20-12-24
# NES
– Kurdish Journalists Cihan Bilgin (ANHA) and Nazin Dashtan (ANF) were killed yesterday in a drone strike after they filmed the effects of the Turkish attacks on the Tishreen Dam.
– Cihan was a journalist for over 8 years. She covered the liberation of Raqqa, bringing attention to the extraordinary struggle of the SDF and the women of YPJ. She was deeply engaged with the philosophy of women’s liberation.
– Nazim was among the first journalists to document the resistance of Kobane in 2014. He reported on the brutality and oppression of the Turkish state. He was a very kind-hearted person, and always ready to support the work of international journalists.
– SNA groups launched an offensive in Qereqozah bridge, with heavy weapons and support of Turkish drones. After fierce clashes, the offensive was been repeled by the Manbij Military Council and other SDF forces.
# Syria
– On Dec. 19, U.S. Central Command Forces conducted a precision airstrike targeting ISIS leader Abu Yusif aka Mahmud in the Deir ez-Zor Province, killing him and another ISIS operative.
– Former SAA soldiers who fled to Iraq during the fall of the regime had been handed out to new Syrian authorities (HTS) as captives.
– Allegedly, former SAA soldiers in Latakia ambushed a group of HTS fighters in Masyaf, inflicting several casualties. Remnants of Assad’s army have vowed to continue fighting in the west coast region of Syria, and are threatening to arm “popular organisations”. Local groups are taking up weapons to defend demselves from the constant attacks they received from HTS and SNA groups.
– In the western countriside of Daraa, several protests had been taking place against the new israely occupation. In the village Ma’riya IDF opened fire killing one protestor.
# Foreign politics
– Iraq FM called with british FM to inform that ISIS is reorganizing its ranks, expanding control in several areas over Syria and Iraq with seized weapons from syrian army depots that were temporarily abandoned with the collapse of the regime.
– British media said on Thursday that counter-terrorism police in the UK are on high alert for the potential return of British supporters of the Islamic State (ISIS) following their potential release from prisons in Syria.
– Pentagon Press Secretary P.Ryder told reporters that there were in fact 2,000 US troops in Syria, not 900 as previously reported, adding that “these additional forces are considered temporary rotational forces that deploy to meet shifting mission deployments.”
– Turkish police have arrested ten Kurdish Journalists in Van for protesting against the martyrdom of their two colleagues. This follows a long list of arrests that started at the end of November, right before the offensive of HTS started. Dozens of polititians, protesters and journalists, including elected kurdish municipal mayors had been arrested.
– EU diplomatic envoy met with HTS in Damascus to discuss the agreements of the Aqaba conferance, giving support for an inclusive Syrian led political process that results in representative government, which respects the rights of all Syrians. He expressed cautious willingness to support rebuilding of Syria.
– Germanys FM A.Baerbock, who started her office with promising “a feminist foreign policy” and 3 days ago talked about Kobane as a symbol of resistance for kurds, today stated “The Kurdish groups must be disarmed and integrated into the national security structure”.
– US department of Justice removed the page stating a $10 milion reward for information on Syrian islamist leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa (al-Jolani).
# International Solidarity
– The International Federation of Journalists condemned the targeting of Cihan Bilgin and Nazim Dastan by Turkey, and demanded that those responsible for targeting journalists in war zones be held accountable.
– The Coalition for Women in Journalism issues a statement condemning the Turkish drone strike that killed two journalists yesterday: https://www.womeninjournalism.org/alerts/syria-turkish-drone-strike-kills-kurdish-journalsts-jihan-belki-and-nazim-dashdam
# Analysis
The assassination of two Kurdish journalists is a painful reminder of how news and information is a weapon of war.
We are seeing elaborate schemes in social networks, where fake information and fabricated war headlines are propagated, distorting reality and creating confusion about the situation on the ground. This is part of psychological warfare, another form of waging war employed by our enemies. This broadcast channel is partly an answer to it. We know that war has many sides, and that we need to give collective answers to all of them, building mechanisms of self-defense against all kinds of attacks. We also see attacks against health workers, with an ambulance that was transporting injured recently being targeted in the Kobane region. These kinds of attacks are not just attacks against civilians, are attacks against basic ethical standards.
Western powers like to claim a moral high ground, talking about democracy and human rights. Turkey is a NATO member that has been spitting on any basic ethical standards, and still got a new bribe of 1 billion E in the form of aid to control refugees. HTS was on the terrorist lists for its links with Al-Qaeda. But now, climbing the ladder to the top of a Nation-State, that is not relevant for the other heads of State anymore. As it already happened with the Taliban.
It deeply reflects how States are born, with brutal and murderous gangs fighting and killing, until one big man manages to establish himself as president, as king, or even as god. And then the other big men around him applaude and congratulate his ascend. After that, maybe they put some make-up and rewrite the history here and there, to make sure it suits whatever is the current trend in present literature. And, voila! A new goverment is born.
It is also pathetic to see Turkey and Israel building tensions, accusing each other of the same crimes they are committing themselves. Especially when their military intelligence agencies collaborate and negotiate the occupation and partition of Syria behind the cameras.
“The Truth will not remain captive in the darkness”
— Nazim Dashtan
Comrade Nazim, comrade Cihan, all the brave fighters defending this revolution:
Rest in Power!
Revolutionary greetings!