Hevrîn Xelef, Secretary General of the Future Party of Syria, was brutally murdered on 12 October 2019 by the Ahrar al-Sharqiya gangs affiliated with the occupying Turkish state.

Mother Eqîde, a member of the Girkê Legê Mediation Committee, was martyred in the invasion attack one day later, on 13 October 2019.

Kongra Star Coordination described the murder of Hevrîn Xelef as ‘an attempt to suppress the voice of free women and destroy the identity and struggle of women’.

“Hevrin Xelef was a symbol of resistance and struggle. Hevrin was constantly striving for the construction of a multi-faceted democratic Syria. Since the occupying Turkish state was afraid of the power of the women leaders of the revolution, it first attacked women,” Kongra Star said.

“We will continue to fight resolutely against the occupiers who are increasing their crimes against women, children and civilians day by day,’ the statement underlined.

Kongra Star called on the international community to fulfil its historical responsibilities and hold the murderers of women to account and condemned the silence of international powers against the attacks of the Turkish state and allied gangs.

Defining this silence as an incentive to the invaders, Kongra Star called on the guarantor countries in the region to fulfil their duties to protect human rights.

The statement concluded: “We declare that we will continue our struggle in the spirit of Mother Eqîde, martyr Hevrin Xelef and all women who sacrificed their lives on the path to freedom. The philosophy of ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’ (Woman, Life, Freedom) will be a light that illuminates our path. We will raise the struggle until the liberation of the occupied territories and the establishment of a democratic Syria. We will not give up; we will not step back. We will remain loyal to our martyrs and wave the flag of freedom until victory.”