The Zone

• Prize
  Gold in Press/War, 2nd Place winner in Press
• Photographer
  Thea Pedersen, Denmark
• Studio
  Thea Pedersen

It was launched on October 9th 2019; As ‘Operation Peace Spring’ and with the goal to create a 50 km. deep safe zone in North East Syria between Turkey and the Kurdish self-autonomous area of Rojava.
With the abandonment of the American forces and the apathy of the West the Turkey’s incursion instead left a belt of destruction, devastation and death. In two weeks more than 100.000 had fled homes and villages, soldiers and civilians became victims of claimed white phosphorous attacks while ISIS-prisoners escaped captivity and left the region once again unstable and in uncertainty.