The Firat News Agency (ANF) (, ) is a Kurdish news agency that gathers and broadcasts news from the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, broadly concerning

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

matters. The news agency has offices in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

and journalists around the world. It has been variously described as pro-Kurdish, pro- PKK, or PKK-affiliated. The

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

and

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

have described the ANF as being "close" to the PKK, and

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

states the two entities have "links". The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

have alternately labelled the ANF "pro-Kurdish" and "pro-PKK". Because of the ANF's alleged links with the PKK, access to its websites from Turkey has been repeatedly blocked by Turkish courts in what has been described by Danny O'Brien of the

Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York City, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists. The '' American Journalism ...

as a "cat-and-mouse" game. ANF social media accounts active in Turkey have been closed, and its journalists have been detained in Turkey. In addition,

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

has blocked the ANF at the request of the Turkish government. In 2011 it was the target of a cyber-attack which removed access to the site.

Detentions and killings of ANF staff

Under the pseudonym Silan Aras, Ayfer Serçe wrote for the ANF until her death in July 2006 in

West Azerbaijan province West Azerbaijan province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, whose capital and largest city is Urmia. It is in the northwest of the country, bordered by Turkey ( Ağrı, Hakkâri, Iğdır and Van Provinces), Iraq ( Erbil and Sula ...

, while covering regional suicides.

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...

condemned the killing and demanded the Iranian government investigate. In 2014, Leyla Yildizhin, writing as Deniz Firat, was killed by shrapnel in

Makhmur, Iraq Makhmur (, ) is a town in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. It is situated strategically approximately 60 km southwest of Erbil as well as 80 km north-east of Kirkuk and 80 km south-east of Mosul. Background During the 2014 IS crisis, the town was ca ...

while working as a freelancer for ANF. ANF writer

Zeynep Kuray Zeynep Kuray (born 1978) is a Turkish people, Turkish journalist. As of 2015, she wrote for ''BirGün'' and the Firat News Agency (ANF). She was kept under arrest between December 2011 and April 2013 as a part of the KCK investigation and is a reci ...

was detained from 2011 to 2013 in a wider Turkish investigation into the operations of the

Kurdistan Communities Union The Kurdistan Communities Union (, KCK) is a Kurdish political organization committed to implementing Abdullah Öcalan's ideology of democratic confederalism. The KCK also serves as an umbrella group for several confederalist political parties o ...

, and has been additionally but briefly detained since.

Arrest of Maxime Azadi

On 15 December 2016, French-Turkish ANF journalist Maxime Azadi was arrested in Belgium after Turkey issued an Interpol Red Notice for his arrest. The ANF appealed for his immediate release. The arrest was condemned by

press freedom Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerc ...

groups, who said the incident highlighted Turkey's crackdown on press freedoms following the 2016 coup attempt. The UK-based NGO

Fair Trials Fair Trials is a UK-registered non-governmental organization which works for fair trials according to international standards of justice and the right to a fair trial, identifying where criminal justice is failing, alerting the world to the pro ...

described his arrest as Turkish misuse of Interpol's Red Notice system, and the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

's Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists released a media freedom alert pertaining to the arrest. The

European Federation of Journalists The European Federation of Journalists is the European regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists. It describes itself as the largest organisation of journalists in Europe, and says it represents about 320,000 journalists ...

released a statement, stating "We are very concerned about this arrest which constitutes a dangerous precedent. More than 120 journalists are behind bars in Turkey, where the authorities do not hesitate to abuse anti-terrorist laws to suppress the opposition press. Belgium and other European states should not be complicit in the massive purges ordered by the Turkish government. Dozens of Turkish and Kurdish journalists exiled in Europe would be in a situation of dramatic insecurity". On 23 December that year, Azadi was released on bail, leading the Council of Europe to mark the case resolved, concluding it "was no longer an active threat to media freedom".

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2005 establishments in the Netherlands Companies based in Amsterdam Kurdish-language mass media Kurdish-language websites News agencies based in the Netherlands Organizations established in 2005 Persian-language websites