Hidden cameras till arriving to revolution... Kurdish press in Rojava

BRITAN MADOSSA-AHMED SAMIRE/QAMISHLO

On April 22, 1898, the Kurdish press began publishing the Kurdistan newspaper, the first newspaper in Kurdish language, and since then the pressures and injustice of the ruling regimes have continued to the press and journalists. In the face of this injustice and these pressures, the Kurdish journalists turned to the voice of the community with their sacrifices, resistance and strong will. The Kurdish press resisted from 1898 until 1923 under the ban and the prevention of the Ottoman Empire, after 1923 resisted in the face of injustice and pressure the regimes of the occupied countries of the four parts of Kurdistan.

One of these parts is Rojava of Kurdistan and Syria. The Syrian regime practiced the worst policies and practices against the press and the media, especially the Kurdish ones, because it knew that the media exposed the arbitrary and chauvinistic policies it used against the people. From 2004 until the beginning of Rojava Revolution in 2011, the Syrian authorities doubled their pressure on Kurdish journalists. However, despite these pressures, Kurdish journalists have made many sacrifices to get the voice of the Kurds to public opinion. Of journalists who were practicing journalism during that period at the Ronahi TV Roudy Mohammed Amin and the editor of our agency (ANHA) Dilshad Judy. We at (ANHA) wanted them to share those memories and the difficult days they had gone through.

"Pressures forced us to go to the press"

Despite all the pressures, Roudy pointed out that despite their lack of knowledge and lack of experience; they were working hard because of the urgent need for a Kurdish press. "The Kurdish people have been subjected to political, cultural and even political pressure," he said. Denied his right to speak his mother tongue. In the face of these practices, there was great resistance as the people organized themselves and it was necessary to convey the voice of our people to the world."

Dilshad Judy also explained that after revolution of Qamishlo in 2004, the pressure on the Kurdish people increased and the practices of the Kurdish people should be exposed to public opinion.

"We were working in secret"

Dilshad Judy explained they were working in secret and added saying "In order to follow up on a story or event we were preparing two days ago, who will be filming, which of the women will hide the card and which one will hide the camera, from which house we will send pictures and clips," Dilshad Judy explained. "Our comrades dressed in many clothes and hid their faces. After filming, they handed over the camera and the card to the women, changed their clothes and pretended to be participants."

Roudy pointed out that their potential was few and continued by saying "We did not have the means, we had only a small camera, the Internet service was not available," Roudy said, "We were sending news and pictures from the national homes. “We were doing all the work in the citizens' houses.”

Roudy noted that the pressure was exerted on journalists more than others, he said "At that time the people were demonstrating in the days of the Kurdish movement," he said, "in the demonstrations we were bringing two or three cameras in anticipation of the regime taking over a camera, so we have pictures and clips in the other cameras for delivery to the public opinion . Sometimes, we put our camera on the shoulders of women and hid it between their hair so that we could take pictures or shoot video clips after we finished filming, we would give the camera to the mothers to hide it and sometimes we would hide in nearby houses, "In general, the demonstrations did not last for long, as the elements of the regime were attacking the demonstrators a few minutes after the demonstration began, and they were asking the detainees who werer filming, and many of our comrades were arrested and kept in detention till beginning of the revolution."

Conference was a new breakthrough in the history of the Kurdish press by Rojava."

Dilshad Judy said that for the first time in Syria, the conference of Kurdish journalists was held in 2007, "The conference revived the Kurdish press in Rojava again, there were 30 people in the conference, and there was no place to meet. At the end, we found home in al-Darbasiyah city "We sent our comrades to the village sporadically, where we sent two of them in a different car and the owner of the house pretended to be sick to say that we were going to visit him and check him out so that our presence would not be noticed there." We met in the summer of 2007 and the conference continued until midnight."

After we organized ourselves, the pressures of the regime increased"

Dilshad Judy explained that their work had developed after the conference "After we developed our business, the pressure of the regime increased on us, and none of us was arrested at least once "We were under pressure and torture more than others, but we resisted our weapons with our cameras and our strong will and determination. They knew that we were exposing their practices so they were putting pressure on us. "

Dilshad Judy said that after the revolution in 2011, they transformed the legacy of the press into a ground for the Kurdish press in Rojava. In order to develop the media cadres in Rojava they opened training courses and hired journalists from Bakur Kurdistan and other areas to train journalists. We realized that we are not journalists, we were only sources, because we did not receive any training on journalism, its fundamentals and principles."

"That day, I realized that resistance for years achieved its goal"

Roudy spoke about the result of years' resistance "After the revolution, our organization expanded, we now have news agencies, television channels and newspapers, "when I came from Damascus to Qamishlo, the people of Nisêbîn were helping the people of Rojava across the border. "The border was under the control of the regime," one official asked, "where are you going?" I replied that I was a journalist and I going to on a border, he said, "Please, shoot me too." Then I realized that the resistance of years had achieved its goal."

"We now have television channels, newspapers and news agencies. There are hundreds of media workers, and that was a dream for me and for all the press workers before the revolution."

"This is not enough, the attacks on the Kurdish people continue"

At the end of his speech, Roudy pointed to the continuing attacks on Rojava and said "We must turn to a response to the attacks on the Kurds," he said, adding that the pressure on journalists in Bakur and Başûr was continuing Kurdish journalists who claim to be neutral to return to their society, because the mentality of the exiles and annihilation not only targets part of the target Kurdistan is the elimination of all Kurds."

* The first Kurdish newspaper was the newspaper of Kurdistan, which was issued in Cairo on 22 April 1898 by Mekdad Medhat Badrakhan. Because of the pressure of the Ottoman Empire at that time, Muqdad was able to issue only 5 issues of the newspaper. After his brother, Abdul Rahman Badrakhan, continued publishing the newspaper and due to the practices of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Rahman could not continue publishing the newspaper in Cairo, so he continued his work in Switzerland and England. 31 issues of the newspaper of Kurdistan. After 75 years, in 1973, the 22nd day of April was declared as the day of the Kurdish press in Basur Kurdistan.

(T/S)

ANHA