Ferhad Shami:
After more than five years, my mission leading the Media Center of the Syrian Democratic Forces comes to an end, as the process of the SDF integrating into the Syrian Army moves forward.
These years were not merely a mission or a position. They were one of the most dangerous and challenging periods of my life. It was a time when battles followed one another, threats constantly evolved, and the responsibility of conveying what was happening on the ground to the world was one that allowed no room for error.
Throughout these years, I experienced the details of battles alongside my comrades, moment by moment. I managed statements, media coverage, and official briefings, and followed the documentation of field operations through images, footage, and words. Behind every statement there was a battle; behind every photograph there was a story; and behind every scene there were names, faces, and comrades who left an imprint that the passage of time cannot erase.
I am proud of everything we accomplished at the Media Center, not simply because it was media work, but because we sought to preserve the memory of an entire period and to document what fighters, civilians, and comrades experienced on the ground, with all the victories and sacrifices those years carried.
Above all, I am proud of my fallen comrades who lost their lives while carrying out their duties, and of all those who continue on their path today. I am also proud of everyone who worked at the Center before me — the administrators and staff whose efforts helped build its experience and establish its presence. What we accomplished did not begin with us, and it will not end with the departure of any one of us.
Many faces passed before our cameras. Some of them are still with us, while others have become part of our collective memory. We preserved their photographs, voices, and moments. Perhaps the true value of those images lies in the fact that, at the time they were captured, we did not know that some of them would one day become the final photograph of a comrade who had passed away.
My mission leading the Media Center is coming to an end, but this does not mean that I will stop striving or abandon the values and causes I have believed in throughout these years. Responsibilities and positions may change, but conviction does not. I will continue my path in whatever way I can, and I will remain alongside my comrades, faithful to everyone who shared these years with me and to everyone who sacrificed and gave their life along this path.
Some missions come to an end, but what we believe in and strive for continues.

This is the current state of Syria - behind all the headlines and economic deals that never materialise are the Syrian people who are running after trash-dump trucks to gather food waste and virtually anything that can be sold.

Not in any news, because Syrians, the Jolani cadres, choose not to speak about this.

Syria is starving, the government has no liquidity and the promised economic growth has shifted into trade deficits that largely benefit Turkey