SULAIMANI (ESTA) — An Iraqi parliamentary committee on Friday called on the Turkish government to launch an investigation into the “racist attack” on a Kurdish family in Turkey’s Mersin province.
A family from the Kurdistan Region’s capital, Erbil, was attacked by a group of Turks in Bozyazi district in Mersin on Thursday. Two members of the family including a father and a son were wounded.
“While we condemn these repeated racist attacks against some tourists and residents of the Iraqi community, we call on the Turkish government to open an investigation into the circumstances of this incident, and to punish the criminals,” head of the Iraqi parliament’s foreign relations committee Sherko Mirwais said in a statement.
He also called on the Iraqi diplomatic mission in Turkey to follow up the case with institutions responsible for the investigation and to coordinate with authorities in Turkey to prevent the reoccurrence of such incident in the future.
Footage circulated on social media showing a man who has blood on his face is lying on the road while a woman sitting next to him is screaming and crying.
A witness in the area said the four Turks beat the man and his 12-13 year-old boy with stones.
“They tried to throw the man off the mountain,” the witness told a media outlet.
Earlier on Friday, Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw said he had spoken by phone with the family who was brutally attacked and beaten by some Turkish people between Mersin and Adana cities.
“I ensured them that I would be on line with the official parties to detain perpetrators and bring them to justice,” the governor said in a statement.
“You [the family] are our people and relatives. We won’t accept such acts against our people wherever they are. We condemn it in the strongest terms,” he added.
The governor called on the Turkish authorities to “immediately open a case on the incident and find out the reason of this inhuman attack against the family through laws, and bring the criminals to justice”.
It is not the first time that Turks attack the Kurdistan Region’s people who travel to Turkey as tourists. In 2019, a group of tourists from the Kurdistan Region carrying a Kurdistan flag scarf was attacked by locals in the city of Trabzon as they were trying to take pictures.
