Erbil activist Bahzad Muhsin killed in car crash hours after final interview

ERBIL — Bahzad Muhsin, a prominent civil activist and university lecturer, died Tuesday in a traffic accident on the city’s 120 Meter Road, hours after recording what would become his final television interview.

Muhsin was active in demonstrations in Erbil and helped organize recent protests supporting Kurds in Rojava against attacks by Syrian government forces and allied militias.

Earlier Tuesday, he gave an interview to Azadi TV focused on the Rojava solidarity movement. The channel aired it later that day.

“Although Kurds are continuously oppressed, alongside this injustice there is always a kind of unity that emerges,” Muhsin said in the interview. “Rojava united all Kurds. The solidarity with Rojava was very strong.”

He said public demonstrations, civil activities and social media played a major role in conveying the Kurdish voice to the world.

“The time has passed when the role of Kurds was ignored,” he said. “As we clearly saw in the demonstrations supporting Rojava across the world, which were peaceful and carried human slogans, they were in defense of a just cause and women’s rights.”

Muhsin also emphasized the need for Kurdish political parties to keep pace with changes and review their positions and relations with other countries.

Kurds around the world mobilized in what activists described as an unprecedented show of solidarity as Syrian Islamist regime forces intensified attacks on Kurdish areas. In the Kurdistan Region and across the diaspora, protests continued for more than a week, with demonstrators condemning the attacks and demanding international action.

Bahram Jaafar, one of Muhsin’s students in the Kurdish Department at the College of Education in Shaqlawa at Salahaddin University, told 964media he was a gifted teacher who inspired students beyond their coursework.

“He was more like a friend to the students than a traditional teacher,” Jaafar said. “Many activities related to the Kurdish cause, language and Kurdistan flag at the university were led by him. He always encouraged students, alongside their studies, to be aware of the Kurdish national issue.”

Jaafar said Muhsin pushed students to keep reading books outside their courses. “With the news of his death, I and all my classmates are deeply saddened,” he said.

The Kurdistan Communist Party issued a condolence statement calling Muhsin’s death “a great loss to the scientific field and civil struggle in Kurdistan.”

“The deceased was not only an academic, but a light of enlightenment and a brave civil voice that devoted his life to upholding human values,” the party said.

Muhsin was born in 1976.