The Free Press Union (YRA), Women’s Press Union (YRJ) and Dicle Fırat Journalists’ Association (DFG) have condemned the killing of Kurdish journalists Nazim Daştan and Cîhan Bilgin in a Turkish drone strike in northeastern Syria. The organisations highlighted the journalists’ dedication to uncovering the truth, and pledged to continue their work, while calling for international solidarity against the targeting of the free press.
YRA and YRJ said that since 8 December, the Turkish state and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) have intensified their attacks on Northern and Eastern Syria, and that the two journalists were “fulfilling their moral and historical duties in all fronts of the war without any hesitation to share the Turkish state’s occupation attacks with the people and public opinion”.
They drew attention to the fact that the free Kurdish press has “made heavy sacrifices on its way to publish the truth and realities” and that the journalists Nazim Daştan and Cîhan Bilgin were “martyred in a brutal attack by the Turkish occupation state”. Giving details of the attack, YRA and YRJ said they were “bombed by a Turkish Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicle (UACV) at 3.20pm on 19 December while travelling on a road between the Tishreen (Tişrîn) dam and the village of Sarrin (Sirrîn)”. The two journalists were killed instantly and their driver, Aziz Hec Botan, was injured in the attack.
The Dicle Fırat Journalists’ Association (DFG) has also strongly condemned the murders, describing the incident as a deliberate attack on press freedom. In a written statement, the DFG said: “Nazım Daştan and Cîhan Bilgin, journalists dedicated to reporting on the realities of the conflict in northern and eastern Syria, were killed in a targeted drone attack by Turkey.”.
The DFG vowed to hold those responsible to account, saying: “We condemn and reject this despicable attack on our colleagues. We will seek justice for this massacre and ensure that the perpetrators do not escape responsibility”. They also emphasised the vital role both journalists played in exposing the truths of war and vowed to continue their work, affirming, “Drawing strength from their legacy, we will continue our efforts to report the truth with determination and resilience”.
The statement remembered Cîhan Bilgin as a journalist who “became the voice of the people’s and women’s revolution with her pen and camera” and “shared the Rojava revolution with the world”. She had been working for the Hawar news agency in northeastern Syria (Rojava) since 2017, covering both the Turkish state’s attacks on the region and the building of the women’s revolution. Bilgin was remembered as a young woman who “set an example not only with her professionalism in journalism, but also with her personality, her smile and her friendship”.
Nazim Daştan was remembered as a “humble and hardworking person” who began his journalistic work in Afrin (Efrîn) in 2014, and later in Kobani (Kobanê), when he was still young. He had “joined the historic resistance against ISIS in Kobani and made it known to the world”. In 2015, he worked in the Silopi (Silopya) district of Şirnex during the Turkish attacks on the city, after the people of Silopi declared their autonomy from the Turkish state. When Turkish prosecutors opened a case against him, he returned to northern and eastern Syria and reported from many different places such as “Efrîn [Afrin], Kobanê, Reqa [Raqqa], Girê Spî [Tell Abyad]” and then went to Sinjar (Şengal) and Iraqi Kurdistan to continue his work.
YRA, YRJ and DFG jointly condemned the attack on Nazim Daştan and Cîhan Bilgin, and said they were “determined to take up their pens and cameras and continue on their way”. They called on “all journalists to become supporters of the truth and followers of the free press”, and on all international journalist and human rights organisations to “raise their voices against this brutality”.
