MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Şırnex – For more than two years, trees in Şırnak’s Besta and Cudi regions have been cut down. Every day, more than 50 trucks of trees are cut down in the regions. While special roads are being built in the mountains for tree cutting, thousands of village guards are involved in this destruction of nature. The people working to collect and distribute the cut down trees are paid daily wages. Some of the trees are sent outside the city and some are sent to the military bases in the regions for burning them in winter. However, the authorities in the city continue to remain silent against this ecological destruction. The citizens say the trees are cut down to depopulate the region.

Landowners are threatened

The cut down trees are transferred from the city center by trucks every day at 4pm. They are first transferred to the industrial zone and then other cities. The families of village guards, who won the tender for the cutting of trees in Şenoba town, allegedly live in wealth with the money they receive in selling trees. According to the local sources, the landowners in the region are threatened to sell or cut down trees in their lands by the people involved in the cutting down of trees.

Depopulation policy continues

Aysel Kabul, one of the citizens of Şırnak reacting to the deforestation policy carried out in their region, told us that the state aims to depopulate the region as it did in the 92s. “They have destroyed our mountains. They put pressure on us to cut down our trees. We are told that if we do not cut down the trees, they will burn them down. They should stay away from our nature, trees. Nature means life. We had to leave our village 34 years ago and settled here. They aim to force us to leave here as they forced us to leave our village in the 92s by burning down our village. Our trees are cut down and sold now. We oppose the cutting down of our trees. We will do everything to stop the destruction of nature.”

“People should stop the ongoing destruction”

Nuriye Bilir said that the Kurds should join hands to stop the destruction of nature in Şırnak. “They take the trees from the region to other cities by tractors and trucks. The people of the region should rise up to stop this destruction of nature. We cannot live without nature. If we lose our forests, we will face many diseases.”

“This destruction must end”

“We do not want our trees to be cut down,” Nuriye Bilir said, “The Kurds should join hands to stop the destruction of nature in the Botan region. Before, they burned down our villages and now we have to take permission to enter our villages. When we see the trucks of trees, our hearts are broken. We will protest this destruction. If needed, we will hold a march to protest it.”