BERLIN – On November 26, 1993, a so-called ban on the PKK’s activities was introduced in Germany. As part of the criminalization of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and with it the Kurdish population living in Germany, as well as Kurdistan’s struggle for freedom in general, Germany has shown its partiality with the Turkish occupying state in the clearest way with this ban and since then.
Since then, the Kurdish associations and organizations have been fighting not only against the occupation in their country, the oppression by the Turkish occupying state and for their recognition as Kurds, but also with massive repression by the German government. While openly fascist organizations in Turkey are not banned in Germany (e.g. the gray wolves), Kurds who actively support their homeland, their culture and fight oppression by the Turkish occupying state are massively criminalized.
But not only Kurdish activists are under pressure of criminalization, internationalist activists are also criminalized by the German authorities as soon as they support the Kurdistan freedom struggle and denounce fascist Turkey with its inhuman behavior.
Every year on the day of the ban, a large-scale demonstration takes place, in which internationalist friends and the Kurdish community take part together to condemn the ban and take action against it. Members of the TCŞ (Revolutionary Youth Movement) made a graffiti invitation to the 26.11 demonstration that will take place in Berlin.
Also the initiative Riseup4Rojava invited to the demonstration in Berlin with the following call:
“Repeal the PKK ban – Pave the way for peace!”
“It is now almost 29 years since, on November 26, 1993, the Federal Ministry of the Interior imposed a ban on the activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. In addition to left-wing organizations, clubs, media institutes and cultural institutions were directly affected by the ban and the racist stigmatization as “terrorists”. Parallel to the burning of villages, kidnappings and violent assimilation, the Federal Republic exported arms to Turkey via the Kaiser Wilhelm Kai in Hamburg in the spirit of the German-Turkish brotherhood in arms. The PKK ban now criminalizes people who defend themselves against the war in their homeland, waged by German weapons. One of the first victims of the ban was 16-year-old Halim Dener,
At the same time as the PKK was banned from operating, a wave of persecution of all revolutionary movements from the tricontinent began, which is second to none and continues to this day. In the sense of the strategic German partnership with dictators all over the world, even today those people who fought for a life in dignity are branded terrorists and thrown into prisons. It was also Germany that exported the “white torture” and a prison system, tested on the revolutionary German movement, to the entire world and thus also to Turkey.
In 2002, the EU and the US followed suit by listing the PKK as a terrorist organization. Namely, the revival of the freedom movement in Kurdistan provided a response to a region and a society shaken by international wars of distribution and the most horrendous level of exploitation. The very existence of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party already caused a major leak in the assertion of the West’s claims to power and caused the ideological enmity between democratic socialism and capitalism to flare up, which ultimately resulted in the ban.
The 1990s have terrifying parallels to today. Even today, the West is arming its NATO ally Turkey to the teeth and is continuing its policy of criminalization. Flags are constantly being banned, activists locked up and, on the other hand, weapons and drone technology are exported from Germany, which the Turkish state uses to kill. Revolutionaries from all over the world are still being labeled as terrorists and 129a/b procedures are spreading, which can be seen not least in the actions against the anti-fascists Jo, Lina, Dy and numerous others.
It remains the case: 29 years of the PKK ban are 29 years too many! To pave the way for peace, the ban must be lifted and the criminalization of revolutionary movements stopped. Come out on the streets with us in Berlin on November 26th, 2022 to show that we are many and that we are not intimidated by your criminalization!
Away with the PKK ban and the criminalization of revolutionary movements! Stop exporting arms to dictators!
Rise Up 4 Rojava – Smash Turkish Fascism”
From: Nûçe Ciwan