Germany & EU political repression of Kurdish and leftist movements
Posted by anarcholatina on 2022-05-25
I thought it would be a good time to list down some recent-ish cases.
Nov 2020: Lina E. is arrested for beating nazis in retaliation to the 2018 nazi raid of Connewitz. There’s evidence she’s helped with that, but the police isn’t going for a charge of simple bodily harm; she’s accused of running a terrorist organisation, §129a/b, for which the only evidence is the paranoia of the Soko Linx police repression unit. (The 250+ nazis involved in Connewitz, by contrast, only ever got ‘disturbing the peace’ charges—when they were charged at all). The media sensationalises Lina as your harmless pretty (=white) little girl neighbour who’s secretly a leftist terrorist leader; all antifa attacks since 2018 with a girl in the team are attributed to her with no proof other than her gender; beaten-up nazis collectively change their testimonies, in some cases a year after the fact, to suddenly remember that it was a girl who beat them, in fact she was the ringleader, and the cops run with that. Lina’s personal data and photos ‘mysteriously’ leak from the police to neonazi rags. The State openly states she’s to be made an example. Lina becomes something of a bogeywoman and campfire horror story in nazi circles.
Nov 2020: Forest guardian and fucking hero Ella is arrested for refusing to leave a treehouse when the cops came to destroy the Dannenröder Woods. She’s only ever released on May 2022, after finally ceding to police pressure to reveal her private data.
Apr 2021: British journalist Matt Broomfield is imprisoned in Greece on vacations. He’s kept for 2 months in an immigrant camp (the only white person in a little hell made for brown people), with no process, lawyer, or appeal. Germany declares him a terrorist for doing journalism in Rojava for the website Vice. He’s sent home and banned from all Schengen countries for 20 years, under German pressure. (See: Schengen Information System).
Jun 2021: Versammelungsgesetz kesseling: A massive Düsseldorf protest, against police repression of protests, undergoes police repression. Pointedly, the antifascist bloc in particular is encircled by cops from the start, pushed and beaten and pepper-sprayed out of the blue in attempts to escalate, then finally detained on exposed asphalt until midnight, denied toilet or water etc. Every single participant is profiled, photographed, and have their personal belongings minutely documented. The crime: hiding their faces (with COVID masks).
This protest was disputing a proposed repressive law. It was followed by several massive mobilisations, but the government ignored them and passed the law anyway. As of 2022, the state now criminalises counter-protests against nazi rallies, as well as ‘protesting in clothes that look similar to one another’.
Sep 2021: 22-year-old Kurdish activist Merdan K. is arrested under accusation of PKK membership. He joins the list of 10 Kurdish and 41 other activists arrested under §129a/b. Like most people in this list, the dangerous crimes covered under ‘terrorism’ here amount to demonstrating on the streets in registered protests, distributing pamphlets, and running fundraisers against literal totalitarian fascism and in favour of full democracy, ecology, feminism in Turkey/Iraq/Syria.
Nov 2021: Spanish activist María V. is deemed a threat to German national security and banned for 20 years, without warning, process, or appeal. Her charges: Speaking Kurdish, knowing IT, and legally participating in Kurdish, feminist, and environmental protests (or, as the State puts it, ‘being a potential link between leftist radicals and the PKK’).
Dec 2021: Demo against the criminalisation of the PKK: Heavy police violence in Berlin. Cops beats up people out of the blue with no explanation, fishing for reactions. Activists are targeted/beaten/detained for wearing YPJ/YPG symbols, even though these are legal. Adel (migrantifa, of ‘free Adel’ fame) gets further charges added to his ongoing criminalisation process for ‘acting threateningly to the police’ in this demo.
Jan 2022: Black activist Elany is arrested without trial in Switzerland, along with a white friend. Her friend is deemed harmless and released; Elany is a terrorist and kept under full isolation, denied her medication or vegan food. Her crime: Translating Black & Indigenous anarchist texts. (Her anthology „Schwarze Saat“ now available at your friendly neighbourhood anarchist library!). Elany was released under observation in April, and her status is still uncertain.
Mar 2022: Anarchist online shop Black Mosquito is pressured to reveal the purchase history of clients. When the team refuses to comply, they get threats of police raids mailed to their private homes.
Apr 2022: München anarchist raids: Anarchists are attacked in their homes under accusation of publishing zines and pamphlets (terrorism). The anarchist library Frevel is also targeted; cops seize books, magazines, and printing equipment.
