Beekeepers in Duhok’s Amedi district - one of the main battlegrounds - have been forced to abandon their apiaries, leave their mountainous areas, and move to the safe areas in the district to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
“Our situation is very bad. We cannot take our bees to the places we want, to their [natural] environment where there are lots of flowers and plants,” lamented beekeeper Hoshyar Jassim on Monday. “We cannot go because the Turkish army is there.”
A local official said that honey production this year has been reduced to half in comparison to 2022.
“We produced 300 tons of honey in 2022, but it dropped to 170 tons in 2023, and then to 150 tons in 2024,” said Zakia Mohammed, deputy head of the Duhok Beekeepers Association.
Over 50 beekeepers have been killed in the clashes, according to the association.
Beekeepers also complained that the transfer of bees and hives from the mountains to the lower villages has affected honey production and quality.
Turkey began intensifying its decades-long war against the PKK, particularly in Duhok province, in mid-June after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly said he would launch a new offensive in the summer. Ankara has deployed hundreds of troops to the province.
The PKK is a Kurdish group that has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state for decades in the struggle for greater Kurdish rights and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara.
At least 344 civilians have been killed by Turkish military operations in the Kurdistan Region since they began over three decades ago, according to an August report by the US-based conflict monitor Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT).
