Kurds fleeing clashes in Turkey head to Iraqi Kurdistan

Kurdish families displaced by the fighting in southeast Turkey are fleeing to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, but nearly 5,000 were prevented from crossing the border by the army, Kurdistan Regional Government officials (KRG) said.

A government official said those who had been prevented from crossing the border were trapped between the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish army.

Kermanj Ezzat, the local governor of the Soran district in Iraq’s northern Erbil province told al-Araby al-Jadeed that a number of Turkish citizens from Shmazinan and the region of Mirkeh Sor had already arrived in Soran in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Wednesday, fleeing the fighting between the Turkish army and the PKK.

He said the Turkish army had not permitted many Turkish-Kurdish families to cross the border into the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, but 38 families, a total of 141 people, had crossed the border and arrived in Souran and Mirkeh Sor.

He added there were more families waiting on the other side of the border for permission to cross to the Iraqi side.

A KRG official stated the number of displaced in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq had increased the population of the region by almost 30 percent.

A number of Turkish refugees said they had been forced to flee their homes by the ongoing fighting near residential areas in the Turkish city of Shmazinan and surrounding areas.

One of the women said the Turkish army on the border had stopped other civilians crossing into Iraqi Kurdistan after she was able to cross the border with her family.

She added the clashes had set gardens on fire and damaged property.

Ezzat, the local governor of the Soran region, said he expected the arrival of a many more Turkish refugees if the fighting continued at its present intensity for much longer.

He said the refugees were staying with their relatives because of the lack of suitable shelters, but added that if the refugees continued arriving, they would work to build shelters for them.

The population of the southeastern border region of Turkey near Iraq is predominantly Kurdish and has close relationships with their relatives on the Iraqi side of the border.

Seeking refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan

A KRG official stated recently the number of displaced present in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq had increased the population of the region by almost 30 percent.

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq is currently sheltering more than two million refugees and displaced.

This figure includes more than 240,000 Syrians registered as refugees, in addition to thousands of Turks living in a camp in Makhmur, southwest of Erbil.

There are about two million displaced Iraqis, who fled fighting in the provinces of Nineveh and Saladin and Anbar and Diyala living in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.