- Two journalists, Hêro Bahadîn and Gulistán Tara, and his driver, colleague Rêbîn Bekir, were going to make a documentary in the Kurdish region of Hewraman. His car was hit by a missile. Bekir was lucky, before the car broke out in flames, the impact threw him out of the front window and survived, with serious injuries. But Gulistán Tara and Hêro Bahadîn died there. His burned corpses could not be recognized.
Kurdish journalists were working for the production company Chatr Multimedia Productions, located in the city of Sulaimaniya, in northern Iraq. After leaving the hospital in late September, Bekir said: “We provide information on the impact of the Turkish war on the civilian population and on possible war crimes. That’s the small stone of Turkey’s shoe.”
According to the Turkish news agency Anadolu, citing "sources of security", the attack is part of a broader operation of the Turkish secret services "to neutralise PKK terrorists". However, it appears that Turkey is deliberately killing journalists to avoid critical information and thus systematically avoid documentation of war crimes.
Turkey seems to be deliberately killing journalists to avoid critical information and thus systematically avoid documentation of war crimes
At present, Turkey has begun a secret war of occupation in South Kurdistan, the territory of northern Iraq. After 40 years of conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkish President Erdogan once again declared a decisive war on the organisation. “At the end of this summer we will solve the issue of the Iraqi border,” he announced in early March.
In addition to bombing the guerrilla areas on the pretext of combating terrorism, Turkey has put the spotlight on attacks on the civilian population. In other words, it establishes military bases, destroys agriculture and expels its inhabitants, and executes extrajudicial killings of alleged Kurdish militants. At the end of the summer, within ten days, nine Kurdish civilians were killed in military operations in Turkey, in the Kurdistan region, eight of them in drone strikes.
Strategy to silence journalists
Hêro Bahadîn was from Sulaimaniya and worked as editor for Chatra. Many young women considered it a model, and like her, they wanted to work in journalism, as people remember. In two months he would have started a master's degree at the University of Dortmund, Germany, if he had not been killed. For his father, Abdullah Bahadîn, it is clear that the Turkish regime wants to “silence brave and brave journalists” to “hide the truth and silence voices against injustice”.
Gulistan was born in Tara Batman, a Kurdish city in northern Turkey. Journalist since 2000, spent the last three years in the production company Chatr, in Sulaimaniya. He worked for the Kurdish media, including Jin TV from Rojava. “He followed the trail of truth with his friends, when he and his colleague Hêro were burned alive in the car, with his camera,” said Sister Ülkem.
According to Journalists Without Borders, “the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan is becoming one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists.” The number of deadly air strikes against journalists and violent attacks by the security forces of self-government of the Kurds has recently increased. The Barzani family, controlled by the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) and closely linked to the Turkish state, fears that journalists will uncover their business with oil.
Erdogan’s outdated policies
Turkey’s violent attitude to the Kurdish issue has not ceased since the government abandoned the peace process initiated by the leader of the PKK in which he is imprisoned, Abdullah Öcalan, following the rise of the Kurdish elections. In the campaign of political destruction, thousands of Kurdish activists and politicians have been arrested, Kurdish organisations have been closed down and the war has spread beyond Turkish borders. Erdogan reported that he planned to occupy a 30-40-kilometer "seat belt" on the border with Syria and Iraq to deal with "terrorist threats" in the region.
Recently, 69 Nobel Prizes signed a letter calling on international organisations to press Turkey to release Öcalan, in order to open a new dialogue and to provide a political solution in the case of the Kurds. But what is to be expected is for Erdogan to continue his outdated policy of maintaining power in the Moncloa. Faced with the barbarism of Turkey, the Western countries remain silent, including Spain, and have recently strengthened their economic relations with Turkey. However, the liberation movement of the Kurds is expected to continue in resistance and to defend their political achievements.
*Justus Johannsen, journalist, Middle East expert