Kurdish female activist from Konya assassinated in Sulaimani

Nagihan Akarsel, a women rights activist and co-founder of Jineoloji Academy Center, was assassinated this morning.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2022/10/04 15:04

Nagihan Akarsel was killed by unknown assailants (Photo: HDP Women/Twitter)

Kurdistan Sulaimani Assassination PKK Turkey Slemani

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Nagihan Akarsel, a women rights activist and co-founder of Jineoloji Academy Center, was assassinated in an armed attack in Sulaimani (Slemani) this morning.

“We condemn in the strongest terms this brutal act. Women's struggle for freedom cannot be silenced or intimidated by such atrocities,” the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) from Turkey said in a tweet.

Police spokesperson Sarkawt Ahmad confirmed to Kurdistan 24 that Akarsal was attacked and killed in the Bakhtiyari neighborhood of Sulaimani (Slemani).

He added that the body of the woman was taken to the Sulaimani’s Medical Examiner’s Office for examination and that an investigation was launched into the attack.

Akarsel was originally from the Turkish city of Konya and had worked for women's rights magazines and the Jineolojî Academy Center for several years.

Also on Tuesday, a drone strike hit a vehicle in Sharbazher area in northeastern Sulaimani province of the Kurdistan Region, Shaho Osman, the mayor, told Kurdistan 24.

It’s not the first assasination of a Kurdish political activist from Turkey in Sulaimani.

Also in May, two unknown gunmen assassinated a Kurdish restaurant owner and refugee from Turkey named Zaki Chalabi in Sulaimani, who was seen as close to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).