AFP
–
NOS News•yesterday, 22:59
—
Dutch journalist Fréderike Geerdink says she was taken by the police in the Kurdish Autonomous Region in Iraq. Geerdink says on Twitter that she will be deported from the region.
–
According to Geerdink, she had almost reached the north of Syria when she was intercepted by the local police before the border. The agents took her to the airport in the Iraqi city of Erbil. “Erdogan’s arm appears to be very long,” she writes, referring to the Turkish leader’s sphere of influence.
–
She thinks she is being evicted for being “persona non grata”, someone who is not welcome because of her “sharp pen”. “It is very sad that the authorities in the Kurdish Autonomous Region are so afraid of a woman with a pen. And also of their own journalists, who are detained more often than ever,” Geerdink writes on Twitter.
–
Thomas Bruning, general secretary of the Dutch Association of Journalists (NVJ) also responded. “Deeply sad that Fréderike is now unable to do her job even in Iraq due to Turkey’s influence,” he says in a statement. a tweet.
–
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs tells ANP news agency that the consul general in Erbil is in close contact with the journalist. “In contact with the authorities of the region, we expressed our concerns about the deportation of Geerdink,” said the spokeswoman.
–
previously held
In 2015, Geerdink, who writes a lot about the Kurdish issue, was detained in Turkey for some time. She was detained for being in banned Kurdish territory.
–
She was also arrested in January of that year. She was then accused of making propaganda for the PKK, a Kurdish organization on the European Union’s terror list.
—
