‘Why do you support PKK, YPG terrorists?’ Ankara asks Europe

“WHY would you support the PKK and YPG?” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu asked European countries yesterday during a joint news conference with Swedish counterpart Ann Linde. “This is yet another proof of Europe’s hypocritical stance toward terrorism,” he added. “We expect more solid steps from Sweden in the fight against terrorism. PKK terrorist members engage in attacks on our citizens in the country, including on Kurdish people, and carry out forcible money collection,” he added, underlining strongly that none of these activities complies with the notion of freedom of speech and that those activities, including the financing of terrorism, are activities banned by international law. There are more than 115,000 Turkish citizens in Sweden, the minister pointed out, saying that these indicate a significant bridge between the two countries. The PKK terrorist group continues using the European Union’s territory for propaganda, recruitment, fundraising and logistical support activities, according to a report by the EU’s law enforcement agency released this June.

THE NUMBER of cases against high-ranking PKK terrorists in Germany rises each year with a total of 721 investigations ongoing as of 2020. However, only a minority of these cases are being prosecuted to the full degree and resulting in the terrorists’ conviction.

The federal government announced recently that between 2016 and 2020, 786 people have been sued for being a part of the PKK terrorist group as a result of 721 different investigations, Deutsche Welle Turkish reported Tuesday.

Responding to a parliamentary question from Die Linke (The Left) party, the government stated that from Jan. 1, 1988, to Aug. 31, 2020, 1,220 investigations have been launched against PKK members, bringing 1,519 people under investigation.

Two cases launched resulted in life sentence convictions, while in another case, the suspect was acquitted and two further cases were declared nonsuit. In 94 cases, however, suspects were convicted and sentenced to eight to 13 years imprisonment. When it comes to cases launched post-2016, it seems most are still ongoing with no result.

The senior PKK members are being judged according to Article 129b of the German Criminal Code, titled “Foreign criminal and terrorist organizations; confiscation,” which applies to foreign organizations.

“If the offense relates to an organization outside the Member States of the European Union, this only applies if the offense was committed by way of an activity carried out within the territorial scope of this statute or if the offender or the victim is a German national or is in Germany,” the article reads.

“When deciding whether to give authorization, the Federal Ministry is to take into account whether the organization’s activities are directed against the fundamental values of a state order which respects human dignity or against the peaceful coexistence of nations and which appear reprehensible when weighing all the circumstances of the case,” it continues.

The article was added to the criminal law following the 9/11 attacks in New York to punish the extremist terrorist group members. Today, the code applies to the groups that are recognized as terrorists by Germany such as the PKK and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).

The federal supreme court in Germany ruled in 2010 that the PKK is also a foreign terrorist group to which Article 129b should be applied. The court decided that neither the PKK nor its affiliated terror groups have the right to selfdefense in murder cases and members of the terrorist group cannot be categorized as fighters.

Although the article is criticized by some for allowing an individual to be punished without having committed a crime, many argue that the article is in fact preventing crimes from being committed in the first place, therefore saving lives.