{"id":15053,"date":"2026-03-11T22:55:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T22:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/15053\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T22:55:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T22:55:06","slug":"german-turkish-journalists-missing-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/15053\/","title":{"rendered":"German, Turkish journalists missing in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sulaymaniyah, March 11, 2026 \u2014 The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Syrian authorities to clarify the fate and whereabouts of German journalist Eva Maria Michelmann and Kurdish-Turkish journalist Ahmed Polad, whom their outlets and relatives say have not been heard from since January 18, when the northeastern Syrian city of Raqqa fell<\/a> to government forces in an offensive<\/a> against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two journalists, who worked for Istanbul-based socialist Etkin News Agency (ETHA)<\/a> and \u00d6zg\u00fcr TV<\/a>, which operates across several cities in Europe, were last seen leaving a building<\/a> affiliated with Kurdish authorities with civilians fleeing the city, when they were separated from the crowd and placed \u201cin a separate vehicle\u201d belonging to Syrian government forces, according to ETHA<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe disappearance of Eva Maria Michelmann and Ahmed Polad in Raqqa raises serious concerns about the safety of journalists working in Syria,\u201d said Joud Hasan, CPJ\u2019s Levant Program Coordinator. \u201cSyrian authorities must urgently shed light on what has happened to the journalists, including whether they have been detained, and guarantee their safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serpil Arslan, editor-in-chief of \u00d6zg\u00fcr TV, told CPJ that Polad, who worked as a program producer<\/a> and reporter<\/a> while contributing to ETHA, went to Raqqa to cover the fighting in the city, and went missing as the SDF withdrew<\/a> from the areas and agreed to integrate their forces into Syrian state institutions, allowing Damascus to re-establish control over the city and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe attempted to go live, but as the clashes intensified this was not possible. Instead, he sent us video footage,\u201d Arslan said, adding that a few hours later the journalist reported that the building he was in with civilians had been surrounded before communication was cut off.<\/p>\n

Toni Michelmann, the German journalist\u2019s brother, also insisted she was detained \u201cby forces of the Syrian transitional government,\u201d telling CPJ that \u201cthere has been no sign<\/a> of life from her\u201d since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arzu Demir, a journalist and member of ETHA\u2019s editorial board who also produces a program for \u00d6zg\u00fcr TV, told CPJ: \u201cMaria had been sending news reports to our agency from Rojava for about four years. For security reasons, we published her reports anonymously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a witness statement claiming they were separated from the other people who were under siege in Raqqa and placed into another vehicle,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Roland Meister, Michelmann\u2019s lawyer, told CPJ that they are in contact with the German government regarding her case, but \u201chave not received any information about her so far.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When contacted by messaging app for comment, Omar Haj Ahmed, director general of press affairs at the Syrian Ministry of Information, told CPJ that \u201cthe ministry does not have any information about the incident or the individuals, and no one has submitted any request or taken any formal action.\u201d Morhaf al-Hussein, director of the Raqqa Governorate Media Directorate, also told CPJ by WhatsApp, he was following up on the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sulaymaniyah, March 11, 2026 \u2014 The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Syrian authorities to clarify the fate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[4189,95],"class_list":{"0":"post-15053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-missing","9":"tag-syria"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116213011128991972","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}