Protest in Kurdistan Over Drone Strike That Killed Two Journalists

Dozens of people gathered in Sulaymaniyah, the second-largest city in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, on Saturday to protest a drone strike attributed to the Turkish military that killed two journalists working for institutions linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The Turkish Ministry of Defense denied responsibility for the bombing that took place on Friday in the Sayid Sadiq area. An Iraqi security official and the anti-terrorism forces in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, spoke of a possible drone attack by the Turkish army. The attack resulted in the death of Gulistan Tara, a 40-year-old Kurdish Turkish journalist, and Hiro Bahadin, a 27-year-old Iraqi Kurdish video editor, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The two journalists worked for the production company “Jeter,” which manages “two news channels funded by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party,” according to the same source. About 100 people, including journalists and activists, gathered on Saturday in a public park in Sulaymaniyah, holding pictures of the two journalists, while the crowd chanted, “Martyrs do not die.” Activist Rubar Ahmed said, “Turkish bombing targets everyone in Kurdistan, and civilians are its victims. Life is almost at a standstill in the mountains because it is impossible to live with strikes happening day and night, every minute and every hour.” The Turkish army occasionally carries out attacks on Iraqi soil and conducts ground and air operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party has been waging an armed insurgency against the Turkish authorities since 1984, and Ankara and its Western allies classify it as a “terrorist” organization. The PKK has rear bases in the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, which also hosts Turkish military bases for the past 25 years. Baghdad designated the Kurdistan Workers’ Party as a “prohibited organization” in March, and in mid-April, Turkey and Iraq signed a military cooperation agreement regarding the establishment of joint command and training centers as part of the fight against the PKK. During the protest on Saturday, Rahman Gharib, head of the “Metro Center” for defending journalists’ rights, condemned what he considered “weak positions” from Iraq concerning Turkish military operations. He said, “Iraq and the Kurdistan region have entered into a security agreement with the Turkish side, and with this security agreement, they must participate.”