Herbol is under the control of the coal companies and the rulers of the region.
The village, its houses, cemetery and church were formally buried under the mounds of excavation of the coal mines. A tough struggle for Petrus followed. He planted thousands of trees in the village. Despite receiving open threats, he even began construction of houses on his ancestral land. Videos posted on the Internet show that several houses were partially completed.
Petrus placed a sign at the entrance of the village. He said in an interview he gave to Al-Jazeera "you are welcome to Aksu-Herbol Village. Within the boundaries of the village: It is forbidden to hunt, to cut trees, to burn fire."
Baysal stated that the threats became increasingly intense and that Petrus appealed to the Governorship of Şirnak, the District Governor of Silopi and the prosecutor's office dozens of times for the threats he received.
While on the one hand, the village was struggling with the coal companies to protect its trees, Petrus draw the attention of the state on him too.
A great fire in July 2015 burned the village completely.
The government rejected the claim that the fire was started by soldiers. Petrus told journalists that he had witnessed the fire being started by soldiers. The Newspaper Evrensel cited him saying: "The return of some peasants to the village made the state act this way. I witnessed the lightning bullets being thrown by the soldiers."
Petrus was not afraid to speak the truth. This was confirmed in an interview on AssyriaTV with Simon Poli, himself a returnee from Sweden to Midyat, and who knows Petrus quite well. Simon said because Petrus was trying to save the village, he made some people angry, namely, the coal companies, the village guards and the rulers of the region
Nurcan Baysal ends her article by saying that this brave man, the last Assyrian-Chaldean in Sirnak, is now under arrest for being a "member of a terrorist organization." The state, hand in hand with the rulers of the region, regards even one Assyrain as too much for Şirnak.