Following the drone strike by Turkey on 19 December near the Tishreen Dam in northeast Syria (Rojava) which claimed the lives of two Kurdish journalists, Cîhan Bilgin and Nazim Daştan, a wave of protests has erupted, spanning from Kurdistan to Europe, denouncing Turkey’s actions.
In this regard, Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmad, a member of the political office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the first lady of Iraq, issued a statement expressing her profound regret over the murder of Bilgin and Daştan.
“Unfortunately, the Turkish state’s efforts to occupy Rojava extend beyond the assassination of civilians; through its mercenaries, it seeks to silence journalists.”
In another part of her message, Ahmad emphasised that the killing of journalists by Turkey is not a new phenomenon, highlighting Turkey’s long-standing and dark history of journalist killings.
While offering her condolences to the families of the victims, she urged the international community to not remain passive in the face of Turkey’s actions, calling for a halt to the brutalities and fascist mentality of the Turkish state. She further called for the establishment of a committee to investigate these murders.
In a separate response to the murder of these two Kurdish journalists, members of “The Democratic Media Union of Kurdistan (YRD)” issued a statement from the Makhmur refugee camp, Rostam Jodi. The statement, delivered by Brivan Tunj, extended condolences to the families of the victims and asserted:
“At a time when Rojava is under attack by the Turkish government and its mercenary allies, our journalist colleagues, simply for documenting the truth, are under siege. Yet, as members of ‘YRD’, we will not abandon our ‘pens and cameras’ in our mission to report the facts.”
In a solidarity action, women journalists in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat) also condemned the murders on social media, despite the ongoing security risks in Iran. JINHA Agency interviewed several women journalists from the region who expressed their outrage. In addition, they shared videos to demonstrate their solidarity with the Kurdish women’s struggle in northeast Syria, while mourning the deaths of Bilgin and Daştan.
On 20 December, protest rallies were organised in several European cities to condemn the killing of journalists in northeast Syria. Kurds and their supporters in Paris, Cologne, Winterthur, Lausanne, and Nicosia gathered to denounce the Turkish army’s assault on journalists, demanding an international investigation into the killings.
Over the past four months, four Kurdish journalists have been killed by Turkish state drones in Iraqi Kurdistan and northeast Syria. Gülistan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn were killed in September 2024, alongside Bilgin and Daştan this week.
