On 16 October 2019, Turkish fighter bombers killed Konstantin Gedig, who was lying wounded on the ground, in the city of Serêkaniyê. Encouraged by a statement by the Minister of State in the Federal Foreign Office, Katja Keul (Greens), during a personal meeting at the Foreign Ministry ("...then that is a war crime"), the parents, Ute Ruß and Thomas Gedig, also carried out research in northeast Syria and filed a criminal complaint with the Federal Prosecutor General on 11 March 2024 through their Kiel lawyer Alexander Hoffmann.

In his decision of 17 June 2024, the Federal Prosecutor General announced that the highest German law enforcement authority sees no need for an investigation, even though Konstantin, a German citizen, was murdered: "...I have examined the factual and legal situation in response to your aforementioned criminal complaint, but have refrained from initiating an investigation in accordance with Section 152, Paragraph 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as there are no sufficient actual indications of criminal offenses falling within the jurisdiction of the Federal Prosecutor General..."

"Turkey is an important NATO partner..."

Ute Ruß and Thomas Gedig said in a statement: "The German governments of Merkel and Scholz as well as German professional politicians preach to us the commitment to democracy, the protection of human rights, and the rule-based coexistence of people and nations. The justification, 'Turkey is an important NATO partner...' is enough to make all these principles worthless when the Turkish criminals mentioned once again go on a war spree."

Body recovered and "put together"

Immediately after Konstantin's murder, Turkish media not only reported on his death, but also that the Turkish army had recovered and "put together" his body, according to his parents, who added: "Neither the Federal Prosecutor General nor the German Foreign Ministry has any reason to help us and effectively support the recovery and burial of a dead German citizen. Germany prefers to believe the lies of the Turkish authorities that they know nothing!"

Konstantin's fifth anniversary of death

16 October marked the fifth anniversary of the death of the German farmer Konstantin Gedig. The man from Kiel went to northeast Syria on 1 September 2016 as a front-line medic and fought against the terrorists of the Islamic State. He was wounded in Raqqa, the former capital of the caliphate, in August 2017 and returned to Kiel in November 2017. The ISIS sniper's bullet could only be removed there. Back working as a farmer in Arpsdorf near Neumünster, he told his family in early 2019: "ISIS is not yet defeated!" and went to the Yazidi settlement area in the Kurdish-Iraqi region of Shengal. There he protected returning refugees, rebuilt destroyed temples and extinguished field and forest fires set by ISIS gangs.

When the Turkish army, on the orders of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, invaded northeast Syria in violation of international law on 9 October 2019, Konstantin Gedig rushed to the aid of his comrades in the fight against ISIS.