For the immediate release of Kenan Ayas – Not one more day in the prisons of the Republic of Cyprus
A press conference to inform and raise awareness about the case of political prisoner Kenan Ayas was held at the Journalists’ House in Nicosia today, Monday, 17 November.
In his introductory statement, on behalf of the Observatory for the Trial of Kenan Ayas, Alekos Michailidis reiterated the political nature of the extradition, conviction, and continued detention of Kenan Ayas, who has been in Cyprus and in the open prison since 2 September 2025. He stressed that Kenan was wanted, arrested, extradited, tried, and convicted because of his origin and his political beliefs. “Neither the Larnaca District Court nor the Supreme Court nor the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg nor the political leadership of the Republic of Cyprus had before them any evidence of a criminal act by the Kurdish fighter,” he said, emphasizing that the fate of the Kurdish activist remains up in the air.
Describing the immediate release and confirmation of political asylum status as an urgent necessity, Alekos Michailidis noted that any delay by the Cypriot authorities will morally burden the Republic of Cyprus, as if it recognizes Turkey’s right to persecute, convict, and force European states to imprison Kurdish activists.
In his own intervention, lawyer and member of Kenan Ayas’s defence team, Efstathios Efstathiou, stated that an application was filed in October 2025 before the European Court of Human Rights against Germany, as the conviction is not based on acts of violence or participation in criminal activity. “On the contrary, it is based mainly on his participation in nine peaceful demonstrations and cultural events of Kurdish interest,” he added.
As he emphasized, although the German court acknowledges these acts as lawful, it considers that because they were committed within a specific context, “they can acquire a criminal character.” This approach, according to Efstathios Efstathiou, clashes with a fundamental principle of the rule of law. He stressed that if Kenan Ayas had been tried in the courts of the Republic of Cyprus, none of these acts would constitute a criminal offence. “The same applies to the majority of European legal systems, and for this reason recourse to the ECtHR became necessary,” he said, adding that the conviction of Kenan Ayas violates Article 11 of the European Convention.
“Based on the criteria of the Council of Europe, the case of Kenan Ayas displays all the essential features of a politically motivated prosecution,” he said, referring to the restriction of fundamental freedoms not only for him but for the entire Kurdish community in Europe and elsewhere. He concluded by noting that the Kurdish activist will not apply for short-term leave, house arrest, or any other facilitation such as a pardon, for moral and political reasons, fundamentally rejecting his conviction by the German authorities.
AKEL MP and spokesperson Giorgos Koukounmas described the prosecution and imprisonment of Kenan Ayas as outrageous, stressing that the Republic of Cyprus keeps a man in prison not because it considers him guilty of a terrorist or violent act, but because this was the demand of Erdoğan and the Turkish government, implemented by the Cypriot government through Germany. He added that a Kurdish activist is imprisoned because—arbitrarily—his political activity was linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the German government classifies as a terrorist organization.
“The Republic of Cyprus should never have executed the European arrest warrant, first and foremost because Kenan Ayas is a recognized political refugee, and secondly because an EU member state is obliged to refuse the execution of a warrant if there is a risk of prosecution for political beliefs,” he stressed, noting that in Cyprus the PKK is not and has never been considered a terrorist organization. “We continue to demand the release of Kenan Ayas from the Christodoulides government,” he concluded.
Taking the floor, former MP Giorgos Perdikis reiterated the demand for the immediate release of Kenan Ayas, emphasizing that the Republic of Cyprus has consented to the conviction of an innocent man—a man who has not been involved in any terrorist act whatsoever, a man who in Cyprus would never have been convicted. “We sent an innocent man, a man we had recognized as a political refugee, to be tried in Germany and to be unjustly convicted,” he said, referring to the serious moral and political issue arising from his continued detention, which leaves the Cypriot government exposed.
Observatory for the Trial of Kenan Ayas