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Life 'unbearable' for last residents of
Iraqi Kurdistan border village
25.10.2007
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None of villagers say they have ever seen any PKK
fighters in the area and suspect the Turkish
shelling is designed to frighten them into leaving
their homes.
October
25, 2007
DASHTETAKH, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --- At
the very edge of Iraqi Kurdistan, the remaining
residents of this tiny village cling desperately
onto their land, despite the shelling and threat of
an incursion from neighbouring Turkey.
"The situation has become unbearable," explains
Mikhail Gouriel, deputy mayor of Dashtetakh, a small
village that lies just two kilometres (1.2 miles)
from the Turkish border.
Dwarfed by the surrounding mountains, the village of
250 mainly Chaldean Christian residents sits in a
valley under the watchful eye of Turkish observation
posts. Even in normal times, it is practically
deserted.
A large Turkish flag with its white crescent on a
red background is painted on the mountainside and
stares boldly at Dashtetakh.
"Every day the Turkish soldiers fire mortar shells,"
said Gouriel, pointing to the empty border stretch
separating his village from the Turkish lines where
the Hizel river flows.
"They say they are targeting the PKK (Kurdistan
Workers' Party) but they haven't been here in over a
month," he insists.
Turkey has long demanded that Iraq stop the PKK from
using its territory, cut off logistical support to
the group and hand over rebel leaders to Turkey.
The party has been fighting for self-rule in
southeast Turkey since 1984 and its fighters take
refuge in remote camps in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'.
Most of the villagers, some of whom have come from
the violence-stricken Iraqi capital, have already
fled.
"The women and all the children have sought refuge
in Zakho because they were scared of the bombing,"
said Gouriel, referring to the nearest main town.
"There are only 10 to 15 men left and only three
women," he told AFP.
Under the safety of daylight, the men tend their
land, but at night, they shut themselves in their
homes to escape the shelling.
"This year the crop was lost because our fields were
burnt by the shelling of the Turkish army," protests
one farmer.
"We are all Christian refugees from Baghdad or
Basra," in the south, said an angry Petro Chalmon,
originally from southern Iraq. "We fled the
terrorism and now it is the Ottomans (Turks)
attacking us."
There is even talk of economic sanctions. Turkey
supplies Iraqi Kurdistan with electricity and
cross-border trade between the two countries is
worth several hundred million dollars a year.
"Here, it's the end of the world. There is no
electricity, there is no gas, we have generators
that we only switch on for several hours a day in
order to save," adds Gouriel, who was wounded during
Iraq's war with Iran in the 1980s.
Sitting in his home, where he hangs a photo of Pope
Benedict XVI, he is unimpressed with the central
government in Baghdad.
"They do nothing for us, to solve the problem with
the Turks. They probably think that this is not Iraq
and that we are not Iraqis," he said.
Busy tending to her garden, Nadine Mussa is one of
the three women who refused to leave Dashtetakh.
"We're all scared of the Turks, but where are we
supposed to go? It is the village of our ancestors,"
she said.
"We have come back for better or for worse," she
said in Arabic. She does not speak Kurdish.
Her main task, like the other two women, is to feed
the men.
She hopes things will improve in her little village
in a valley despite pressure inside Turkey for the
government to launch a military incursion into
Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq' against PKK bases.
"The women and children will come back and the
school will reopen. And if the situation improves in
Baghdad one day, we will go back there."
NOWHERE TO RUN
The inhabitants of the village, a 90 km (55 mile)
drive from Duhok over winding mountain passes with
fabulous vistas, are now putting their faith in
international efforts to head off further conflict.
"Every day there's shelling. It's continuous," said
Goreal Weuda, 56. "We don't want anyone to take our
rights away or to scare us."
"We ask the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, the
Kurdistan Regional Government, the Iraqi government
to solve the problem politically and for Turkey to
stop threatening the people."
"The security situation in the whole of Iraq is bad.
So we came here and now we have nowhere to run," he
said.
The village is made up of Iraqi Catholics and was
completely rebuilt in the past two years by the
regional government. A new yellow church with a red
roof stands nearby, awaiting its first priest.
A few miles back from the border is another new
village of 24 lilac, green and salmon-pink houses.
It is deserted.
In a field nearby is a man called Fadhil Salim, 28.
He lived there with his parents and seven siblings.
They have all gone to Zakho to flee the bombing, but
he has driven back to tend to their fields of peach
trees, tomatoes, melons and pomegranates.
None of villagers say they have ever seen any PKK
fighters in the area and suspect the Turkish
shelling is designed to frighten them into leaving
their homes.
"The problem is between the PKK and Turkey, so why
should they destroy the situation here?" said Yusif.
"It's a Turkish problem, it's nothing to do with
us."
Some in the village complain that they would not
feel comfortable in big towns and could not pay the
rents anyway.
"This is my land. I will not leave it for any
reason, not for Turkey or for anyone else, even if
we all die," said Weuda.
AFP | Reuters
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