Frederike Geerdink (b. 1970) worked in Turkey for nine years as a journalist until she was expelled by the government under suspicion of ‘engaging in subversive activities’. Her book The Boys Are Dead, about the Turkish bombardment of a village in south-eastern Turkey, in which dozens of civilians were killed, was published in 2014. In May 2016, Geerdink left for a PKK training camp in northern Iraq to report on the Kurdish freedom movement from within.
(Unieboek Het Spectrum, 2018, 304 pagina's)
After Frederike Geerdink was expelled from Turkey in 2015 for her foreign correspondent’s work, she decided to continue her coverage of the Kurdish people by spending a year embedded in the PKK. Her journey takes her from the guerrilla fighters’ headquarters in the Qandil-mountains in northern Iraq to the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. Along the way, Geerdink examines the freedom movement’s culture, sketches the Kurdish people’s history and ideologies, and bears witness to the many stories, dreams and choices of the everyday fighters.
