A funeral was held on Sunday October 13th in the Syrian city of Dayrik, situated in northeastern Syria in Hasaka Governorate, for nine people who were killed Saturday on a road in Hasaka city, south of the town of Tel Abyad. Among the dead was Hevrin Khalaf, secretary-general of the Future Syria Party.
Videos widely distributed on the internet showed the executions of civilians carried out by Turkey-backed rebel fighters, including a video showing the killing of Khalaf. Armed pro-Turkey Syrian elements attacked Khalaf and her driver after trying to infiltrate the M4 highway located southeast of Tel Abyad.
Who is the Kurdish political leader Hevrin Khalaf?
Hevrin Khalaf was born in 1983 in the city of Al-Malikiyah (Dayirk) in northeastern Syria and belonged to Hasaka Governorate. She completed her primary, preparatory and secondary education in Al-Malikiyah city, then she moved to Aleppo to study agricultural engineering, where she graduated in 2009.
After the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011, Khalaf intensified her political activities and worked for several NGOs before becoming the head of the Economic Council in the city of Qamishli.
In 2014, following the announcement of the establishment of the Kurdish autonomous administration of Rojava, she became deputy to the Energy Commission and then head of the Economic Commission for Kurdish-controlled areas in Syria.
In March 2018, Khalaf was elected secretary-general of the Future Syria Party, which is close to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
According to Kurdish media, Hevrin believed in Syria's unity and that the solution in the country is political and would not be achieved through fighting. US activists have expressed outrage over Khalaf's death. A US State Department spokesman told Reuters on Sunday that Washington is looking into reports of the deaths.
"We have seen reports of the killing of Hevrin Khalaf... as well as several captured SDF fighters, the latter having been apparently shot while in the hands of Turkish-supported armed Syrian opposition elements," a State Department spokesman said, referring to Turkey-backed rebels.
"We find these reports to be extremely troubling, reflecting the overall destabilisation of northeast Syria since the commencement of hostilities on Tuesday," the spokesman said.
Mutlu Civiroglu, a specialist in Kurdish politics, described Khalaf's death as a great loss. "She had a talent for diplomacy, she used to always take part in meetings with the Americans, the French, the foreign delegations," he said.
Brett McGurk, the former special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter Isis said, "Turkish state-backed media hails a 'successful operation' to 'neutralise' an unarmed 35-year old woman working to unite Arabs, Christians, and Kurds in NE Syria. Ms Hevrin Khalef was reportedly dragged from a vehicle and shot to death. That's a war crime."
Activist Amjad Taha wrote a tweet saying, "a few days ago, I was talking with the engineer Hevrin Khalaf about the international positions against the ethnic cleansing practised by Turkey against the free Kurdish people in northeastern Syria.
"Today I got photos of her … she was killed by the mercenaries of Turkey (the Sultan Murad Division, trained and financed by Erdogan)."
Hevrin Khalaf, a friend and leader
Jalaa Hamzawi, head of the public relations office of the Future Syria Party, spoke to 7Dnews about her friend Hevrin Khalaf.
"The secretary-general of our party Hevrin Khalaf is dead after her car was targeted by Turkey and its mercenaries on the international highway that connects the towns of Manbij and Qamishli, when she was on her way to work in the party centre in Raqqa city," she said.
"Hevrin and her colleagues, we have realised the danger of what we are going through, as Syria has become a centre of chaos and terrorism. The Syrians have lost hope to restore security in the future.
“The liberation of Raqqa, the alleged capital of Isis, has had a great echo to regenerate hope among the Syrians who lost hope after the darkness of Isis and the terrorist factions," Hamzawi said.
She pointed said that the establishment of the Future Syria Party amid these difficult conditions was a good occasion for Syrians to start to fight back against sectarianism, racism, Islamism and nationalism.
She said that this was a new stage to restore cohesion and unity among Syrians, a stage of new hope for all Syrians that could lead the country towards a democratic, pluralistic, decentralised and unified central Syria.
Hamzawi said that Hevrin assumed this great historical responsibility and had realised that it was not an easy mission. However, Hevrin devoted herself to this historical mission because she was aware that the country needed leaders in troubled times such as these.
"In a short period of time, despite her young experience in the political field, Hevrin has been able to achieve great developments in Syria field. She managed to become a Syrian national icon", she said. Hamzawi believes that targeting Khalaf is the same as targeting unity, hope, freedom and democracy.
