Dozgin Temo, known as Cicek Kobane, fell into the hands of militia groups backed by Turkey during Operation Peace Spring in Ain Issa district, northern Syria on October 21, 2019. She was later taken to Turkey to be tried on charges of “disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the Turkish state.”
Kobane stood before the judge in Sanliurfa on Thursday, her third court date. She said in her defense that she was a YPJ fighter but was not involved in armed clashes, according to the pro-Kurdish Firat News Agency (ANF).
The YPJ is the all-women version of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the backbone of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Turkey considers both YPJ and YPG as Syrian offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The public prosecutor demanded a life sentence for Kobane, according to ANF. Her lawyer requested more time to mount a defence. The trial was postponed to November 24 when a verdict is expected.
Ayse Surucu, Sanliurfa lawmaker for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), called for Kobane’s release in the Turkish parliament on Wednesday. “Under what right did you arrest a Syrian citizen like Cicek? Is fighting FSA [Free Syrian Army] and ISIS a crime?” she asked.
When Kobane was captured last year, the YPJ called on the international to “urgently intervene” to secure her release and “speak up against this brutality of Turkish-backed gangs.”
In video published on Telegram channels linked to the Syrian militias, militants call her a “pig” and say she will be taken to “slaughter.”
A United Nations report released in September found that the Turkish-backed militias may have committed war crimes in northeastern Syria, known to Kurds as Rojava, including against the female population. “Women and girls have also been detained by Syrian National Army brigade fighters, and subjected to rape and sexual violence,” read the report. The Syrian National Army is the renamed FSA.
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