Duhok Governor: Trees cut down from Turkey are entering the Kurdistan Region

According to KurdPress, Duhok Governor Ali Teter announced that the trees whose pictures and videos of cutting down have been published in recent days were cut down in Turkish soil and that no trees have been cut down in the Kurdistan Region recently.

Ali Teter said in a press conference that all available evidence shows that the place where the trees were cut down is deep in Turkish soil and that the trucks carrying these trees are entering the Kurdistan Region through the Sarzari border crossing.He added that the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Iraqi federal government have conducted detailed investigations into the issue after the publication of reports and rumors about the felling of trees to clarify the truth to the public.

The governor of Duhok also said that the topography of the area, the shape of the roads and the license plates clearly show that the areas seen in the images are not in the Kurdistan Region and that the vehicles carrying the trees enter the region from Turkey.

Ali Teter continued by saying that any citizen who has doubts about this issue can go to the Sarzari crossing and directly ask the residents of the area or the truck drivers about the origin of the trees and the distance traveled to transport them. The issue of felling trees in the border areas of Duhok province has also been disputed many times in recent years.Environmental activists have accused Turkey of causing significant damage to the environment during the construction of military bases and roads in the mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region.