“Stop the Öcalan phobia in Germany!”

The Darmstadt Public Order Office has banned the display of pictures of Abdullah Öcalan at the long march for the freedom of the Kurdish leader. In the meantime, the Darmstadt administrative court has confirmed the ban. The organisers have filed an urgent appeal. This was announced by the preparatory initiative of the internationalist Long March for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan:

“Tomorrow (6 February) is the start of the internationalist long march, which this time will start in Frankfurt and lead to Saarbrucken. This march, which will take place on the occasion of the anniversary of the imprisonment of the Kurdish leader and mastermind Abdullah Öcalan, has been announced by the representatives of the Kurdish community centres in the region and aims solely to draw attention to the imprisonment conditions and isolation of the Kurdish leader.

“PKK-affiliated” character

Contrary to the ordinance of the Ministry of the Interior from 2018, it is also legally permissible to show the images of Öcalan in this context, according to a decision of the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia. However, the public order office in Darmstadt sees things differently and prohibits the display of the images. The main reason given is that the internationalist march is an event that is not only about the personal situation of Öcalan, who is a prisoner and a human being, but that the aim of the event, contrary to the registered text, is to show a PKK-affiliated character. In this respect, the Darmstadt public order office, which is responsible for the route between Frankfurt and Darmstadt, has banned the display of Öcalan’s image.

Red-Yellow-Green: “Clear PKK reference”

The applicant filed an emergency appeal against this requirement with the Darmstadt Administrative Court. Although the applicant has assured that he will ensure that only the conditions of Öcalan’s imprisonment will be the focus of this meeting and has even presented a concept for the implementation of this thematic focus, the Administrative Court has now confirmed the ban of the regulatory authority and restricted the right of assembly of Article 8 of the Basic Law, which is elementary for our democracy. The Administrative Court also argued that the colours red, yellow and green would create a clear reference to the PKK, although these are the traditional colours of the Kurdish population.

With this argumentation, the Administrative Court cynically serves the Turkish discourse. We would like to recall that Turkish President Erdoğan personally ordered a change in the official colours of traffic lights throughout the Turkish Republic, as the colours of Turkish traffic lights would be too reminiscent of the Kurdish flag and those of the Kurdish freedom movement. Will Germany’s Kurdistan-phobia now also lead to such tragicomic steps?

Solitary confinement is torture

We, as the organising committee of the long march, criticise this decision of the administrative court. In particular, the arguments of our side were not taken into consideration when assessing the facts of the case. Already a year ago, the internationalist Long March, which was limited to demonstrations in the respective cities due to the pandemic, was held in the Frankfurt area, among others. The display of the images was not forbidden and there were no violations of assembly law. We are of the opinion that it should not be forbidden in a constitutional state to show the image of a person who has been imprisoned for 23 years on a prison island under blatant human rights violations. On the contrary, it is precisely states that have signed the European Convention on Human Rights that should assume a special responsibility with regard to people suffering from daily torture and, in particular, denounce solitary confinement, which is a form of torture, at all times. Against this background, we have again filed an appeal to the next higher instance, with the hope that the court will make a decision oriented towards universal human rights and justice.”