Turkey`s state-run news agency said she took her own life after missing a connecting flight from Istanbul to Irbil, Iraq, and was upset as she didn`t have enough money to buy a new ticket, the Associated Press reports. However, that claim has been disputed by friends and colleagues.
The IWPR said the circumstances of her death are unclear and they are "trying to establish the facts."
"Jacky was appointed IWPR’s acting country director in Iraq at the end of June," they wrote following the news. "She replaced Ammar Al Shahbander, who was killed in a car bomb attack on May 2. She had been in London to join Ammar’s family, friends and colleagues at a memorial service held for him at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street last week."
“Jacky was one of the top development professionals working on Iraq, and she devoted nearly ten years of her life to helping the country,” Anthony Borden, Executive Director of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting said. “She was extremely bright, highly competent, and well able to handle herself in difficult environments, and she was universally loved. We are in total shock.”
Friends and colleagues expressed shock and also disbelief at the initial reports.
More about:
