QANDIL MOUNTAINS, Iraq: A Kurdish militant picks his way along a switchback road in Iraq’s mountains before pulling over to alert his comrades in a nearby hidden bunker that they are about to have company.
After calling from a phone dangling from a tree, he leads a team of journalists into a bunker under the Qandil mountains, where they have been granted rare access to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rear base in northern Iraq.
“A peace process doesn’t mean leaving the mountains,” says Serda Mazlum Gabar, a 47-year-old commander with her long, rust-colored hair and unfailing smile.
Iraq’s mountains have recently welcomed new arrivals — fighters who withdrew from Turkiye to show the group’s commitment to the peace process.
“Even if we leave, we will live the same way,” she added. “Nature doesn’t scare me, but I wouldn’t feel safe walking around a city, with its cars, smoke and traffic.”
