On January 27, 2025, a suspected Turkish drone strike targeted a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado near the village of Girdjan in Sulaymaniyah’s Ranya district in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, killing journalist Aziz Koyluoglu and three other people and critically injuring another.
Koyluoglu, a 48-year-old Turkish Kurdish journalist born in Diyarbakır, Turkey, served as the director of RojNews, since 2021. The digital outlet, which publishes in Kurdish, Turkish, and Arabic, is known for its coverage of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) activities and is considered close to the group. PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union. Earlier in 2024, Iraq’s National Security Council also imposed a ban on the group.
Inside the car were Dilawar Arabu, a member of the Democratic Union Party (PYD)—the political wing of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a major component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) operating within the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria—and Heva Arabu, a member of the Kongra Star Coordination, a women-led organization in Syria closely associated with the PKK.
According to RojNews editor-in-chief Botan Garmiyani, who spoke to CPJ via WhatsApp, “Koyluoglu went to Ranya city for a visit unrelated to journalism.”
“We did everything we could to return his body to Turkey for burial in Diyarbakır, but Turkish authorities refused. We were forced to bury him here” he said, referring to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. “This stands as clear evidence that the drone strike specifically targeted him."
Koyluoglu, who began his journalism career in the early 2000s, worked in a variety of roles, including reporter, camera operator, and editor-in-chief, and across a range of platforms, such as newspapers, news agencies, television, and digital media, according to Garmiyani.
According to research conducted by CPJ in collaboration with Koyluoglu’s colleagues, he began his journalism career in 2006 as a correspondent for the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DIHA) in Erbil, a position he held until 2013. That year, he moved to northern Syria, where he became the head of the newsroom and later served as the general manager of pro-Democratic Union Party Hawar News Agency (ANHA) until 2020
Koyluoglu was interviewed multiple times by PKK-affiliated media outlets as a journalist, during which he discussed Turkish operations targeting the PKK within the Kurdistan Region.
On February 14, he was laid to rest at the Binarê Qendîl Cemetery, located in the Qandil region in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which is under PKK control. This cemetery is reserved exclusively for PKK guerrillas and members.
CPJ sent inquiries to the Turkish presidency and the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations requesting comment but received no response.