Turkey has deported Belgian media worker Chris Den Hond, banning him from entering the country for ten years – a repressive attitude that’s becoming all too common in Western-aligned states today. And they didn’t even tell him why.
Turkey, which has NATO’s second largest army, has long faced international criticism for its widespread repression of journalists. For numerous recent years, the Committee to Protect Journalists named it the world’s “worst jailer of journalists“. And despite recent hopes for an end to Turkey’s war crimes against Kurdish communities at home and abroad, it seems the state’s highly authoritarian attitude towards the media remains.
The Canary spoke to video-journalist Chris Den Hond to find out more about his experience.
Chris Den Hond: “they did not give a reason”
Speaking about his ordeal in Turkey, Chris Den Hond said:
I arrived in Istanbul airport on Sunday March 16 and at the passport control they did not let me through. Instead they brought me to a police control room where they said: “Your entry on Turkish territory is denied. You are blacklisted and banned for 10 years.” They did not give a reason.
Despite this, he has an idea of why the Turkish state wants to keep him out of the country:
I am convinced that this 10 year ban is linked to my stories in Rojava at the end of January 2025. In Kobane the people celebrated the 10 years of liberation from Daesh. I am almost sure that the delegation members and journalists present in Kobane have been put on a black list. Because other journalists, activists and members of parliament who were not in Rojava can enter Turkey without a problem.
The multi-ethnic but largely Kurdish area of northern Syria (aka Rojava) has been at the forefront of the fight against Daesh (Isis/Isil) for over a decade. In 2014, Turkish forces looked on from across the border as Daesh forces advanced on the city of Kobanî. The resistance of left-wing revolutionaries, however, attracted the world’s attention, forcing it to offer limited strategic support. They eventually defeated Daesh in Kobanî, and across the north of Syria. And Turkey has sought in the following years to complete the job Daesh couldn’t.
Turkey’s role in Syria following Assad’s defeat
Turkish-led mercenaries have long been active in northern Syria, committing war crimes in numerous occupied areas. But amid the collapse of the Assad regime in 2024, they took the opportunity to advance further into Rojava, with Western complicity. Syria’s new government appeared to reach a deal with Rojava’s defence forces last week but, shortly after, the new draft constitution for the country faced criticism from Rojava for promising the same kind of “centralised, authoritarian structures that have historically dominated the country”.
Chris Den Hond suspects Turkey’s involvement in the Syrian regime’s apparent backtracking. Talking about his ban from Turkey, he said:
The reason of this ban, a rather radical measure, is certainly the panic, or high level fear of the Turkish authorities of the possible success of Rojava, or the democratic experience in the North and East of Syria. The recent handshake between Mazlum Abdi, SDF general, and Ahmed Al Sharaa has been seen by the Turkish regime as a slap in their face. Just two days later, the text of the transitional constitution proves it: it is the opposite of the declaration signed by Mazlum Abdi and Al Sharaa. So Turkey is doing everything to jeopardize an agreement that would grant a kind of autonomy to the Autonomous Administration in Syria.
Author and whistleblower Carne Ross has called Rojava “an egalitarian feminist, ecologically-conscious society”, and many see it as an alternative political model that can help to break away from the division and authoritarianism of the past. Its inspiration in the philosophy of Abdullah Öcalan is problematic for Turkey, however, because Öcalan is a longstanding political prisoner in a high-security Turkish jail. Nonetheless, Öcalan made a unilateral call for peace recently, sparking hopes that Turkey’s war against Kurdish communities may come to an end.
Den Hond is sceptical about Turkey’s intentions, though. As he told us:
I have the same worries concerning the recent declaration of Abdullah Öcalan in favor of the start of a peace process. The Turkish regime wants to keep the control on the implementation of this peace declaration and is at this moment not making any concrete steps to diminish the repression on journalists, elected mayors and human rights activists.
Chris Den Hond: “treated like a terrorist threat for my journalist work”
Having faced the repression of the Turkish state himself, Chris Den Hond insisted:
I admire a lot the courage of Kurdish and progressive Turkish journalists who are on a daily basis harassed, sometimes imprisoned and judged for years, simply because they are doing their job as journalists and trying to produce news that is not pleasing the Turkish authorities. If Turkey wants to join the European Union, as 20 years ago, it should respect the “Copenhagen criteria”, which means: liberation of political prisoners, end of repression against journalists and activists, end of evicting democratic elected mayors, submitting the role of generals to the government and so on.
He also stressed that his current ban is something new, asserting:
I have done stories in Turkey and Turkish Kurdistan for 30 years: Newroz, HADEP mayors, Noam Chomsky in Diyarbakir. It was not easy, I was arrested many times with hotel arrest, but I have never been entry denied in Turkey.
He added that:
On the plane back to Paris, the Turkish police ordered the Turkish Airlines employees to transfer me to the French police. Three policemen waited for me at the exit of the airplane. Friendly, but again an identity control. I felt treated like a terrorist threat for my journalist work.
Den Hond is now safely back home. But Turkey’s behaviour adds to a worrying trend of increasing political persecution of journalists in Western-allied states in recent months, particularly in relation to their reporting of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Featured image via the Canary
