KRG calls on Turkey to free Kurdish tourists arrested for posing with Kurdistan flag
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Friday called on Turkish authorities to release Kurdish tourists recently attacked and arrested for posing in pictures with the Kurdistan national flag.
The statement comes one day after a video circulated on Kurdish social media platforms showing a group of tourists from the Kurdistan Region carrying a Kurdistan national flag scarf being attacked by locals in Turkey’s northeastern city of Trabzon while trying to take pictures.
According to videos circulated by #TwitterKurds a group of Iraqi Kurdish tourists are brutally attacked in Trabzon, northern Turkey for wearing Kurdistan scarves pic.twitter.com/GC3YDfSm7m
— Mutlu Civiroglu (@mutludc) July 18, 2019
“The flag of the Kurdistan Region is a constitutional flag within the framework of Iraq, and it has been raised in Turkish airports and reception halls during the visits of official delegations,” read the statement released by the spokesperson of the KRG, Jotiar Adil.
“On this basis, the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government expresses concern about what happened, and has instructed the concerned authorities to address officials in Turkey to release the tourists who were arrested,” the spokesperson added.
Turkey is a key tourist destination for hundreds of thousands of tourists from the autonomous Kurdistan Region and Iraq who travel to many areas of the country.
Editing by Nadia Riva