DERSİM - Stating that the fires caused by military operations are the results of the policy of depopulation, DEDEF Chair Ali Haydar Ben said they used to burn down villages back in the 90's and they started to set forests on fire after 2016.

 

Forest fires caused by military operations continue all over the region. The fire started recently during a military operation in Diyarbakır's Dicle district, could not be extinguished for two weeks. The fire that broke out as a result of the fire opened from a military base in Deriyê Cebrail region of Cudi Mountain in Şırnak turned the forest into ashes.  Again, in the village of Akdizgin (Zêwê), located on the slopes of Gabar Mountain in Güçlükonak district, a forest fire broke out as a result of the fire opened by the soldiers.

 

POLICY OF DEPOPULATION

 

Despite the fact that the fires, which are started as a result of military operations in the cities of the region every year, burn thousands of hectares of land, they are not included in the official records. The fires, which cause the death of many living species, also negatively affect agriculture and animal husbandry in the region. Ali Haydar Ben, Chairman of the Federation of Dersim Associations (DEDEF), told that the fires that broke out as a result of military operations were the result of the government's depopulation policies.

 

THEY USED TO BURN DOWN VILLAGES, NOW THEY SET FORESTS ON FIRE

 

Reminding that the villages were burnt down during 90'S, Ben said they started to set forests on fire after 2016. Drawing attention to the harm the fires do to the environment, Ben said it also effects the agriculture and animal husbandry.

 

Stating that the fires are not extinguished, Ben said that the local people who try to extinguish the fire themselves are blocked due to security reasons. Ben said: "We have to protect our nature, but the authorities have a responsibility to intervene these fires. Similar fires are started in the Aegean region. These fires are started on purpose. We know that they have the tools to intervene in these fires from air and land. That never happens in the east. They make statements saying that the fire is under control or there is no such fire after the public reactions. However, we see that the fire they say did not happen, are actually there from the videos sent from the region. They do not extinguish these fires on purpose."

 

 

MA / Ayşe Sürme