ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Five schools in Duhok province’s Amedi district have halted studies due to ongoing clashes between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the border areas of the Kurdistan Region.
Schools in Amedi’s Barche village on Wednesday halted classes and sent students home after two drones were dropped in the village. A day later, students of two schools in Barche, and three schools in the nearby Guharze, Balava, and Sargale villages did not return to school.
The decision was taken by the elders of the village.
“The security situation in all four villages is very bad…There are daily clashes between the Turkish army and the PKK guerillas,” Mala Lazgin Barchi, a resident of Barchi village told Rudaw.
“We decided that the students do not go to school until the [security] situation is resolved,” he added.
According to Barchi, at least 25 artillery and mortar shells have been dropped in the village since the start of the clashes.
Rebar Gwizi, the head of the nearby Deralok subdistrict, said that he will visit the villages to find a solution.
“Today I will visit the four villages and meet with the people to find a solution for that problem so that students can return to classes once more and continue their studies normally,” Gwizi said.
Turkey began intensifying its decades-long war against the PKK, especially in Duhok province, in mid-June after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly said he would launch a new offensive during the summer. Ankara has deployed hundreds of troops to the province.
Erdogan said in March that Ankara is close to completing a zone that will “permanently resolve” the security issues along their border with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq by the summer.
Last month, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said that the Turkish army “secured” the key Zap area of the Kurdistan Region from the PKK. The Zap region was one of the last remaining routes for the PKK to move from the Kurdistan Region into Turkey.
The defense minister vowed to continue the army’s activities in the region.
Nasir Ali contributed to this report