Turkish media accuses Clintons of ‘whitewashing terrorists’ over Kurdish female fighters TV series

Fighters from the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) gather to celebrate International Women's Day in 2019

Credit: Sam Tarling /The Telegraph 

Turkish state media accused former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea of "whitewashing terrorists" after they announced they were intending to produce a TV drama based on female Kurdish fighters in Syria.

The series will be an adaptation of journalist Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s ‘The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice’, a book based on interviews with members of Kurdish all-female brigades known as Women’s Protection Units (YPJ). 

Part of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), they gained international attention for fighting against the Islamic State Group in northern Syria.

The series will be produced by the production company HiddenLight, which was founded by Mrs Clinton and her daughter.

"We created HiddenLight to celebrate heroes — sung and unsung alike — whose courage is too often overlooked, and we could not be more thrilled to bring this inspiring story to viewers around the world," said Mrs Clinton.

Turkey takes a very different view of the YPG, which is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed left-wing group that has fought a guerilla war with Turkey since 1984 over securing greater Kurdish rights.

Turkey considers the entire YPG to be terrorists because of their links to the PKK, which was designated a terrorist organisation under Bill Clinton’s administration in 1997. The US designation does not apply to the YPG or YPJ, however.

“In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU — has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including, women, children and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot,” Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said.

The fighting between Turkey and the PKK has killed at least 40,000 across both sides of the conflict and both have repeatedly committed human rights violations.