The Christian Peacemaker Team-Iraqi Kurdistan (CPT-IK), the Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative (ICSSI), and the Kurdistan Social Forum (KSF) call upon Iraqi and international civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations to join the international campaign to End Cross-Border Bombings in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Turkey and Iran have conducted cross-border military operations—bombings, drone surveillance, and attacks by ground forces—in northern Iraq for more than 30 years. These operations have killed and injured hundreds of civilians, destroyed their livestock and agricultural lands, and forced more than 500 villages to relocate. Thousands of families from these village communities have lost their livelihoods and means of sustenance. Additionally, the region is home to many ethnic and religious minorities, including Yezidis, Assyrian Christians, Shabak, Chaldeans, and Turkmen, whose traditional ways of life and cultural heritage are now endangered.

Since 2019, CPT-IK, the ICSSI, and the KSF have partnered to raise awareness of this on-going violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and of the crisis affecting civilians in northern Iraq. Our goal is a complete and total ceasefire by Turkey and Iran in Iraqi Kurdistan and the removal of all foreign military bases from the region. We work to pressure the Kurdistan Regional Government and the federal government of Iraq to protect civilians in the region, to recognize the suffering they have endured, and to provide humanitarian assistance. And we call on the governments in Ankara, Tehran, Baghdad and Erbil, as well as the UN, to pursue a diplomatic means to end the fighting.

Today, we seek to broaden these efforts and enlist the support of a larger coalition of Iraqi and international civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations committed to ending cross-border bombings in Iraqi Kurdistan, to supporting the civilians who have suffered, and to using diplomacy to build a lasting peace in the region.

For more information on this campaign:

Campaign email: endcrossborderbombing@gmail.com

Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/Stop-the-Bombings-of-Civilians-in-Iraqi-Kurdistan-183751926554125