Turkish State TV investigates presenter for saying army was targeting civilians in Afrin

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey’s public-funded Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) on Monday announced that it launched an investigation into a news presenter who on live TV said the Turkish army was targeting civilians during an ongoing military campaign to capture the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

“Our reporter relayed that the Turkish armed forces were attacking civilians right from this point,” news presenter Tugba Dalkilic told viewers during a Sunday live broadcast that showed a location purported to be Mount Bursaya which the Turkish army has been trying to capture from the US-backed Kurdish forces.

“The Turkish armed forces were staging bombardments from this strategic position on the civilian population,” Dalkilic repeated for the second time.

According to TRT, the presenter said those words were a pure accident and out of “excitement of live broadcast.”

“After this sad mistake, our speaker has immediately been withdrawn from the air, and a new friend was assigned to replace her. Also, an investigation has been launched against our speaker,” a statement by TRT’s news division read.

Medical sources in Afrin have confirmed that Turkish attacks had killed 60 civilians so far, among them 26 children, and wounded over 150 others.

Dalkilic herself apologized on Twitter, saying she meant to say the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was “targeting civilians.”

“I deeply apologize in front of the public,” she noted.

Ankara views the US-supported Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighting the Islamic State (IS), and now defending Afrin against the Turkish campaign, as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany