ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A media activist was brutally beaten by the pro-Turkish military police while covering the celebrations of the Kurdish New Year, Newroz in the town of Jindires near Afrin in northern Syria, a war monitor reported on Thursday.
“Members of the military police loyal to Turkey in Jindres in the Afrin countryside … severely beat a media activist during his coverage of the Newroz celebrations,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
“As I was covering the Newroz holiday with my Kurdish brothers and as I approached the celebration, members from the military police barbarically attacked me in Jindires, in a way that cannot be described. They removed me from the car and beat me in the face,” the activist, identified as Mohammed Dirbas, said in a video sent to the monitor.
Dirbas said that the beating was so severe that he suffered a broken nose and is facing difficulty breathing.
In March of 2023, four Kurds were killed and two wounded in Jindires while attempting to light a bonfire in celebration of Newroz.
The victims were killed when gunmen from the Turkish-backed Ahrar al-Sharqiya opposition militia in northwest Syria opened fire on the group. The militia is known for various human rights violations and assassinations of Kurds in the country.
In 2021, the US Treasury sanctioned the Turkish-backed militia group accused of assassinating Kurdish female politician Hevrin Khalaf in 2019.
The statement at the time accused the militia of having “committed numerous crimes against civilians, particularly Syrian Kurds, including unlawful killings, abductions, torture, and seizures of private property” as well as having recruited former Islamic State (ISIS) members into its ranks.
Afrin was a predominantly Kurdish area of northwestern Syria. It was largely unscathed by the country’s conflict until Turkey’s 2018 operation to oust Kurdish armed forces. The area is now under the control of Turkish-backed groups.
