Killed Kurdish journalist Nagihan Akarsel's funeral held under heavy police presence

Photo: Fatma Kurtulan/Twitter

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The funeral of assassinated Kurdish journalist Nagihan Akarsel was held today (October 13) in Konya, central Türkiye.

Akarsel was shot dead outside of her home on October 4 in the Sulaymaniyah city of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, where she had been living for years.

Her body was brought to Turkey by land yesterday, October 12, after the authorities prevented air transport.

After reaching Konya this morning, the body was brought to the Forensic Medicine Institution for autopsy.

Akarsel's body was later brought to the Gölyazı village of the Cihanbeyli district for the funeral.

However, most people coming to Akarsel's funeral were denied entry to the village. The police also surrounded the village where her family lives.

Cars queuing up due to security checks. (Photo: Bilal Seçkin) 

People's Democratic Party (HDP) deputies Ayşe Acar-Başaran, Mehmet Rüştü Tiryaki, Dilşad Canbaz, Fatma Kurtulan and Abdullah Koç went to Konya to attend the funeral.

Acar-Başaran and Tiryaki have told bianet ahead of the funeral that all vehicles were stopped starting from Ankara up to Konya and that id and criminal record checks were performed.

Photo: MA

Acar-Başaran said that they were only able to arrive at the village after passing seven checkpoints. "There is so much work that Nagihan has done as an academic and a journalist. People who want to participate in the funeral of a person who is well-known by everyone are not able to enter the village.

"We passed through seven checkpoints coming to the village. They could not prevent us, the MPs, from passing, but the village is almost under blockade by soldiers and police forces. People are not allowed to enter. They do not let people who know her, who worked with her in the past, attend her funeral. There is no way to justify this, either legally or morally."

"Cemetery is blocked by barriers"

"This attitude of the government to Nagihan's funeral is in fact answering many of our questions. Nagihan was killed in a murder but her funeral ceremony is being blocked.

"The governor decided for a demonstration ban in Gölyazı due to the funeral ceremony. Unparalleled in the world. They prevent the body to be enshrouded, they do not perform the funeral prayer, and this has nothing to do with the law. We are here. We will be at Nagihan's funeral, they will not be able to stop us."

Photo: Fatma Kurtulan/Twitter

Mehmet Rüştü Tiryaki told bianet that the street of Akarsel's house and the cemetery were closed with barriers.

Tiryaki also said that those who had come to attend the funeral were kept from entering the village.

What happened?

Nagihan Akarsel, a Kurdish journalist from Türkiye, had been living in Iraqi Kurdistan for years as part of her studies on jineology, which means "science of women" in Kurdish. She was a member of the Jineology Research Center and an editor for the Jineology Magazine.

Between 2008 and 2014, she worked as a journalist for the Türkiye-based Dicle News Agency (DİHA), which was shut down by a statutory decree in 2016.

She was shot dead outside of her home in Kurdistan's Sulaymaniyah on October 4.

The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said she was the fifth Kurdish person from Türkiye to be attacked in Iraqi Kurdistan in the past year.

Kurdistan police announced that the perpetrator had been nabbed within hours after the attack.

Media outlets in Kurdistan reported that the assailant had traveled to Iraq from Türkiye, citing security sources. (RT/VK)