Kurdish filmmaker Mansour Karimian, who lived in Rojava due to repression by the Iranian regime and was involved in the production of well-known feature films, lost his life in a Turkish airstrike in northern Syria on 24 December. As an artist from Sine (Sanandaj) in Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan/Western Iran), he worked in all four parts of Kurdistan. Karimian came to Rojava because of the Iranian regime's repression and worked on the feature films Dema Dirîreşkan (Blackberry Season), Letters from Shengal, Kobanê, and the Evîna Kurd series.”

The Cultural Committee (TEV-ÇAND) of the PKK issued a statement paying tribute to Mansour Karimian and calling on artists to raise their voices and uphold their duties against massacres. The statement released by the PKK TEV-ÇAND Committee on Tuesday includes the following:

"The fascist, genocidal, assimilationist Turkish state, which has turned the Kurdish genocide into a justification for existence, continues its massacres in front of the eyes of the whole world. It insists on its attitude that violates all international humanitarian norms and tramples on the law of states with its genocidal attacks that it has extended to its own political borders, without differentiating between women, young and old. It bombs civilian settlements in Rojava, Shengal, Maxmur and various parts of South Kurdistan whenever it finds the opportunity, in violation of international law of war. Day by day, it increases the list of massacres, each of which is a war crime in itself.

By bombing civilian settlements, the Turkish state is trying to cover the great defeat of the Turkish army, which has suffered a great blow in the face of the glorious resistance and organised action of the Kurdistan Freedom Guerrilla in Xakurkê, Zap and Metina. Thus, it has made it a basic policy to turn the smallest opportunity into Kurdish genocide in the face of its failure against the guerrilla resistance and struggle.

While making speeches about human rights and the law of war against the massacres committed by Israel in Gaza every day, the Turkish state has added new examples to its genocidal and massacrist character by attacking numerous civilian settlements in North-East Syria. We express our condolences to the families of those martyred in all these attacks and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded. Every life that falls to the ground causes our anger and determination to struggle to sharpen more.

Among those martyred in the recent attacks was Mansour Karimian, a cinema artist from Sine city of Eastern Kurdistan. We commemorate with respect and gratitude the valuable Kurdish filmmaker Mansour Karimian, who devoted his entire life to cinema, worked with all his strength to reflect the suffering and reality of the people of Kurdistan in cinema, and turned his direction to Rojava in the spirit of national unity by overcoming the given borders of the states. We invite all artists and filmmakers of the Middle East and the world, especially Kurdish artists, who are the conscience and voice of society, to take a stance and attitude against these massacres, to raise their voices and to be a voice for the glorious resistance.

We would like to state that we will protect the labour, memories and struggle of the martyrs by enhancing our resistance and struggle against these attacks. Remaining silent in the face of these attacks and massacres will mean losing one's soul and conscience. Therefore, in the person of Mansour Karimian, we call on all artists and filmmakers with a conscience to uphold and embrace their duties."