Three arrested in connection with attack on Erbil family in Turkey: officials

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkish authorities have arrested three people in connection with what has been described as a racist attack on a Kurdish family from Erbil in Turkey’s southern province of Mersin this week. The incident drew outrage on Kurdish social media and has been condemned by Erbil and Baghdad. 

Mushtaq Mahmoud and his family were traveling in Turkey's province of Mersin on Thursday, the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. On the road to Antalya, a black Honda Civic vehicle blocked their way, according to an eyewitness, Cihan Kutluk, who spoke to Rudaw.

In his statement to police, Mahmoud said it began with a car accident between him in his Jeep and the Honda. "They and I came out of our cars. I wanted to see what damage [the accident] had caused."

According to the witness, three men exited the Honda and began attacking Mahmoud and his family, who were still in car Jeep. The men beat Mahmoud and his 12-year-old son, hitting them with large rocks, according to Kutluk, who was passing by and later took the family to a police station and hospital. 

During the attack, the men cursed Kurds, told the family that they should not have visited the country, flashed the gray wolf hand sign commonly used by Turkish nationalists, and threateningly told bystanders not to report to the police, according to Kutluk.

Mahmoud said he does not remember everything that happened, he sustained a head injury, but he recalled one of the attackers saying he should not visit Turkey.

The chairman of the bar association in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir, Nahit Eren, went to Mersin after hearing about the attack to help the family pursue a court case.

“Those who attacked were speaking in Turkish… and they were willing to kill him by hitting his head with stones,” Eren told Rudaw on Friday after speaking with the victims. He believes the attackers identified the family as Kurds because of the Erbil license plate on their Jeep.

Footage submitted to Rudaw by the eyewitness shows Mahmoud’s wife crying over her husband who was lying in the road and bleeding. The video went viral on Kurdish social media. 

“What have we done to you so that you can oppress us like this? Is our crime the fact that we were born Kurdish? Are you strong enough [to fight] us? If you can, then you shall fight with God who created us as Kurds,” tweeted Kurdish writer and politician Ilhami Isik.

The family is in good condition and will be discharged from hospital soon, according to Eren.

Safeen Dizayee, head of the foreign affairs department at the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said the government condemns the attack and has conveyed its protest to Turkey’s consulate general in Erbil. 

“We condemn the attack strongly. They are our families and have the right to go there. The fact that they spend money there is good for the economy of the country. Our economic relations with Turkey are very good,” Dizayee told Rudaw.

Many Kurds from the Kurdistan Region holiday and do business in Turkey. Erbil and Ankara enjoy good economic relations, with the Kurdistan Region exporting oil to international markets through its northern neighbour and Duhok’s Ibrahim Khalil border crossing connecting Turkey to Iraq. 

Mersin’s governor said the incident began with a “traffic accident” and that the facts have been “distorted” on social media.

"After the accident, a verbal dispute erupted between the parties, leading to a fight in which the Iraqi citizen and vehicle driver was beaten by people from the other vehicle,” reads a statement from the governor’s office, confirming that three people have been detained.

"The Iraqi person and his family are our guests,” adds the statement, expressing “great concern” about their injuries. 

Erbil Governor Omed Koshnaw condemned the attack and spoke with the family on the phone, “assuring them that we will be in contact with the relevant authorities for the arrest and punishment of the perpetrators,” reads a statement from his office on Friday.

The head of the Iraqi parliament's foreign relations committee, Sherko Mirwais, also issued a statement condemning the "racist assault and attempted murder" and called on Turkey to open an investigation and punish the perpetrators.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey also condemned the attack, saying "our people are not alone. We are struggling with this mentality everywhere."  

This is not the first time that Kurds from the Kurdistan Region have been attacked in Turkey. A group of tourists were beaten in Trabzon province in July last year for taking photographs with the flag of Kurdistan Region. Nine people were detained but quickly released. According to Dizayee, the case was dropped by the police because the tourists did not file a complaint. 
 

With reporting by Mehmed Emin Demir and Hevidar Zana 

Updated at 11:11 pm