The timing couldn’t be more telling. Parallel to the start of the new Turkish invasion in the Metina region and the trip of the Turkish regime leader Erdoğan to Southern Kurdistan and Iraq, the Belgian state is striking the Kurdish media.

During the night, the police stormed the studios of Stêrk TV and Medya Haber TV in Denderleeuw near Brussels. The studios were surrounded and employees were prohibited from entering the building. Police searched the premises between 2am and 6am. The channels were literally sabotaged. The police confiscated computers and technical equipment and destroyed many other technical systems. Apparently. to prevent further transmissions, cables were cut.

The door to the room from which the broadcasts are distributed was smashed, and the equipment inside was destroyed. Security guards at the television station were handcuffed and forced to lie on the ground. According to reports, police attacks have occurred again and again. After four hours, the police left again.

Kurdish media: “On the streets against attacks on the press”

The television stations reacted immediately to the attacks and declared: “We call on the public to go to the locations of the raids and to stop this illegal action.” The media houses placed the raid in the context of a broad-based anti-Kurdish extermination operation and jointly declared: “The visits of Turkish government officials to the USA, Iraq and Iran, the agreements with the South Kurdish KDP and the visit of Turkish President Erdoğan to Iraq and the Barzani family are the latest attempts to realize this concept of annihilation. The invasion attack on Metina represents the military dimension of this annihilation operation.