Why were Aziz, Nazım, Cihan, and other Kurdish free media workers murdered? Pursuing the truth means waging a war against darkness. The attacks on Kurdish press and the truth are at the core of everything happening. This war is a war against the truth. As the occupation deepens, so too does the repression against the truth. Media platforms that refuse to be part of this dirty war are being destroyed in an attempt to silence the voice of truth.

Free media workers are being murdered because pursuing the truth means tearing down empires built on lies. Just as journalists who exposed village burnings and mass killings in the 1990s were assassinated, those documenting war crimes in Rojava today are being targeted. The more the occupation expands, the more the attacks on truth-tellers intensify. There is a great fear behind military operations, massacres, and crimes being covered up, the fear that the truth will come to light. That is why they target and kill press workers.

Their goal is to prevent the public from accessing the truth 

The press is being targeted to conceal the social and legal catastrophe created by the new system established by the AKP. While shaping media institutions to serve their own interests, they try to silence those who defend the truth. In this process, pressure on the Kurdish press has intensified, journalists have been imprisoned, and media outlets have been shut down. Their goal is to create a perception blackout in Kurdistan and prevent people from accessing accurate information. Anyone who defends Kurdish rights and speaks out against war is being silenced. By suppressing the Kurdish press, which resists their manufactured perception, they are attempting to impose war on society and reshape it around war policies. They needed this to cover up their crimes and hide the realities of war. In this blind spot they created, they could act freely, exert social pressure, and suppress the people’s demands for rights and justice. For years, journalists fighting for the truth, imprisoned for their work in the free press, have been targeted but the truth has always prevailed over them. In the end, to sustain their rule, preserve their system of fear, and erase all traces of law and democracy, they had no choice but to silence the press.

They have always used different methods to hide the truth 

This is nothing new. In the 1990s, Kurdish press workers were murdered in the streets. They were targeted in unsolved assassinations. In the 2000s, they were silenced through prison sentences, arrests, and harsh judicial rulings. Today, they are killed by drones and direct military strikes. Every era has used different methods to suppress the truth, but the goal has never changed: to conceal reality and to silence society. They have done everything possible to cover up their crimes, silence the people, and wash away the truth. Journalists who pursued the truth were martyred, imprisoned for years, yet they never stopped reporting  the truth. Truth is the voice of the people, it cannot be silenced.

They defended the truth despite the darkness 

Exposing war crimes in Kurdistan and massacres against civilians has always been a difficult battle. When an entire community was wiped out in the Cizre (Cizîr) basements, they tried to wipe out the brutal reality. They hid war crimes and the innocent lives that were taken. Yet, journalists found the truth in that darkness. From Rojava to Başûr (South), they brought the massacres in Kurdish lands to the world’s attention. They uncovered the use of chemical weapons and the deliberate murders of civilians. In the midst of this suffocating silence, they found out the truth and defended it.

Now, journalists who pursue the truth on the battlefield are once again being targeted by drones. They are attacked because it is no longer easy to deceive society. Propaganda no longer holds the same power. People want to see the truth, and that terrifies those in power. The "military victory narrative" is driving people toward catastrophe. This is why the massacre of civilians at Tishrin Dam is being covered up, out of fear and an attempt to justify targeting the people. But journalists continue to show the truth, and the free press remains steadfast in its pursuit of reality.

Free media means pursuing the truth 

In war, the first casualty is truth. Propaganda takes over, and lies fueled by dirty wars engulf the people. The free press fights for the truth. As it uncovers realities, it also becomes the voice of a people’s struggle for freedom. Free media means pursuing truth and freedom. That is why they try to destroy this tradition of journalism but they forget one thing: the truth can never wipe out. Yes, they were murdered, but they won the war for the truth. They were not just journalists; they were the voices of their people. In the darkness, they kept the truth making them immortal.

These attacks are a systematic war strategy 

Aziz Köylüoğlu became the fifth journalist murdered by the Turkish state in the past six months. This is no coincidence; it is a systematic war strategy. Every journalist following the Kurdish press and the truth is targeted because they expose war crimes. The Kurdish people are entering a new century united around the truth, stronger than ever. As defenders of freedom and democratic rights, they have become a fortress of resistance. This is why the more they fear these gains and hopes, the more aggressive they become.Their fear drives them to enslave the Kurds for another century at any cost. Their goal is to wipe out the people's rights, freedoms, and identity.

A promise to Aziz Köylüoğlu: Those who were martyred on the path of truth will never be forgotten, and the truth will never be silenced.