“Hello, everyone,

My name is Eva Maria Michelmann

I have been held in complete isolation in Syria for months since the beginning of the year. I was locked up alone in a windowless room. I was told that no one would ask about me, as if the whole world had forgotten me. I was told that the German authorities would not respond to inquiries about me. At the same time, I was cut off from all contact with the outside world. I had to assume that perhaps no one knew what had happened to me on the night of January 18–19. For months, I had to assume that the people who know and love me thought I was dead.

Now that I’ve arrived in Germany, I’ve learned that, despite everything, hope was never lost, and thousands upon thousands of people searched for me and campaigned for my release.

And it makes me very happy to see that there are so many people who feel moved and responsible in such a situation. It’s wonderful to know that there are thousands of people in Germany who stand by journalists when they are abducted and tortured because their critical reporting is perceived as a threat by a ruling regime.

With that in mind, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has stood up for my freedom and for the right to critical journalism during this time. And I would especially like to thank my family, coworkers, and friends: even in the darkest hours, when it was being concealed that I was even alive, you didn’t give up hope and you didn’t let up! Thank you for being so strong!

And we must not let up until Ahmet Polad and all journalists and political prisoners have been freed from the clutches of the HTS regime in Syria!

I myself was shuttled from prison to prison and from interrogation to interrogation in Syria for months. At first, I was held for a long time at the so-called “Internal Security Command Center” in Aleppo. After that, I was transferred within Aleppo to another prison where interrogations were conducted using torture. From there, I was taken to a women’s prison in Idlib. That was where I first came into contact with other prisoners. Many of the women in the Idlib prison had already been held captive and tortured by HTS for years, even before the regime seized power in December 2024. After Idlib, I was taken to Damascus and held in a total of three different prisons. In one of the prisons, 15 of us—mostly Alawite women—were crammed into a tiny room with moldy walls. For example, five of us slept on two mattresses by the door. Many of the women had been crammed in there for months. In another prison, which was referred to as a “court,” we were held with over 20 women in a small room completely tiled with white ceramic, without any mattresses. Finally, I was in a prison with mothers, children, and babies—some so young that they hadn’t even learned to walk yet.

I’m sure there are many who would like to ask me how I’m doing. I’d like to tell you that my thoughts and feelings right now are, above all, with all the people who are still missing or in captivity. It will take some time to process everything I’ve experienced and seen over the past few months. And so I ask for your understanding that, for now, I’m participating in this press conference only via a video message.

But I want to make one thing absolutely clear to you right now: Please do not believe that the HTS regime in Syria is democratic in any way. Its methods are not even humane. Torture involving beatings and electric shocks is a completely normal, standard interrogation method in this regime’s prisons. Civilians are shot while fleeing and executed in broad daylight on the streets. No, Syria is not safe! No one seeking protection here in Germany should be forced to return to Syria through deportation! And no one should be left behind in the HTS regime’s torture prisons!

This is quite different from the call to all those who can muster the courage and strength to stand their ground in Syria despite everything. This is a call to choose a life in Syria, despite all the dangers to life and health—to stand up for a Syria where people can one day live together in peace, on an equal footing and in solidarity. This is not something people should be forced to do through deportation. It is something people do out of voluntary selflessness and a deep connection to the land and its people.

Syria—that is, the homeland of Western Kurdistan. Syria is the homeland of Armenian, Arab, Pomak, Circassian, Assyrian, Syrian, Alawite, and numerous other peoples and religions, and one of the last bastions of the ancient Aramaic language. And Syria is the only country where, across vast regions, gender-parity dual leadership has ever been practiced as a fundamental political principle—namely in the Kurdish-dominated north of the country, in Rojava, which has become a model for the entire world in the struggle for women’s rights. Despite all the darkness of Islamo-fascism: Syria stands for human history, and Syria stands for hope. Let’s not give up hope of making Syria a country where people can live happily and safely! Let’s not abandon Syria! Let’s continue to defend, together, the right to free speech and critical journalism! Freedom for Ahmet Polad and freedom for all political prisoners!“