Karwan Anwar: Media Should Avoid Creating Ethnic Tensions

PUKMEDIA

Karwan Anwar, Secretary of the Sulaymaniyah branch of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate.

The Secretary of the Sulaymaniyah branch of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate has urged the media to exercise caution and refrain from publishing harmful content that could incite violence or fuel conflicts between different ethnic communities.

The appeal follows a fatal shooting at a petrol station in Erbil, where an employee shot and killed a driver, a passenger, and a bystander after an argument over payment. Footage of the incident, captured by surveillance cameras, was subsequently broadcast on media outlets and widely shared on social media, sparking significant public reaction. The employee was Kurdish, while the driver and passenger were Arab.

Karwan Anwar, Secretary of the Sulaymaniyah branch of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate, told PUKMEDIA: “The incident at the Erbil petrol station in recent nights has sparked a wave of racism on both sides and is worsening day by day. We hope that reason and logic will prevail,” he said.

“Although the video should not have been so widely circulated, we now call on media channels and social networks to make every effort to delete it,” he added.

He continued: “We must avoid creating further ethnic and racist tensions between us Kurds and our Arab brothers. It is therefore important to regard this as an isolated incident, to refrain from publishing such shocking scenes, and to ensure they are removed.”

According to police, the incident occurred at around 8:30 p.m. on 6 August 2025, when a vehicle carrying two men arrived to refuel. During the process, two or three litres of petrol were spilled. Police reported that the customers refused to pay for the spilled amount, leading to a heated altercation with staff.

Surveillance footage shows the customers shoving a petrol station worker who had attempted to intervene. The worker then retrieved a firearm from a cabinet used by night security guards and opened fire, killing the two men and a bystander.

Sources identified the victims as Arab tourists visiting the Kurdistan Region. One of them, Hamoudi Riyadh, was a former Iraqi bodybuilding champion. The Iraqi Bodybuilding Federation confirmed his death and issued a tribute on Wednesday night.



PUKMEDIA