ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Germany’s federal government has sent a letter instructing its states and federal police to forbid banners depicting the image of Kurdistan Workers’ Party leader Abdullah Ocalan, as well as many symbols and color schemes linked to the party, because of their “significant emotionalization effect,” a German news outlet reported.
The newspaper ‘Der Spiegel’ on Friday reported on the five-page letter sent by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on March 2 to law enforcement agencies and security authorities across the country.
“In addition to the image of Ocalan on a yellow and green-yellow background, the prohibition applies in total to 33 symbols, which are associated with the PKK and its suborganizations,” Der Spiegel summarized the key limitations in the letter as stating.
Only the prohibition of pro-PKK symbols, colors, and Ocalan’s image were mentioned by Der Spiegel; it remains to be seen if Germany will crackdown on pro-PKK speech or worded signs.
Germany’s government, as a member of the international anti-ISIS coalition, has supported the People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters in northern Syria, a group Turkey views as the same as the PKK.
Germany banned the PKK from running as a political party in 1993, and as a member of the European Union, the federal republic recognizes PKK as a terrorist organization.
Pro-Kurdish rallies have been held and reported on across Europe, as Turkey has been repeatedly cited by international organizations for various alleged human rights violations, and for the recent jailings of Kurdish politicians, whose parliamentary immunity was stripped.
Last month a European delegation including members of its Parliament had requested permission from Turkish authorities to visit jailed People's Democratic Party (HDP) members and Ocalan, but outside Edirine Prison in Turkey, the group was denied permission to visit HDP co-chair Salahattin Demirtas.
They wanted to consult with Ocalan regarding the Kurdish-Turkish peace process. “We believe that Ocalan will give peaceful support to the Kurdish issue and the democratization process in Turkey,” the delegation wrote in their request to the Turkish Minister of Justice, according to a press release from the European delegates.
“It’s very important for those of us who believe in democracy to be here to fight for better democracy in Turkey,” Julie Ward, a member of the European Parliament from England, told Rudaw outside Edirne Prison. “We can’t see how the Turkish state can be existing in the 21st century unless it is prepared to uphold the principles of freedom and democracy that we uphold in our own countries.”
However, German prosecutors usually have not sought prison terms unless alleged PKK leaders directly could be linked to violence committed by the organization.
About 1.5 percent (700,000 people) of Germany’s citizens in 2015 was ethnically Kurdish according to the Kurdish Community of Germany, which estimates more than 150,000 people have sought refuge in Germany, as many Kurds have fled mainly Syria because of [ISIS].
Germany, in attempts to move past the Nazi times, has passed laws limiting speech when that speech could incite violence. For example, public denial of the Holocaust is also prohibited.
An 87-year-old was sentenced to 10 months in jail in 2015 after insisting that Auschwitz was “not historically proven” and it being a death camp is “only a belief.”
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