Peregraf
From the beginning of 1991 until June 2024, 425 civilians werekilled in the Kurdistan Region by the cross-border military activities of Turkey and Iran, according to a new report by Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT). Another 420 civilians were wounded.
Of the total number of fatalities, 83 percent of the victims were killed by Turkey and 17 percent by Iran.
According to CPT, which monitors armed conflicts in the Kurdistan Region, the families of 46 percent of those killed and 93 percent of the wounded have not been compensated.
"The political divisions in the Kurdistan Region are reflected in the compensation of the victims," the organization said.
In Duhok, 103 families affected by the current Turkish operation were compensated by the Kurdistan Regional Government(KRG). The amount of compensation ranged from less than 500,000 Iraqi dinars (approximately $333 at market prices) to more than 20 million Iraqi dinars ($13,000).
However, compensation for the victims is not equivalent to their losses and does not cover all types of damage.
"Compensation will only be paid for the damage to houses and vehicles. No one has been compensated for orchards and agricultural land," Rebar Sadiq, director of Deraluk district, told Peregraf.
CPT says its goal was to publish accurate and impartial statistics on civilian casualties in the Kurdistan Region caused by Turkey and Iran. In a statement to the international community, it said that it wanted to hold those who sell weapons to Turkey and Iran “accountable for their crimes.”
"At least 170 villages have been evacuated and 602 are under threat of evacuation," the report said.
“The alleged use of chemical weapons led to nine civilian deaths and injuries,” the NGO said.
According to CPT, the Turkish military has "74 military bases and headquarters in the Kurdistan Region, all of which are connected by a network of roads." They range from between five and 40 kilometers south of the Turkish border. Iran has its own network of 151 bases along the border with Iraq.
Victims of Turkish operations
According to the CPT report, the vast majority of civilian casualties, totaling 702 people, were caused by Turkish military action. One hundred and ninety-four children were among the victims.
Of the total, 344 civilians were killed and 358 wounded as a result of Turkey’s activities. Of the total number of casualties,448 of them were men and 204 were women.
Duhok governorate suffered the lion's share of the victims for which Turkey was responsible, with 306 people, followed by Erbil with 242, Sulaimaniyah with 114, and Nineveh province with 40.
Of the 702 victims, 333 were killed by warplanes, 102 by drones, and 104 by artillery.
Victims of Iranian operations
According to CPT, 143 civilians were killed or injured in Iranian cross-border attacks and military operations, which is 17% of the total. This included 98 men, 45 women, and 44 children. Of these, 81 people were killed and 62 were wounded.
Artillery was responsible for 111 of the civilian casualtiescaused by Iran. Nineteen civilians were targeted with small arms, ten civilians were killed by drones, and three were injured by Iranian landmines.
Most of the victims were in Sulaimaniyah governorate with 102 people, including 96 victims in Pishdar district, three inSharbazher, and two in Mawat. There were also a number of victims in Erbil governorate, including sixteen in Choman district, fifteen in Sidikhan, and nine in Erbil center.
Compensation of victims
According to CPT, 93 percent of the wounded civilians and 46 percent of the families of those who were killed have not been compensated.
“Additionally, the victim’s relationship and ties to one of the two main political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan determine their likelihood to receive any financial package,” CPT said in the report. It also noted that the Iraqi government has compensated ethnically Arab victims that were killed or wounded in the Kurdistan Region.
The Duhok governor’s office compensated 103 families fromfour villages in Amedi district that had been damaged by Turkish bombings on November 13, Sadiq said.
"Each family was compensated according to the extent of the damage, some with 700,000 to 800,000 dinars and some with up to 22 million dinars," he said.
Sadiq added that the KRG has only compensated damage to "houses and cars," but not for land or orchards.
"My house has cracked. The compensation I received is between 400,000 and 500,000 dinars," Nizar Mohammed, the head of Sargale village, told Peregraf.
"This is good assistance, but it does not cover the damage we have experienced," he said.
The people of Amedi district demand a solution to end the fighting in the region, so that they can return to their gardens and agricultural land.
"More important than compensation is the normalization of the situation. There is constant fighting in the area and we cannot visit our orchards and farmland," Naji Mahmood, the head of Barche village, told Peregraf.
CPT called on the Iraqi government to implement Law No. 20 of 2009 and Law No. 57 of 2015, which authorizes compensation for victims of violence in Iraq. Additionally, it called on the KRG to "implement the decision to compensate the victims of Iran and Turkey, which was issued in 2011 by the Deputy Prime Minister."
Iran has suspended its cross-border attacks in the wake of last year’s security pact with Baghdad, which mandated the removal of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties from the border.
However, Turkish attacks, including air strikes, are ongoing, especially in Duhok.
In addition to the loss of life and property, valuable cultural heritage is being lost as a result of the conflict, including archaeological sites related to the neolithic, Sumerian, Babylonian, Mede, Mitanni, and Kardokhi periods.