Kurds Rally Around World Against Germany's Criminalizations

Kurds around the world will protest Germany’s criminalization of Kurdish political activity and complicity with Turkish state violence in 11 countries this weekend.

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The European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress, or KCDK-E, said in a statement that the actions will demand that Germany lift its 20-year ban on the PKK Kurdish guerilla, stop trying to recruit Kurdish youth as spies and release 11 political prisoners who were granted asylum in Germany.

“With these arrests, the German government has increased their pressure on the events Kurds hold, like marches, rallies and festivals,” read a statement by KCDK-E. “They are thus giving support to the Turkish state’s Kurdish massacre policies and causing the AKP government to be even more reckless.”

The “dirty political ties” between Germany and Turkey and complacency for economic and diplomatic reasons, “are harming ... German democracy, the democratic solution of the Kurdish issue and the possibility of a peace in the Middle East.”

Turkey has been waging a war against the PKK for over a year after a short-lived cease-fire, with over 300 civilians estimated killed.

The Congress called for protests beginning Thursday and ending Monday in Germany, Switzerland, Britain, France, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Canada, Greece, Japan and Australia.