A screenshot from a video went viral on social media July 19, 2019 that purportedly shows a group of Turks assaulting Iraqi Kurdish tourists for posing photographs with the Flag of Kurdistan painted on a scarf in Trabzon, Turkey. Photo: SM
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Iraqi Kurdish tourists were beaten by a group of locals in Turkey’s Trabzon province bordering the Black Sea on Thursday. Nine people were detained then released by Turkish authorities on Friday.
Immediately, Kurds took to social media to express their ire and Iraq’s Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) has slammed the incident, tasking relevant authorities to “intervene.”
“It is understood that they were holding a Kurdistan flag while taking photographs. They were later arrested by the Turkish authorities,” a KRG said in a statement on Friday.
Video footage circulating on on social media appeared to show a large group of people attacking the tourists on Thursday, who had attempted to take photos with a scarf bearing the design of the Kurdistan flag at a park in Trabzon.
“The Flag of the Kurdistan Region is recognized by the Iraqi Constitution, and has been previously displayed at Turkish airports to welcome official delegates from the Kurdistan Region,” the KRG statement continued.
Trabzon’s governorship confirmed they had arrested nine people from the Iraqi Kurdistan.
“Today at 11:00 [a.m.] in Uzungol neighborhood, Caykara district, 9 of 50 people who have come to our country for tourism were taking photographs with a scarf with the word ‘Kurdistan’ written on it,” a statement from the province read.
Soon the tourists got into a skirmish with locals, according to the Turkish statement, who “protested” the display of the flag.
“Our forces intervened in the incident, calming down our citizens and controlling the situation. Caykara’s public prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for nine of the Iraqis over the incident and opened investigation,” it detailed.
All Kurdish tourists who were detained have been released.
Upon returning to Iraqi Kurdistan region, Rudaw spoke with some of the Kurdish tourists who explained what they saw in Turkey.
A Turkish man in Trabzon, Turkey, yells after removing the Flag of Kurdistan from an Iraqi Kurdish tourist (unseen) on July 18, 2019. Photo: Screengrab video/Twitter/@davamizvatanPOH
“A youth took out a flag [of Kurdistan]. He was very young, but we did not expect what followed. All of a sudden, an old [Turkish] man came to us shouting and attacked the youth. Many others followed [the man] and took down our youth, severely hurting them,” said one tourist.
Another person who said they had witnessed the incident claimed that they were not told by Kurdish or Turkish authorities that the Flag of Kurdistan was banned in the country.
The lynching was widely criticized by Kurds and Turks.
Mustafa Yeneroglu, a lawmaker of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul, defended displaying the Flag of Kurdistan.
“The displayed flag/scarf was the Flag of Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq. Surely, the people of this region respect their flag and love it just like we do. An attack on KRG’s flag in Trabzon is as ugly as an attack on a Turkish flag in Erbil,” he tweeted.
Prominent Kurdish journalist in Turkey Nurcan Baysal claimed: “When it comes to Kurds and Kurdishness, this state [Turkey] never surprises us. Shame, shame!”
She also asked: “[How] can tourists, who have come to Turkey and been beaten, be deported?”
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Imam Tascier claimed that what happened was “racism conducted by the state,” attaching the statement from Trabzon Governor’s office.
Some Kurds on Twitter launched the hashtag #?????_??_?????? or “We will not go to Turkey” as a protest against the treatment of Turkish locals.
Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan enjoy good economic ties as the latter is the most direct way for Turkey to market their goods in Iraq and many Arab countries. Thousands of tourists from the Kurdistan region visit Turkey every month, typically in summer.
The use of the term “Kurdistan” is vigorously rejected due to its alleged political implications by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize the existence of a “Turkish Kurdistan” Southeast Turkey. The word ‘KURDISTAN’ is strongly prohibited in Turkey.
Earlier in July word “Kurdistan” was censored in the Turkish translation of Paulo Coelho’s book, “Eleven Minutes”. What is always most dangerous is that Kurds saying “Kurdistan.”
In February 2019 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that there is no such place as Kurdistan in Turkey and criticized the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker for using the word.
“You want Kurdistan, you can go to the north of Iraq,” Erdogan said during an election rally for his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Yozgat province in central Turkey in February 2019.
In December 2018, Google has deleted a map of Greater Kurdistan from its My Maps platform after the Turkish government had requested Google remove the map, objecting to the depiction that outlined the lands inhabited by Kurds that encompass territories within Turkey.
The Kurds remain the world’s largest stateless ethnic group. Estimated to over 40 million Kurds live in “Greater Kurdistan” which covers an area as big as France.
Kurdish is not an official language in Turkey despite having a roughly 22.5 million speakers in the country. Kurds are allowed to speak in their mother tongue at home, although the government has allowed some pro-government TV channels to present programs in Kurdish.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language, prohibiting the language in education and broadcast media.
The use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet are prohibited in Turkey and has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and 2003.
So, who can and cannot say ‘Kurdistan’ in Turkey: see the guide.
Read more about Kurdish language and Kurdistan in Turkey
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