Basic services return to former PKK-Turkey conflict zones

ERBIL, Kurdistan region - Three months after the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) unilaterally declared a ceasefire amid peace talks with the Turkish state, villages in former conflict zones across the Kurdistan Region are now receiving basic services and new infrastructure is being built.

"The areas that were previously bombed and where there was fighting between Turkey and the PKK are now calm," Warshin Salman, mayor of Amedi district in Duhok province, told Rudaw on Saturday.

"We are not aware of the border areas, but the areas that were bombed earlier have not been bombed again since the PKK clashes and the situation is calm," he said.

The Amedi district was on the frontline of the conflict between Turkey and the PKK and many villages were evacuated. But, thanks to the calm, people are now returning to their homes and gardens that they had been forced to abandon.

The PKK declared the ceasefire after its founder, Abdullah Ocalan, who has been jailed since 1999, released a message in March calling on the group to end its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state. On July 11, a group of PKK fighters burned their weapons in Jasana Cave in Sulaimani province in a symbolic disarmament as part of the peace process. A Turkish parliamentary commission is now formulating the legal foundations for peace with the PKK.

The Sidakan district within the Soran autonomous administration of Erbil province is another region that was severely affected by the conflict. It too, is now witnessing peace.

“The situation is calm and we hope it will be calmer so that we can get services to all the villages,” Omed Khoshnaw, governor of Erbil, told Rudaw on Saturday.

“Because of the war in the past few years, most of the citizens were affected and we could not bring services to the villages. We call on the PKK and the Turkish government to abide by the ceasefire so that our people will no longer be victims and can visit their fields and gardens and rebuild their areas,” added the governor.

Areas that were once “no-go” zones are now accessible.

“After the disarming, the situation in Sidakan and all other areas has returned to normal and there is no bombing,” Hajar Hakim, the head of Soran’s press office, told Rudaw.

“With the end of the war, services have reached the villages and we are now building a strategic road called Bole that connects 11 villages. Before the peace process, the road was a no-go area due to bombing,” added Hakim.

Another area that was heavily bombed during the conflict was the Qandil mountains. “As far as we know, since the ceasefire there has not been any bombings there,” a source from the Raparin administration told Rudaw on Saturday.

"The situation is calm in general and there are no Turkish air strikes in southern Kurdistan," Hakim Abdulkarim, a member of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), an umbrella group that includes the PKK, told Rudaw.

"There are no more drone attacks in southern Kurdistan," he added.

[Source: Rûdaw English]