Shoes left on the floor, chairs scattered by a stream, dried blood on the floor: this is what the scene looked like in a tourist resort in the mountains of Kurdistan after it was subjected to a bloody bombardment attributed to Baghdad by Turkey, as if time had stopped at that moment. Here, in this rural area of Zakho district, about 5 kilometers from the Turkish border, a tragedy occurred when Iraqi tourists were captured by firearms, leaving 9 people dead and 23 injured.
This tourist resort is located around a stream near the village of Barkh, surrounded by trees and stalls, welcoming visitors who come here to have fun in nature.
Baghdad accused Turkey of being behind the attack, while Ankara denied responsibility and pointed the finger at the PKK.
“About 100 buses visit this place every day, in addition to those who come in their cars,” said Ali Othman, a 52-year-old shop owner, explaining that “there are a lot of Arab (Iraqi) tourists here.”
“There are about 35 houses in our village, and I think that in the end there will be nowhere to live, we have to leave this village,” he added.
Much of the Iraqi political class condemned what happened, and the issue also sparked popular anger in Iraq, where hundreds of demonstrations in various regions of the country participated in protests, some of which included the burning of the Turkish flag.
Baghdad summoned the Turkish ambassador to protest the bombing and also demanded the withdrawal of the Turkish army from its territory.
The Iraqi authorities also announced the withdrawal of their charge d’affaires from Ankara and “the termination of the procedure for sending a new ambassador to Turkey,” the official statement said.
