The following statement was made by Dr. Antonius Michelmann on March 4 at the 142nd Cologne Vigil for Human Rights:

Dear friends, dear citizens of Cologne, thank you for the opportunity to speak here. My sister Eva, or my mother’s daughter Eva, is a courageous journalist from Cologne. In January 2026, she was staying in Al-Raqqa, Syria. She reported from the self-governing, democratic region in northeastern Syria known as Rojava. Eva reported from a hotspot of world events for the progressive news portal ETHA.

On January 18, she was arrested in Al-Raqqa, Syria, by forces of the Syrian transitional government of President Ahmed al-Scharaa. The arrest took place in the course of a military offensive by the Syrian army against the democratic self-administration. Since then, there has been no sign of life from her.

Eva is one of many. Eva was abducted together with kurdish journalist Ahmet Polat (Kurdistana Azad, Özgür TV). Several hundred people are still missing.

Eva has a big heart. She has always stood up for people who were suffering. When she is needed, she gets stuck in. Whether it’s social counseling or refugee solidarity, in Cologne youth centers, with women whose partners are violent, with street children in Caracas or among her circle of friends. You can always rely on her.

Eva deeply abhors injustice. Eva is a passionate anti-fascist.

So it’s no wonder that she reported from the epicenter of the anti-fascist struggle in Rojava. Unique democratic rights and freedoms were fought for there, especially women’s rights. And in environmental protection.

This is of global significance today. Everywhere, people are wondering where things are headed. We are closer to a Third World War today than we have been since the last world war: Ukraine, Palestine, Venezuela, Iran, and many other countries are examples.

Eva stands for international solidarity among peoples—just like all the progressive people who are courageously standing up against fascism and war today.

Together with Rojava, they stand for a positive answer to how fascism can be defeated—through the unity of peoples against all fascism—against all imperialist warmongers.

We need a broad united front against fascism and war and for the preservation of our natural resources—from churches to communism—from Iraq to Iran, from Palestine to Rojava, from Minneapolis to Europe.

Countless people around the world today share with us the uncertainty and grief over the violent loss of loved ones.

But we also share pride in courageous and supportive people like Eva Maria and Ahmet. And the confidence that a supportive, just society and thus also the liberation of women can be achieved.

The State Department has been urgently requested and called upon to contact the government of Syrian transitional president Ahmed al-Scharaa to secure the prompt release of my daughter and my sister Eva Maria Michelmann. This has been assured to us by the lawyers.

The Rojava government is working locally for the release of all those who have been abducted. On behalf of Eva Maria, we—as her relatives—ask you for a donation. For medical aid in Rojava, for the health center that was built and handed over there in 2015 by 177 international brigadistas. It stands for the international solidarity that Eva is so passionate about.

Thank you very much for your attention

Good luck to us all in the fight for a world of solidarity and for the freedom of Ahmet and Eva!