SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdish authorities at Erbil international airport on Saturday banned Dutch journalist Frederike Geerdink from entering the Kurdistan Region.
“I cheered to early: I’m banned and about to be sent back to where I came from,” Geerdink said in a tweet.
Geerdink who’s still stuck at the airport told Esta Media Network that authorities had given no reason for the prevention.
She arrived in the Kurdistan Region on Saturday evening from Dusseldorf.
“What is this about? there is a delegation from #kurds and internationalist #friends to try to de-escalate the tension between #kdp (in cooperation with akp) and #pkk, there was gonna be a press conference monday and meetings. i came to report on it,” she wrote on Twitter.
She posted a photo on her Twitter account showing a group of more than 20 people at the airport, who are also banned from entering the Region.
Among the group is former lawmaker of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Demir Celik who was told by the airport’s authorities that they “are here for provocation”, Geerdink quoted Celik as saying.
“But we are here to raise our #voice against war. our presence here is legitimate,” Celik was quoted as saying.
The incident came a few days after security forces arrested three representatives of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) at Erbil airport.
Member of the AANES representation in Sulaimani city Fathulla Husseini said the three persons were detained by a force affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) as they went to welcome a group of European lawmakers and intellectuals at Erbil airport.
