An urgent invitation has been sent to international journalists to travel to North and East Syria and report on the unfolding situation in the wake of the new attacks by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA).
The call was made on 5 December by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). They wrote “Since November 27, a new war has been raging in Syria… The main victims of it are civilians. A humanitarian catastrophe is deepening. The spiral of violence of the Turkish state is directed against the Kurdish regions in Northern and Eastern Syria. Once again, we see images of beheaded Kurds, abducted Kurdish women, and hundreds of thousands of refugees.”
The AANES statement attributes these atrocities to the Turkish state and its proxies, and points out that media is not currently playing a positive role. Therefore, it has been decided to organise a delegation, to increase media awareness of the unfolding crisis.
“Unfortunately, current media coverage is generally contributing little to de-escalating the situation. We would therefore like to invite journalists and reporters to the Kurdish regions of North and East Syria to enable neutral reporting” they continued.
The AANES confirms that it will provide security, on-site translation and accommodation to visiting journalists, although travel costs cannot be covered.
Entry for journalists would be via Iraqi Kurdistan, where citizens of the EU, the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, and Japan can enter without a visa.
For more information, please click here.
