JINHA

MÊRDÎN - Azadiya Welat Newspaper's editor in chief Rohat Aktaş went to Cizre to reflect the truth. He was trapped in Cizre's 'basement of savagery'. He said in his last conversation "The state wants to execute us". Rohat showed us how to resist despite the savagery from the basement which passed into history as a black page.

In Cizre, Şırnak province, dozens of wounded people had been trapped in three basements. 115 dead bodies have been removed from basements in the town of Cizre that came under attack by Turkish state forces. One of them was Azadiya Welat Newspaper's editor in chief Rohat Aktaş. He waited to be evacuted for 18 days with 15 wounded people and nine his friends in a basement. There has been no news from Rohat Aktaş since the state forces attacked the basements where wounded had been trapped. The last connection was got through to Rohat,"The building is under bombardment. They tried to demolish it. Four our friends passed away due to lack of medicine. There is no electricity and water. They want to massacre. They don't allow the people to come in the neighborhood. The humanity is being killed. The state wants to execute us. Kurdish people must rise against the massacre." said Rohat. Rohat called his mother when he was wounded. He could only say, "Mom, take care yourself, that's enough." under the gunfire and bombs sound.

Rohat's mother Meliha Aktaş told us his life story;

Rohat was born in Istanbul in 1996. After the earthquake on August 17, his family had to return to their hometown Suruç, when Rohat was three years old. Rohat met with the Kurdish free press, he was just 10 years old, in 2006, when Azadiya Welat Newspaper began daily publication. Rohat distributed the newspaper for a while. Many years later, he became the editor in chief in the newspaper. Rohat didn't leave Suruç during the resistance of Kobanê. He pegged away at for the needs of Kobanê people who had to leave their lands. Finally, he went to the besieged town of Cizre,Şırnak province, just before the martial law under the name of "curfew" declared in order to share the truth with the public.

Meliha said, "Rohat didn't like cruelty and oppression. He thougth they were not moral. He was not scared. Rohat used the word of freedom everytime. He cared too much about the culture and ethics of his community. He defended the unity of all people. He told us he would work for free press and he would announce the oppression against Kurdish people to the world."

(ekip/mg/gd)