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500 Christian families forced to flee Turkish bombing in Iraqi Kurdistan

AT LEAST 500 Christian families have been displaced since Turkey began its illegal invasion of mountainous Duhok province in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, officials said today.

Among those targeted in Turkey’s Operation Claw Lightning, which began on April 23, is the village of Navkandalan in the Zakho district.

According to the Rudaw news agency, a media outlet with close ties to the region’s ruling Barzani family, Christians are demanding weapons from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to protect themselves.

Village chief Basim Gabriel urged world powers to intervene, after the Christian population of Navkandalan fell from 70 to 40 as a result of Turkey’s two-month aerial bombardment and ground assault.

“We don’t stay in conflict zones. The conflict is now intense. We urge the United Nations to find a solution. We, as Christians, don’t want to evacuate our village,” he said.

Officials from Zakho cathedral said that 11 Christian villages have been evacuated as a result of Turkey’s military operations, with some 500 families forcibly displaced.

Last month, Turkish forces destroyed a church and several buildings in the village of Miska in Duhok’s Amedi district, with air strikes causing most of the residents to flee in terror.

According to a recent report from the Christian Peacemakers Team, which has been active on the ground, at least 1,500 villagers have been displaced since Turkey began bombing.

Government officials have warned of an environmental catastrophe, with at least 610 acres and land and green space badly damaged. 

Turkey has been accused of stealing logs from the region and transporting them across its border.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands accused of war crimes after three people were killed in an air strike on the UN-administered Makhmour refugee camp last week.

He has constantly threatened to act against the settlement in northern Iraq, which he labels “an incubator of terrorism” because some of the region’s residents support the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

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