Current crisis is costing Turkey an ancient civilization
Susanne Güsten
In a remote village on the slopes of Mount Bagok in the Nusaybin district of southeastern Mardin province, an elderly farmer stood with tears in his eyes as he surveyed the charred remains of his crops and vineyards. A forest fire ignited by an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack on a nearby Turkish telecommunications mast had just raged among the half dozen Syriac villages on Mount Bagok that make up the last contingent tract of Syriac land in Turkey. “Our fields, our fruit orchards, even the hay for our livestock – everything is gone,” said the farmer, Hanne Akbaba.
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