Remarks of senior diplomat about killing of Kurdish journalist on parliamentary agenda

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An opposition deputy has brought remarks from Türkiye's ambassador to Iraq about the killing of Kurdish journalist Nagihan Akarsel to the parliamentary agenda.

Akarsel was shot dead outside of her home in the Sulaymaniyah city of Iraq's Kurdistan Region on October 4.

Responding to a question about the killing on October 9, Ambassador Ali Rıza Güney said, "I mentioned our expectation about the fight against the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] elements ... The PKK and centers with connections to the PKK are targets," as reported by the Kurdistan-based Rudaw agency.

Submitting a parliamentary question to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the ambassador's remarks, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ayşe Sürücü asked "on what basis Akarsel was terrorized."

"Question marks" about the attack

"It is necessary to make an explanation in order to remove the question marks about the relations of the perpetrators of this murder," she said.

She requested the ministry to explain what knowledge the ambassador had about the killing and whether there will be an investigation into his statements targeting a killed journalist.

Akarsel, a Kurdish journalist from Türkiye, had been living in Iraqi Kurdistan for years as part of her studies on jineology, which means "science of women" in Kurdish. She was a member of the Jineology Research Center and an editor for the Jineology Magazine.

Between 2008 and 2014, she worked as a journalist for the Türkiye-based Dicle News Agency (DİHA), which was shut down by a statutory decree in 2016.

The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said she was the fifth Kurdish person from Türkiye who was attacked in Iraqi Kurdistan to be attacked in the past year.

Kurdistan police announced that the perpetrator had been nabbed within hours after the attack, but no further information has been disclosed about them. (SD/VK)