By the members of the Mesopotamia Women Journalists Association
Cihan Bilgin was killed along with fellow journalist Nazım Daştan in a Turkish drone strike on the road between Tishreen Dam and the town of Sarrin while covering the clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) on December 19, 2024.
Born on October 27, 1995 in the Midyat district of Mardin, southeastern Turkey, Bilgin got involved in journalism in 2014 after graduating from university. She first distributed Azadîya Welat and Özgür Gündem newspapers. In 2014, Bilgin joined the vigil in the Suruç district of Urfa on the border of Kobanê to support the people of Kobanê against the attacks of Daesh (ISIS). Her biggest dream was to witness “the women’s revolution,” which started after the liberation of Kobanê. In December 2017, she went to North and East Syria and started to work as a correspondent for the Hawar News Agency (ANHA).
A student of Kurdish long-time journalist and writer Seyit Evran, Bilgin always made great efforts to report the truth. She turned her camera on the women’s resistance in Qamishli, Hasakah, Shahba, and Manbij. She covered the Daesh surprise attack on the al-Sina’a prison in al-Hasakah, a city in Syria’s far northeast, on January 20, 2022. Along with journalist Nazım Daşdan, she was the first to report on the attack. Bilgin was not only a journalist but also acutely aware of social issues; she signed many campaigns launched against “the invasion attacks” on the Kurdistan Region (of Iraq).
Bilgin used her camera to cover women’s struggle for freedom, telling the stories of women who had been killed and who were resisting attacks and rights violations.
On December 6, 2024, the pro-Turkish Syrian National Army (SNA) and the Turkish Air Force launched a military campaign on the city of Manbij. Bilgin covered the clashes between the Manbij Military Council (MMC) and the SNA for about five days, until the Council decided to withdraw its troops on December 11 to protect civilians from a possible massacre.
It was then that she began to cover the attacks on Tishreen Dam and the Qereqozaqê Bridge, along with fellow journalist Nazım Daştan. Although the ceasefire between Türkiye and the SDF around the northern Syrian city of Manbij continued, she and Daştan were both killed in a Turkish drone strike on the road between Tishreen Dam and the town of Sarrin on December 19, 2024, while covering the clashes.
Before being killed in the Turkish drone strike, Bilgin had interviewed the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) frontline commander Roj Engizek in Qereqozaqê, showing how women resisted the attacks.
In her last interview with Mesopotamia Agency (MA), she mentioned that Türkiye and the SNA attacked the region by using the Tomb of Suleyman Shah as an excuse. “The people of the region resisted and defeated the darkness of Daesh. Now, Türkiye wants to bring the same darkness to the region,” she stated. “People all over the world must raise their voices against the ongoing attacks just like they did against the attacks of Daesh. Recognizing the status of the Autonomous Administration (of North and East Syria) is essential in the construction of the new Syria.”
Bilgin wrote numerous articles in the eight years when she worked as a correspondent of the Hawar News Agency (ANHA). You can read some of them on their website: Hawarnews.
