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Remarks by a fictional character in a Turkish TV series elicited reactions from officials of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) .
In the 19th episode of the ATV series Yalnız Kurt (Lone Wolf), broadcast on 3 June, a Turkish intelligence officer named Tekin Giritli, also referred to as ‘the Viking’, says to a judge who accuses him of assaulting a US citizen in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI):
“I recognise neither this regional government, nor this court. You call yourselves a regional government, but in truth you’re one of the satellite entities of the Greater Middle East Project.”
He continues to speak in a dramatic tone in the court room decorated with KRI flags and a portrait of Masoud Barzani, the former president of the KRI and former leader of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
He says:
“The true owners of these lands are Turkmens. Kirkuk and Mosul belong to us. The biggest avenue in Erbil is named Muzafferiddin Gökböri. You might erase that name one day, but you can’t erase history.”
The KRG’s deputy minister of culture and youth affairs Salar Osman, told Rûdaw on Sunday that the remarks in the series were ‘bad’, and that they would be investigated and responded to.
Azad Ekrem, a Turkmen member of the Kurdistan Parliament’s committee on culture, civil society, sports and youth, said to Rûdaw:
“The courts of the Kurdistan Regional Government are legal institutions and the film does not affect the relations between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey.”
