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Journalist Fréderike Geerdink informed on Twitter Wednesday that she was deported from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) without any explanation from the authorities.
She said:
“I’m deported from the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. i almost crossed the border into northeast-syria when suddenly atmosphere changed, i was put in a car with police and brought to Erbil airport, where I’m now. Persona non grata. Erdoğan’s arm is long.”
Geerdink, an opinion writer for Medya News, told Medya News on the phone that she was not informed by the authorities of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) about why she was being deported, and that it was the Netherland’s Consul General in Erbil (Hewler) who told her that she had been declared persona non grata in KRI.
Geerdink continued to say:
“It is utterly sad that the authorities in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq are so afraid of a woman with a pen. and of their own local journalists, for that matter, who are being jailed more often than ever.”
She added:
“On he bright side: the chance that Erdoğan will drone me to smithereens on the way to Kobani (because that’s where i was going for a big story for a dutch magazine) has decreased to zero.”
