Fréderike Geerdink

Fréderike Geerdink (born 1970) is a Dutch freelance journalist and author who specializes in reporting on Kurdish women and political issues in Turkey from Diyarbakir, where she was the lone foreign journalist based there between 2012 and 2015. She was twice arrested in Turkey and was deported on 9 September 2015. Following this, she spent one year embedded as a journalist with the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Geerdink studied journalism from 1988 to 1992 at the Christelijke Hogeschool Windesheim.

Career Geerdink has been a journalist for over 25 years and writes in Dutch, Flemish, and English, as well as Turkish. Her work also appears in the crowd-funding journalism website BeaconReader.com.

Notable works of journalism Fréderike Geerdink started reporting from Istanbul, Turkey in 2006, but since 2012, she has been located in Diyarbakir, Turkey, which is located in the southeast and predominantly Kurdish region of Turkey, where Geerdink covered Kurdish issues. She was the only foreign journalist reporting from and based inside Diyarbakir between 2012 and 2015.

From Diyarbakir, she has focused on Kurdish issues, as well as the PKK, or Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (Translated: Kurdistan Workers' Party), which has been classified as terrorist organization in Turkey and by several other states and organizations, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the United States and the European Union. The group is an advocate for a separate autonomous territory for the Kurdish people.

She is the author of "The Boys are Dead," which was first released in the Netherlands in 2014, and was translated into English and released in October 2015. Her second book, "This Fire Never Dies," first released in the Netherlands in 2018, and as an English translation 2021, deals with her time with PKK.

Turkish deportation Fréderike Geerdink was arrested twice in Turkey. She was arrested the first time in January 2015 and charged with distributing terrorist propaganda on behalf of the PKK.

The second arrest was in September 2015. This time, she was arrested for crossing into a restricted zone and taking part in a protest. She was detained along with 19 other individuals that were traveling with her at the time. She was detained and then released. A few weeks later, she was deported from Turkey.

Geerdink located herself in Netherlands as she appealed her deportation. Following that she was charged with distributing terrorist propaganda and supporting the PKK through comments on social media and in her reporting. One of the reasons she had been arrested was because of her interview with PKK leader Cemil Bayik. She stated on Twitter that the investigation went well and that she had nothing to hide from the interview as it was just her doing her job as a journalist. Political leaders and press freedom organizations around the world reacted to her arrest, including Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders. Koenders said the intimidation of journalists was not acceptable.

Second incident On 6 September 2015, Fréderike Geerdink was arrested again and this time she was charged with crossing into a restricted zone and taking part in a protest while being there. During her incarceration, she was still able to post on Twitter, and report everything that was happening to her. On 9 September, Fréderike Geerdink was deported from Turkey and sent back to the Netherlands.

Upon Geerdink's return to the Netherlands, her arrest and deportation were protested by a joint statement from the European Federation of Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, and the Dutch Association of Journalists.

"We find the arrest and deportation of the Dutch journalist Mrs. Frederike Geerdink very alarming and contrary to international law and international treaties, ratified by the Turkish State."

While her lawyers are challenging her deportation, Turkish rules say once a person is deported, the person cannot return for 5 years. Geerdink is trying to return to her professional journalism duties in Turkey.

Writings De jongens zijn dood (Dutch, 2014) / The Boys are Dead: The Roboski Massacre and the Kurdish Question in Turkey (English, 2015).This book is about the Roboski Massacre, and how 35 smugglers were mistakenly killed instead of a group of separatist fighters. The book's English release in 2015 followed a few weeks after her deportation from Turkey. Its original Dutch release was nominated for the Brusse Prize. The nomination for her work said, "Fréderike Geerdink is one of those courageous Dutch journalists who do their work in dangerous conflict zones. (...) Her book became a both political and beautiful personal account of the struggle for self determination in Turkish Kurdistan." Dit Vuur Dooft Nooit - Een Jaar Bij De PKK (Dutch, May 2018) / This Fire Never Dies - One Year With The PKK (English, February 2021).This book covers the year in which Geerdink was embedded in the PKK. It deals with the movement's history, culture, and ideology, as well as with the stories and choices of individual members of the movement.