Apr 2022: Uli: Germany-born Kurdish student, and sweet gentle soul incapable of harming a fly, heval Uli from Berlin, is deemed a threat to national security and has his documents confiscated, preventing him from leaving the country. The crimes: registering a legal Kurdish protest, and doing a trip through Europe during which there’s “no evidence that he didn’t get terrorist training in Greece”.
April 2022: Journalists Marlene Förster (Germany) and Matej Kavčič (Slovenia) are arrested without trial in Iraq, for having friends among the Yazidi and Kurds (terrorism). They’re kept under isolation and no explanation is given. The German State only intervenes a month later, managing to belatedly negotiate their release, but is still silent on the politics of the Iraq-Turkish-Isis attack that the journalists were arrested for documenting.
Apr 2022: Özgür A. gets arrested under §129b for “PKK”-ness. Violating fundamental human rights, he’s kept under full, 24h isolation, forbidden to talk with or see anyone including other prisoners, for at least 23 days and to my knowledge up to this day.
May 2022: Nazi rally: Police represses with violence antifascists counter-protesting a large-scale nazi rally in Dortmund (the antifas do it anyway). Meanwhile, they let go of a hundred-strong III.Weg fascist squad who attacked a train wagon with stones (and, in one hilarious case, with a bare-handed punch (the train wagon wins)). Despite the video evidence, police claims the train attack was purely verbal.
(The nazi rally brings together the political side (AfD, NPD, Die Rechte/JN) with violent groups active locally including the III.Weg, Hammerskins, Pegida NRW, Anti-antifa NRW, NSU 2.0, Identitäre, Frontline Skinheads Dortmund-Dorstfeld (in fancy new team jackets) and similar scum, plus international guests including the Légio Hungaria, the Bulgarian National Union, the Swiss National Action Front, and assorted French/Dutch/Italian fascists. Antifa researchers identify faces from known murderous groups like C18 and Blood&Honour. Local nazi influencer Dortmunderin announces a happy “Fortress Europe Alliance” in her social medias.)
May 2022: Mannheim, das war Mord waren Morde: cops kill 2 people within 8 days, one a migra, the other disabled. Not directly related to Kurdistan or antifascism but I just wanted to point this here.
May 2022: Defend Kurdistan protest: With the Turkish-led genocidal attack on the Yazidi, and incoming invasion of the AANES, being basically ignored by German news media, this community-wide protest for awareness is again greeted by that special Berlinean brand of police violence. One young internationalist girl is suffocated on the ground by male cops and arrested; several others are thrown to the ground, dragged by their nostrils or otherwise humiliated, including a 13-year-old girl. Again despite video evidence, police flat-out lies about acting defensively. Small groups of Gray Wolves come snarl racist threats at the families protesting; some of them behind the police lines, others as proud members of the corporation.
May 2022: Delegation for Peace airport arrest: A group of German supporters leaving for South Kurdistan is violently arrested by the police in the Düsseldorf airport. The 17 are forced to stay in the country and forbidden to ever visit Iraq. They had planned to document the ongoing Turkish genocide of the Yazidi and perform “human shield actions” to bring attention to the invasion.
May 2022: Expensive Öcalan: Three German environmentalists in München are fined 1800€ for hanging posters with Öcalan’s face and the slogan “Free Öcalan”.
May 2022: Whoops I did it again: 54-year-old Ali Ö. is arrested on pre-trial in Karlsruhe. Same as usual: §129a/b, no crime except “organization, fundraising and politics”. He had already previously been arrested in 2016.
May 2022: TCŞ ban: To raise awareness about the fascist invasion, young activists are doing an impromptu Long March in several countries. This is organised by the Syria-centred revolutionary youth movement (the TCŞ, Tevgera Ciwanên Şoreşger, and its women’s branch, TekoJIN). The German march, from Dortmund to Düsseldorf, was beset by authoritarian police from the outset. The cops forced the TCŞ/TekoJIN flags to be hidden, covered their logo in the banners, and banned photos of Öcalan, too. It seems like Germany is increasingly enabling Erdoǧan’s line: That not only is the PKK terrorist, but every single Kurdish leftist organisation is merely a front for the PKK, and therefore terrorist.
Filed under The State
Somewhere in a certain year: I post a meme consisting of a quote from Öcalan, “The need to reverse the role of man is of revolutionary importance”, humorously juxtaposed to an anime drawing of Shinji Ikari from Evangelion wearing cute girly clothes. I forget that my feed was set up to crosspost to Facebook. The meme triggers a filter on the keyword “Öcalan”, and I get banned from Facebook. I later learn the political filters automatically submit all infractions to State databases. Shinji Ikari in a maid dress gets me classified as a terrorist in the German secret service, probably