ŞIRNAK - People living in Şenoba stated that approximately 500 mountain goats were killed by village guards in the last two months in Şenoba and said, “These massacres are done consciously. "We must raise our voices against these massacres and not allow our nature to be destroyed."

 

Every day a new one is added to the nature massacred carried out by the Turkish State in the region. Şırnak, one of the regions where massacres took place, has been on the agenda with forest fires in recent months. According to the information obtained from local sources from Şenoba (Sêgirkê) ,Şırnak's Uludere (Qileban) district; mountain goats were  massacred under named "observation and search" in the Sinah regions( in Judi, Besta, KelaMemê and Zaxo in Iraq) by village guards of Şenoba .

 

Again, according to the reports of local sources, the fish in the Hezil River (Çemê Hêzil) were killed by the village guards with a "generator and hand grenade" and the endangered Keklik (KevêGozel) birds in the region were targeted by the village guards.

 

'Nature massacres are done by the state'

 

People living in Şenoba and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Şırnak former provincial co-chair Zeynep Unat, stated that the state constantly attacks the Kurds and their nature. Noting that under the name of 'security'  soldiers burned the forests and hundreds of trees were cut down by the village guards, Zeynep said that these trees were massacred by villages' guards. “With these attacks, our nature is wanted to be destroyed and the Kurds are wanted to be removed from their nature. The fires that lasted for about four months in the Botan region were ignored by the authorities. Nobody listened to the local people living there. "All these massacres and pillage are being done consciously by the state."

 

'500 mountain goats massacred under the name of observation and search'

 

Saying, "Nearly 500 mountain goats were massacred by village guards in the region," Zeynep said, emphasizing that with these massacres, nature is wanted to be left without animals and Kurds are wanted to be removed from their own culture. Underlining that mountain goats are part of the culture of the Kurds, Zeynep said, “Approximately 500 mountain goats were massacred in the region under the name of observation and search. These mountain goats are mostly killed in Cudi Mountain, Besta, Kêla Memê and Sinah region of Zaxo. With the village guard system, nature massacres increased. The guards killed the endangered partridges and the number of partridges in the area decreased. "In the past years, thousands of fish were killed by the village guards in the Hezil River, which is located between the villages of Bağlıkaya (Bilikan) and Dereler (Avyanê), by generators and hand grenades."

 

"They want to destroy the nature of Kurdistan" 

 

Saying that people who destroyed nature with forest fires are currently killing animals in nature, Zeynep pointed out that animals are also a part of nature. Emphasizing that one of the policies implemented by the government is to massacre animals, Zeynep said, “Let's not be silent against this pillage of nature and massacre of animals. Let's raise our voices against this. The village guards who carried out the massacre took permission from the police stations there and went hunting. No punishment is given for those who murder montain goats. We must react to what happened. If we don't react, the process will be worse. Those who massacred animals must be punished. They want to destroy the nature of Kurdistan.”

 

'Let's raise our voices against  the massacre'

 

A citizen living in Şenoba, who does not want to be named, stated that there are special policies in the massacre of mountain goats. “They shouldn't harm our nature. Nature is life. If nature is plundered, life disappears. It is because of this that our forests were burned by soldiers and thousands of fruit trees were destroyed. People who cut down our trees in the forests and destroyed our fruit trees massacre the animals in our nature. We call out to everyone from here: Take care of your nature. The people who massacred the animals were the village guards and these massacres were done by the state. Let's not be silent to this. Our nature is facing the massacre. We have no nature left, let's raise our voices against this massacre! ” s/he said.