INTERNATIONAL URGENT CALL FOR CONSCIENCE…
To journalists, writers, academics, human rights organizations, and all conscientious intellectuals;
What is happening in North and East Syria (Rojava) is not merely a local internal conflict; it is a grave existential crisis that concerns international law, human rights, and the shared conscience of humanity. The escalating attacks in recent weeks clearly reveal a threat of collective annihilation directed at the existence and achievements of the Kurdish people.
Images coming from the ground show that the so-called Interim Government, HTS administration, together with armed structures supporting it—elements previously affiliated with ISIS and various Turkey-backed gang groups—has launched a coordinated campaign of attacks against Rojava. There are strong indications that this process was planned in advance within the framework of regional power balances and international agreements. Indeed, the agreement concluded by HTS with Israel in Paris under the observation of the United States sheds light on the nature of the plan in question. Immediately following this agreement, attacks against Kurds began.
The initial targets of the attacks were Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo; the clashes rapidly spread as far as the Kobane and Hasakah lines. During this time, the targeting of prisons holding ISIS members, the emergence of security vacuums, and the release of numerous radical elements have created an extremely dangerous situation not only for the Kurdish people but also for regional and global security.
There are serious allegations that grave human rights violations such as executions of civilians, forced displacement, torture, and looting have taken place in the attacked settlements. Women, children, and the elderly have been directly targeted; civilian life has been systematically paralyzed. Cities inhabited by Kurds have been deprived of electricity and water, with the aim of condemning the population as a whole to hunger. All these practices fall squarely within the scope of war crimes and crimes against humanity as clearly defined in international law.
Rojava is one of the places where the heaviest prices were paid in the global struggle against ISIS. Today, in the same geography, the people of those who gave their lives to defend humanity are confronting a wall of silence. As this silence persists, violence and impunity deepen further. Moreover, particularly in the Turkish media, there is a serious campaign of disinformation on the ground, through which massacres against Kurds are being obscured.
We also wish to state that the lives of journalists who are conveying the attacks in Rojava to the world public are in danger, and that this constitutes an attack on the public’s right to access information. We call on international media outlets to stand in solidarity with our colleagues and to amplify their voices so that journalists documenting inhumane practices and war crimes under international law can work more freely.
We remind that it holds a crucial place in journalistic ethics for journalists to report on events objectively, avoiding disinformation and misleading information.
For these reasons, we call on you to:
*Engage in independent and visible reporting on what is happening in Rojava,
*Persistently keep eyewitness accounts from the field and human rights violations on the public agenda,
*Call on the international public, governments, and institutions to urgently assume responsibility,
*Create effective public pressure to halt genocidal attacks against Kurds, protect civilians, and open humanitarian aid corridors.
This is not a call to take sides; it is a call to take a stand for life, law, and human dignity. To ensure that what is happening in Rojava does not remain in the dark, we need your pen, your voice, and your courage.
It must not be forgotten that history will remember not those who remain silent, but those who speak the truth and make it heard by the world.
Respectfully…
Journalists Association Dicle Fırat
Mesopotamian Women Journalists Association
