A Communique Issued By the Kurdish National Council in Syria

Yekiti Media

A masked armed group affiliated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD) kidnapped the journalist Barzan Hussein, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party – Syria, and the youth activist Junaid Sayed Majeed, a member of the Kurdish National Council in Syria, in the town of Girke Lage, on August 15, 2023.

These arrests come in light of the suffocating economic crisis experienced by the masses and the instantaneous collapse of the Syrian pound, which increases prices, services, treatment fees, and medicines in parallel with the taxes and royalties imposed on citizens by the Democratic Union Party (PYD).

This miserable reality that our people live in prompts many of them to sell all their possessions to emigrate in search of safety and a livelihood, and many of them lose their lives in the seas and forests before they reach those countries.

These arrests come to intimidate the citizens and increase the security grip on the necks of the people to prevent any mass reactions and protests that may occur.

The Kurdish National Council in Syria condemns in the strongest terms these intimidating arrests of journalist Barzan Hussein and activist Junaid Sayed Majeed, and demands their immediate release. We also call on all human rights organizations and international bodies to intervene and prevent these violations against citizens and activists.

Qamishlo, August 17, 2023

General Secretariat
Kurdish National Council in Syria