ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least 80 families in the border areas of the Kurdistan Region with Iran have been forced from their homes and farms by recent shelling from Iranian artillery. “Is it fair to abandon this village? They torched all these orchards. This is a miserable situation we are living in,” one of the fleeing villagers lamented. Most of the families who fled are farmers and herders who make a living from their livestock on the lush pastures of the mountain areas that remain green for the most part of the year. In addition to fleeing their villages with their livestock, their fruit orchards have also been torched by artillery shells. “We have been keeping bees for years,” said a village beekeeper. “For fear of the bombings we move from one place to another.” The villager said that he had to move from Khuakurk and Khner areas under Turkish airstrikes that targeted the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) “and we are forced to flee by Iranian mortar shells.” “They burned almost all the bees we had and turned them into ashes,” he sighed. Iranian artillery have been shelling bases of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) in the last two weeks after the group got into skirmishes with the army in several towns across the border. The abandonment of the villages and farms is taking place in the summer harvest season, affecting the villagers’ livelihood and their income. Some 150 hectares of agricultural land, orchards and groves have been burned. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has for its part formed a committee to estimate the damages. Earlier this week, the KRG demanded an end to the bombardment of the region’s border areas by Iran and Turkey, reminding all parties that Kurdistan Region’s territories must not be used for attacks on any of its neighboring countries.
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