MP, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and member of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs
“FAZ’s publication of Erdogan’s statement in relation to the ongoing trial at the Hamburg District Court confirms the political nature of the prosecution of Kenan Ayaz. It confirms what Kenan Ayaz was trying to explain last March when the execution of the European arrest warrant was being considered by the Cypriot justice system.
Kenan Ayaz was in our country as a recognised political refugee precisely because he was in danger of persecution by the Turkish state and the Erdogan government. And now he has been extradited from one EU Member State and is being tried in another EU Member State, at the request – essentially – of Erdogan himself. It is shameful for European states to carry out Erdogan’s demands to suppress the Kurdish movement, when at the same time, there are countless decisions by EU institutions on the authoritarianism of the Turkish government which is nullifying democracy and the rule of law in the country.
I would like to remind that the AKEL Left New Forces Parliamentary Group has registered the case of Kenan Ayaz in Parliament as a matter of its own motion for debate, in order to hold the government of Cyprus and all the competent bodies accountable for their decisions and handling of the case.”