Letter of Greenpeace's Annie Leonard over Turkey's illegal logging

Omar Sindi | Exclusive to iKurd.net

Annie Leonard
Executive Director Greenpeace
702 H Street, NW
Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20001 November 16, 2022

Dear Annie,

I have written a letter on this subject matter to both the US President Joe Biden and the UN Secretary Mr. Antonio Guterres regarding the deforestation being committed on Kurdish land by the Turkish State, in the Kurdish autonomous area of Iraq.

I am hoping you raise your voice against this illegal act of logging, this important resource is being cut at an accelerated speed in this area; the muted International Community response on this logging operation is unjust and unfair, the Turkish state must bear responsibility and halt this illegal logging, deforestation. It is negatively affecting wildlife, local ecosystems, weather patterns, and also impacts on the climate. The people who live in this pristine area have no means of defending themselves and their property.

Turkey’s invasion and their undercover war with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) into the autonomous region of Kurdistan-Iraq is illegal under international law. The Turkish forces are committing mass deforestation in this part of the pristine Kurdish area of Iraq. Since the beginning of recorded history, this pristine area has been preserved- it has served as a habitat for many different species of insects, plants, and animals such as mountain goats, wolves, bears, foxes, squirrels, mountain leopards, honey bees, hawks, eagles, the list goes on…

The deforestation being committed by the Turkish state will have a catastrophic effect on the ecosystem for this region and greater environmental effects for the Middle East at large because this area is also a part of contributory water resources to the Tigris-Euphrates basin. These rivers are also sources of drinking water.

This Deforestation act by the Turkish state is against the UN agenda/policy of global reforestation acts. Below is a copy of the introduction of the proposed UN agenda on reforestation policy.

“United Nations strategic plan for forests, 2017-2030

I. Introduction

A. Vision and mission

Forests are among the world’s most productive land-based ecosystems and are essential to life on earth. The United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030 (UNSPF) provides a global framework for actions at all levels to sustainably manage all types of forests and trees outside forests and halt deforestation and forest degradation. The UNSPF also provides a framework for forest-related contributions to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement adopted under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the United Nations Forest Instrument (UNFI)i, and other international forest-related instruments, processes, commitments and goals.

2. The UNSPF serves as a reference for the forest-related work of the UN systems and for fostering enhanced coherence, collaboration and synergies among UN bodies and partners towards the following vision and mission, as well as a framework to enhance the coherence of and guide and focus the work of the International Arrangement on Forests (IAF) and its components.

Vision:

A world where all types of forests and trees outside forest are sustainably managed, contribute to sustainable development and provide economic, social, environmental and cultural benefits for present and future generations.

Mission:

To promote sustainable forest management and contribution of forests and trees outside forests to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including by strengthening cooperation, coordination, coherence,synergies and political commitment and actions at all levels…”

Dear Annie, the deforestations of Earth should not be considered a subject matter of one nation against another nation or one state government’s dominance of another state government; it’s subject matter of the deforestation is a process of causations, like the global warming effect, which will have dire economic and environmental effects, and political implications for generations to come, according to many prominent non-partisan scientists and scientific communities around the globe. As also eloquently described in the United Nations strategic plan for forests, 2017-2030.

The Middle East faces an acute water table shortage and the Kurdistan mountains and forest area contains many rivers which contribute to the Tigris-Euphrates rivers, all the way down to the marshes in Southern Iraq, then into the mouth of the Persian Gulf; as has been reported by many credible reporters, newspapers, social media outlets, Iraqi people suffer great water shortages. That’s because the Turkish state has built many water dams along the Euphrate river, these dams choke water flow off, which has contributed ecological effects along water flow, on many species all the way to the Marshes in Southern Iraq and global warming has affected the whole Iraqi state. The Turkish State’s illegal logging operation in Kurdistan will have a short term personal benefit to them, and will be pyrrhic to their corporations but it will have catastrophic effects on the ecosystems along this area, on the population at large and beyond. Turkey’s aggression and transgressions suffer no backlash from the International community. The International community needs to admonish President Recep Tayeb Erdogan and his Turkish State, and force them to abide by international law, to respect civil liberties and human rights. Because civil liberties and human rights are the sanctity of life.

I am writing on behalf of the voiceless people, the Kurdish people; particularly the people of this area, who are witnessing the trees of these pristine areas being chopped down by the Turkish forces, and loading them onto logging trucks which are taken into Turkey for industrial processing.

Dear Annie, you can use the Greenpeace office to interfere with this unjust act and halt this logging operation in this area by the Turkish state, and their undercover war with the PKK. Because this pristine area has been preserved since antiquity, if this tree cutting operation is to continue it will prove to be extremely damaging and will cause major environmental imbalance. Urge international corporations and companies to stop exporting sophisticated drone technologies to Turkey, because these armed drones are killing innocent Kurdish people, including children…

Sincerely,

Omar Sindi
United States

Omar Sindi, a senior writer, analyst and columnist for iKurd.net, Washington, United States.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.