Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the murder of Kurdish journalist and feminist academic Nagihan Akarsel, who was gunned down outside her home on Tuesday in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Sulaymaniyah province,
RSF’s Middle East Desk called on local authorities to investigate the murder and bring those responsible to trial, emphasising that the murder of Akarsel is the fifth attack, four of which were fatal, against outspoken Kurdish critics of the Turkish government, in Iraqi Kurdistan in recent times.
“We are appalled by the murder of this Kurdish feminist journalist and writer, perpetrated at a time when Kurdish women are leading a revolt for women’s liberation,” reads the statement.
Kurdish and feminist groups around the globe including Network Women Weaving (an international women’s solidarity network founded at the initiative of Kurdish women) have pointed blame for the murder at Turkey’s intelligence agencies.
The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Istanbul Women’s Assembly and the Free Women’s Movement (TJA) held a protest in Kadıköy. The police violently attacked the women on the protest and took them into custody.
HDP MP and Socialist Assemblies Federation (SMF) Spokesperson Dilşat Canbaz said on Twitter, “Recently, these types of murders in the Kurdistan region bear all the fingerprints of AKP-MHP fascism and its accomplices in the region.”
The Women’s Council of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), condemned the murder of Akarsel who they said “supported the women’s freedom struggle in the pursuit of the truth”, saying “We promise to walk the same path led by our comrade Nagihan.”
The Ankara Women’s Platform also released a statement regarding the “vicious assassination”: “Nagihan was a friend of ours who devoted her life to journalism and especially women’s journalism, who never gave up writing the truth about women despite all kinds of cruelty and oppression and who inspired everybody with her stance and humility.
The Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) released a written statement condemning the murder saying: “We will always keep Jîna’s and Nagihan’s memories alive in our struggle by raising the struggle everywhere.”
The murder of Akarsel was also protested against in many different cities in Europe. The environmental activist Greta Thunberg also joined and supported a protest led by Kurdish women in Stockholm.
