SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdish family who traveled to Turkey from the Kurdistan Region was attacked by a group of Turks in Mersin province, according to footage circulated on social media.
Four Turks appeared in a video posted to social media insulting and attacking a Kurdish family, as they were driving to Antalya from Mersin on Thursday afternoon.
Gazete Karinca reported that the Kurdish family who are residents of the Kurdistan Region capital, Erbil was subjected to a “racist attack” in Bozyazi district in Mersin.
Two members of the Kurdish family were wounded in the attack, Gazete Karinca said. One of them, who is the father, was hospitalized due to his “severe injury”.
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.
A group of Kurdish lawyers from Diyarbakir arrived in Mersin on Friday to investigate the case and help the Kurdish family.
However, there is no official statement or comment from the Kurdish officials regarding the attack.
It is not the first time that Turks attack the Kurdistan Region’s people who travel to Turkey for tourist purpose. 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.
