Our World TV - BBC News TV -
In north-east Syria, an apparent oasis of stability and hope, recovering after eight years of civil war and trauma that have cost thousands of lives. Hevrin was part of a movement to rebuild Syria as a democracy. Aged 34, Hevrin had become the leader of the newly launched Future Syria Party, created to play a key role in spreading democracy, bringing together communities ravaged by terror and war. Our World: Who Betrayed Hevrin Khalaf? BBC 2020
On October 9th the Turkish military started their assault. Civilians fled border towns and the wounded started to fill the hospitals. And it wasn’t just Turkish regular forces. Groups of mostly Jihadi fighters, bitter enemies of the Kurds, and calling themselves the Syrian National Army, were being backed by the Turkish military to do the fighting on the ground. They were advancing deep into northern Syria. ibid.
[Jihadis] shot up their car when they were trying to ‘drive through a road block’ … Hevrin Khalaf’s body metres away … In the [bodycam] video you can make out a woman’s voice. ibid.
Al Nusra is the main Al Qaeda group in Syria: it’s been accused of torture, child abduction and summary execution … a reign of terror for three long years. ibid.
This is Hevrin Khalaf, a 34-year-old Syrian Kurdish political leader. As the secretary-general of the Future Syria party she campaigned in Arab areas as well as Kurdish ones looking for all ethnicities to work together. She was also a vocal opponent to Turkey’s operation in north-east Syria calling it an occupation. But on 12th October she was silenced. Video emerged of her bullet-ridden car. BBC News report: Hevrin Khalaf: Death of a Peacemaker, Youtube 9.10, 2020