Fréderike Geerdink
Gülistan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn were bombed to death by the Turkish army. The two journalists were on the way for work when a drone targeted their car. These Kurdish women are nothing less than heroines of journalism. And because that’s what they are, Turkey killed them.
The news that a car carrying journalists was targeted by a Turkish drone, broke at the end of the morning on Friday. Soon more details started to come out: two people were killed and six were injured, some of them severely. Not much later, the names of the journalists who were killed were announced, and the photos of Gülistan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn were published.
First rule
In Turkey’s delusional world view, it hasn’t murdered journalists but ‘hit terrorists’. Its obedient media report that “Iraqi Kurdistan’s counterterrorism service announced that a vehicle belonging to the PKK was hit by a Turkish drone strike near the northern city of Sulaymaniyah” and that “a senior PKK member, his driver and a guard were killed in the attack”. You can expect such rubbish from a Turkish government-controlled outlet, but news agency Reuters started its short coverage of the news with this blatant lie as well, disregarding the first rule of journalism that you report truth, not prioritise what power says.
There’s some interesting unpacking to do in that liar news. For example, ‘Iraqi Kurdistan’s counterterrorism service’: that’s a service controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which rules the two northern provinces of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq but not Sulaymaniyah. The service, in other words, doesn’t have any authority in Sulaymaniyah, as journalist Renwar Najm rightly remarked. This, plus the fact that KDP drew conclusions about the identity of the victims while the car was still burning, confirms once again that KDP is very willing to assist Turkey in covering up its crimes.
Civilian life
What should also be noted, is that Sulaymaniyah is located at a distance of some 450 kilometres from the Turkish border. This is not where the camps of the PKK are. Sulaymaniyah is a city with civilian life without ‘terrorists’. Literally the only actor that makes Sulaymaniyah unsafe, is Turkey. This crime is so outrageous, that even the deputy prime minister of the Kurdistan Region, Qubad Talabani, fiercely condemned it. He’s a politician of the PUK, which controls Sulaymaniyah governorate, but he is known to be close to KDP, so his condemnation comes as a welcome surprise.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Turkey to investigate the attack because well, that’s what CPJ does and should do, even though they know their call will be in vain. The CPJ’s statement, I must point out, mentions that the media the journalists worked for are ‘financed by the PKK’, but this is extremely simplistic and therefore incorrect. The media are part of the Kurdish freedom movement, which consists of a wide range of organisations that contribute to the struggle and are financed, among others, by contributions by businesses and individuals, donation campaigns, and subscriptions and advertisements. That it all started back in 1978 with the founding of the PKK, doesn’t mean Kurdish media now are ‘financed by the PKK’.
Promise
As I said, for me, Tara and Bahadîn are heroines of journalism. Why? Both women put their lives in service of informing the public from the perspective of the Kurdish struggle for freedom. This is the kind of journalism that doesn’t cosy up to power to maintain access to it, but dares to step out of that modus operandi of established journalism and is radically committed to the truth. As far as I am concerned, the journalism of Kurdish women like Tara and Bahadîn is truly living up to the profession’s promise of holding power to account.
This is the journalism that Turkey cannot bear. If Kurdish journalists were producing lies, Turkey would leave them alone because they’d be harmless, but spreading truth can’t be tolerated. Kurdish journalists have been exposing the crimes of the states suppressing Kurds for decades, as well as they have been sharing the stories of the people who suffer from it, who resist it, who organise to rise up against it, who come together to celebrate and strengthen and protect what Turkey wants to destroy – Kurdish culture, music, language, history, politics, nature, resistance.
It is not a coincidence that the victims of this double murder are women. Because Turkey’s war on the Kurds is per definition also a war against women. The Kurdish struggle is, after all, a women’s struggle, committed to building an alternative to the patriarchal structures that the Turkish state is built on. Matriarchy against patriarchy. Local democracy against the nation-state. Socialism against capitalism. Creation against destruction. Freedom against fascism. Life against death. And yes: truth against lies.
Dedication
Gülistan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn are immortal. They will inspire other women and other Kurds to take up journalism, they will strengthen the dedication of their colleagues, they will serve as examples of journalistic courage. This much is clear as politicians, and journalists’ and press freedom organisations, women’s groups, Kurdish groups and many individuals express their shock, anger and sorrow about this double murder. With this column, I want to contribute to that show of respect, and to the collective rejection of the Turkish state’s reckless violence.
Rest in power, dear colleagues.
Fréderike Geerdink is an independent journalist. Follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her acclaimed weekly newsletter Expert Kurdistan.
