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Massive Turkey-led logging in Iraqi Kurdistan causes outcry

Extensive logging led by Turkey in Iraqi Kurdistan has set off an outcry, fueling the already strong anger toward the Turkish military presence in northern Iraq.
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Turkey’s cross-border military operations against the outlawed Kurdish militants based in northern Iraq are under fire for their environmental damage, a fresh addition to civil casualties and forced evacuation. Turkey says logging and deforestation around the Turkish outposts in Iraqi Kurdistan aim to protect Turkish checkpoints, but Kurdish officials and locals accuse Ankara of causing massive environmental damage to build new checkpoints and roads linking them. Local media reports say village guards affiliated with Turkey are doing the work.

The extensive operation, consisting of two parts codenamed Claw-Lightning and Claw-Thunderbolt, began late on April 23 in the Zap, Metina and Avashin areas, home to camps of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the armed group that has fought Ankara since 1984 and is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and much of the international community. As part of the ongoing incursion since last year, the Turkish army is working to cut off supply routes between the PKK bases with some 80 checkpoints it has built in the region.

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