Syria TV channel hosted the media coordinator of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), which is the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a body consisting mainly of forces of the Democratic Union Party, the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK; these forces control the northeast of Syria (large parts of the governorates of Hasaka, Raqqa, and Deir Ez-Zour). The media coordinator of the SDC, Mr. Ibrahim Ibrahim, stated during this interview that 50 percent of those present in the Idlib region are terrorists who deserve to be killed, meaning that since there are four million people present in this region, he suggests that half of them – two million people – deserve to be killed. He reaffirmed at the end of his interview, which can be seen here, that there are 2 million terrorists in the area and that he is responsible for his statements.
This is not the first time that the media coordinator of the SDC has directed false accusations of terrorism without any evidence. He previously accused the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) of terrorism following the publication of an SNHR report on cases of arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance perpetrated by Syrian Democratic Forces. Mr. Ibrahim is considered to hold an official position, not representing his personal views, but those of the party in whose name he speaks, the SDC, which means he is also the political representative of the Syrian Democratic Forces. If this call to murder two million people were made by a person unaffiliated with a political entity, it would still constitute a crime, but it would only represent or affect the individual himself.
This statement by the media coordinator of the SDC constitutes an incitement to hatred, violence and murder against civilian residents of cities and towns. According to international law, incitement to commit crime is considered a crime in itself regardless of the results of this incitement; although Ibrahim claimed that he was not referring to civilians, he stated that the families of members of groups classified as terrorist are involved in terrorism, with this heinous effort to claim guilt by possible association or simply by proximity being used to justify the murder of two million people!
