Still banned from Turkey
For the second time since 2007, Turkey denied an Al-Monitor contributor entry because of his work as a journalist on Kurdish issues.
On March 2, for the second time since 2007, I was deported from Turkey — this time from Istanbul Ataturk Airport when I made a stopover en route to Iraqi Kurdistan to attend the Sulaimani Forum at the American University. The reason: writing about Kurds.
My plan was to go to the conference where many prominent analysts and officials were scheduled to speak, including Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and fellow Al-Monitor columnist Cengiz Candar. But I wasn’t allowed to make a "domestic" transfer through Turkey, despite telling customs control in Turkish, “I am going to Iraq, not Turkey.”
