🔷Two Kurdish journalists killed reporting on clashes between the SDF and Turkey’s proxies the SNA in N Syria. Their car was hit by a Turkish drone. @fgeerdink Fréderike Geerdink reflects on their work.#Rojava | #NazımDaştan | #CihanBilgin
🔗https://t.co/mXhaSY72lZ pic.twitter.com/nAynrOhTMN
— MedyaNews (@medyanews_) December 22, 2024
Fréderike Geerdink
Turkey killed two Kurdish journalists in Syria, I’m sure you’ve heard. Nazım Daştan and Cîhan Bilgin were on the way back from reporting on clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkey’s mercenaries of the Syrian National Army (SNA) west of Kobani (Kobanê) when their car was hit by a drone. It is repulsive, criminal, shameless, unacceptable – and yet, Turkey will have done it with impunity.
We must remember Nazım and Cîhan not only because they were brave journalists and brutally murdered, but also because their work really, truly mattered. They were part of a revolutionary movement that will eventually bring change. They are the people we must put our confidence in. Not in politicians, as I have seen quite a few people do this week.
It’s one thing to report on assorted politicians who speak out about Turkey’s role in Syria since Assad has fled the country, it is another to cheer them on for it. Take for example German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who was visiting Turkey this week and met with her counterpart Hakan Fidan. She reportedly issued a stern warning to the Turkish government to halt its military aggression against the Kurds in northern Syria. Earlier this week, she said that the city of Kobani is the symbol of Kurdish resistance.
Absurd
You won’t hear me say that it’s bad that she said this, of course not, but what bothers me is that many people seem to have some sort of trust in her now. Her quotes were all over social media, shared with a triumphant ‘Yes Annalena, you tell them!” That’s rather absurd, if you ask me. The German government is delivering the weapons with which Turkey is fighting the Kurds in Bakur, Başur and Rojava (Kurdistan in Turkey, Iraq and Syria, respectively), and that is not going to change.
Last week, a friend in Amed (Diyarbakır) called me. He was happy because of a motion that the Dutch parliament had adopted. I had to look it up because I was on a rare vacation, but he was right: The parliament had by an overwhelming majority accepted a motion to call on the government to urge Turkey to immediately end the attacks on Kurds in Syria. The motion was filed by the Labour Party’s Kati Piri, who has for many years in different roles, including in the European Parliament, been an advocate for Kurdish rights, and she should be firmly applauded.
But the Dutch governing parties – which of them supported the motion? The party of the Dutch fascist-in-chief, Geert Wilders, surely just supported it because he hates [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and is an Islam-hater, just like the other parties in the government. It is, as you possibly know, a government of the extreme right. They supported the motion not out of humanity, but out of hate.
Futures
My cynicism, or let’s call it realism, is exacerbated by the fact that both Germany and the Netherlands froze asylum processing for Syrian citizens very quickly after Assad’s regime fell. This is inhumane. People are waiting to build up their lives in Europe and it’s way too early to suggest that maybe soon they could return home – if they have a home to return to. Do people who made it to Europe via very dangerous routes to begin with have to wait for still more months before they can have any certainty about their futures and re-unite with their families?
Both these governments, and others in Europe, are on very dangerous paths with their anti-asylum-seekers and anti-Islamic retoric and actions.
Another example is that of the bipartisan initiative of two US senators who might possibly sanction Turkey over violence against Kurds in Syria. Democrat Chris Van Hollen and Republican Lindsey Graham put the proposal together. They named it the Countering Turkish Aggression Act of 2024. Turkish attacks would, Van Hollen said, undermine regional security and efforts to prevent an ISIS resurgence. US politicians worrying about undermining regional security in the Middle-East? The absurdity of them saying this, after decades and decades of the US itself undermining security, is just mind-blowing.
Sincerity
And it gets even more absurd. These countries – the US, Germany, and the Netherlands – are also among the fiercest supporters of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Let me make that explicit: They don’t care even the slightest bit about lives in the Middle East, let alone those of Muslims. And that includes Kurds, I’m sorry to say.
What we need, is sincerity. Which brings me back to the two Kurdish journalists who were killed by Turkey this week. Nazım Daştan and Cîhan Bilgin. They offered hope. I stumbled upon a short speech that Nazım Daştan gave after he left prison in Turkey, where he had been jailed for a few months in 2016. He said: “We will continue to make our news in the field by embracing the line and tradition we follow today. We will devote our pens still more to the people, we will include more of the people’s struggle in framing our work.”
Humanity
This is the tradition of the Kurdish press, this is what he and Cîhan Bilgin dedicated themselves to. They did this as part of the wider revolutionary Kurdish struggle for freedom. This is the sincerity we need, even desperately need. These are the people who will bring change, who push the calculating politicians to finally catch up with the demands of humanity. It’s these people we have to put our trust in and whom we have to support, not any of the politicians. For Kurds, for Syrians, for Palestinians, for everybody.
Thank you, dear colleagues. You truly contributed. Rest in power.
Fréderike Geerdink is an independent journalist. Follow her on Bluesky (or X) or subscribe to her acclaimed weekly newsletter Expert Kurdistan.
