’s killing, saying the perpetrator was unknown.

And his dying certificates – issued by Kurdish authorities and seen by the BBC – says he died due to “explosive fragments”.

Failing to say when victims of air strikes have died because of violence, reasonably than an accident, makes it troublesome for households to hunt justice and compensation, to which they’re entitled below each Iraqi and Kurdish regulation.

“In many of the dying certificates, they solely wrote ‘infijar’, which implies explosion,” says Kamaran Othman from Group Peacemaker Groups.

“It may be something exploding.

“I feel the Kurdish Regional Authorities would not wish to make Turkey answerable for what they’re doing right here.”

The KRG stated it acknowledged the “tragic lack of civilians ensuing from army confrontation between the PKK and Turkish military within the area”.

It added that “quite a few casualties” had been documented as “civilian martyrs”, which means they’ve been unjustly killed and entitling them to compensation.

Virtually two years after Alan was killed, his household remains to be ready, if not for compensation, a minimum of for acknowledgement from the KRG.

“They may a minimum of ship their condolences – we do not want their compensation,” says Ismail.

“When one thing is gone, it is gone ceaselessly.”