“Statements claiming that ‘Hakim Lokman, a Kurdish businessman from Duhok, was stabbed to death in Istanbul simply because he was speaking his native language’ are provocative and do not reflect the truth,” Turkey’s Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said in a statement on X, using a Turkish spelling of the victim’s name - Hakim Loqman.
“The distortions made in an attempt to target our government and political alliance reveal the true intentions of those who spread these claims,” Yilmaz added.
Hakim Loqman, a Kurdish businessman from Duhok, was stabbed to death following an altercation at an Istanbul hotel early Sunday morning.
Loqman’s cousin, Muhsin Tofiq, told Rudaw’s Omer Sonmez on Sunday, that Loqman was attacked by a group of 10 people after they heard him speaking in Kurdish during a phone call with relatives in the United Kingdom.
Officials from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) condemned the killing, blaming Ankara for encouraging anti-Kurdish actions.
“The government's policies, rooted in hostility towards Kurds, have directly encouraged such hate crimes and have made Kurds an open target!” Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, deputy head of DEM Party’s parliamentary bloc said on X.
Party co-Chair Tulay Hatimogullari labeled the incident a “racist attack” in the same post on X.
Turkey’s anti-disinformation body released a statement on X on Monday, saying that claims of Loqman’s murder being due to him speaking Kurdish were false.
“Investigations revealed that H.L.T., along with two other tourists, S.M.T. and B.A.K., got into a fight with H.O. and his brother Z.O., both from Batman, in a bar in the Fatih district over ‘improperly staring at women,’ ” read a statement from the Turkish anti-disinformation center on X, using Loqman’s initials of “H.L.T.”
Both Yilmaz and the anti-disinformation body claimed the perpetrators were from Batman, a predominantly Kurdish province in southeastern Turkey - hinting that the suspects also were Kurdish.
Loqman’s body was handed over to his family and brought back to Duhok, where he was buried in a massive ceremony on Monday.
Turkish outlet HaberTurk reported on Monday night that security forces detained seven people in relation to the killing of Loqman.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that the incident had nothing to do with speaking Kurdish but stemmed from other disputes. The culprits will, of course, be identified through legal proceedings and held accountable,” Yilmaz said.
This is not the first time that people from the Kurdistan Region have been attacked in Turkey.
A Kurdish family from Erbil was attacked in Mersin province in May 2021 while on holiday in Turkey. The family claimed that they were assaulted by nationalist Turks for their ethnic identity. No one was jailed over the incident.
Updated at 11:18 pm
