“Our Homeland has been Sold to Turkey”

Bahar weeps quietly at the far end of the room where Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is meeting with families who have suffered death and injury from Turkish military bombardments. I didn’t notice her at first in the large circle of men, but it quickly becomes apparent that she is the mother of Badih.

On September 3, 2024, Badih Kamal, a 29-year-old shepherd, was herding the family’s goats in the mountains of northeastern Iraqi Kurdistan, not far from where the border of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey meet. The quiet of the afternoon was suddenly shattered when three artillery shells were fired in quick succession. The third one struck Badih and killed him instantly. His uncle Jamal rushed to his side but it was clear that Badih would not survive.

Badih’s family is part of a semi-nomadic culture of Kurdish herders who have tended their flocks and herds for hundreds of years. Each year, they leave their villages for several months to graze their animals up in the mountains. But their ancient way of life may be coming to an end.

As Bahar tearfully tells the story of her son’s death, she explains that the animals they once owned are their only source of livelihood. “After my son’s death, I don’t want to return again. Drones are constantly flying in our skies. None of my children study or work.”

Badih’s father, Kamal, tells us that since the artillery bombardments two months ago, all of the herders from his village have left the mountain highlands. Like Kamal, many have sold their animals at a reduced price. It has simply become too dangerous to continue to graze their animals. 

Why is the Turkish military bombing shepherds in Iraqi Kurdistan?

Turkey’s government claims that it is only attacking the PKK, a Kurdish guerilla force that has been at war with Turkey since 1984. But Badih’s parents told us that they have not seen any PKK soldiers in their area, and there were certainly none present on the day that Badih died. 

“I believe our homeland has been sold to Turkey,” says Bahar. Both the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, which oversees the autonomy agreement with Iraq that grants some measure of independence to Iraqi Kurds in the northeast, have turned a blind eye to Turkey’s military incursions in Iraq. Oil and other economic trade between Turkey and Iraq are key factors.

But Turkey has also been building up its military presence in Iraqi Kurdistan for years and presently has approximately 75 military bases on the Iraqi side of the border. It wants to create a buffer zone of control stretching along the northern Iraqi Kurdistan border from Syria to Iran. Farmers and villagers such as Badih’s family are seen as an obstacle to Turkey’s expansionist ambitions to exert control over Kurds, Iraq, and other Middle East neighbours. Military bombardments from drones, fighter jets and artillery send a clear and deadly message to local Kurdish inhabitants: leave.

Badih's father says that since the day his son was killed, people haven't gone back to the mountains with their herds. Community Peacemaker Teams documents each civilian death and injury in order to seek compensation for the families, and to hold the Turkish government accountable. The families want to live in peace, free from military harassment. But they also want justice for their sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers who have been killed for the simple act of practicing their way of life.