Swiss academic Ueli Mäder says PKK should be removed from EU list of terrorist organisations

Sociologist Ueli Mäder, one of the participants of the Justice for the Kurds Initiative’s campaign, said that “Öcalan should definitely be consulted to solve this problem and he should be included in any resolution process.”

Among the signatories of the call are Nobel Prize-winning author Elfriede Jelinek, philosopher Slavoj Žižek, international law expert Prof. Norman Paech, EUTCC Secretary General, Prof Michael M. Gunter and the founding member of the Plaza de Mayo Mothers Organization, Nora Cortinas. The campaign demands the removal of the PKK from the EU list of terrorist organizations.

Among those who supported the campaign is the famous Swiss sociologist Ueli Mäder, who won the 2022 Eric Fromm Award.

Mäder explained the reason for his support for the campaign: “For me, the PKK is a political and political organization. There is a conflict that has been going on for many years, it is important to resolve this conflict politically. For this, political means must be chosen. For a political solution, the acceptance of this organization is essential and requires acting in accordance with democratic principles.”

Ueli Mäder emphasized that the sentences of the Belgian and Luxembourg courts reaffirming that the “PKK is not a terrorist organization” are important to him, and said that the reason why this sentence is still not accepted by the EU is because Turkey is a NATO member. Mäder said, “It is an important decision to remove the PKK from the list. The PKK is not on the list of terrorist organizations in Switzerland and the UN.”

Saying that the fact that the PKK is on the list doesn’t help the solution of the Kurdish problem, Mäder continued: “Reducing the Kurdish movement to a terrorist organization, criminalizing the PKK are factors that complicate the solution to the Kurdish problem, and serve to justify the oppression, attack and exploitation against political and social problems. That’s why the ban needs to be lifted.”

Meeting Öcalan is important

Expressing that he read the books written by Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan in Imralı, Mäder said that “Öcalan should definitely be heard to solve this problem and he should be included in the process.”

Who is Ueli Mäder

Ueli Mäder was born in 1951 in Switzerland. From 1972, he studied sociology, psychology and philosophy at the University of Basel. He completed his doctorate in 1983. From 1991, he worked as a lecturer at the Northwest Switzerland University of Applied Sciences. From 2001 to 2005, he worked as an associate professor at the University of Freiburg. He was professor of sociology at the University of Basel from 2005 until his retirement in 2016. His areas of expertise are development sociology, political sociology and social policy. Ueli Mäder is a specialist in conflict and cooperation research, as well as social inequality issues. Mäder has been awarded the Eric Fromm Award, which will be given to him in Stuttgart on March 21, 2022. The motivation for the award said that he “expressed different ideas in the right style without offending anyone and being able to establish a dialogue without offending even opponents.”