The PKK trial against Kurdish activist Kenan Ayaz has continued in Hamburg. The defence filed a motion to show the video of the 2013 Newroz Festival in Amed with Abdullah Öcalan’s message.
After three main hearing days in the trial against Kenan Ayaz for membership of the PKK were cancelled due to the rail strike, the trial continued on Wednesday at Hamburg Higher Regional Court. The main motions filed by the defence, such as the self-reading procedure, were rejected and new ones were introduced – including a video of the 2013 Newroz Festival in Amed (tr. Diyarbakır), at which a letter from Abdullah Öcalan on the peace process that had begun at the time was read out.
The court chairwoman Wende-Spohrs opened the 15th day of the main trial by rejecting the defence’s objection to the self-reading procedure. Objections to this order had already been lodged several times in the past. Kenan Ayaz’s Cypriot defence lawyer, Efstathios C. Efstathiou, had also criticised this on several occasions with regard to the particularly high level of interest in information on the part of the Cypriot public. The self-reading procedure is a common procedure in PKK trials in Germany in order to be able to convict the defendants in a streamlined manner. Documents that are introduced in self-reading proceedings in accordance with Section 249 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure are not read out in the public main hearing, but only by the court and the parties to the proceedings. The public therefore does not have the opportunity to take note of their content.
Motions on past judgements and the ongoing KCK proceedings
The motions filed by the defence in the further course of the proceedings, among others, refer to the statement by Kenan Ayaz on the one hand and to the statements made by the expert witness Dr Seufert on the other. Firstly, the reading of documents and a newspaper article was requested.
The first document to be read is the judgement of 6 October 2009 from Erzurum, in which Kenan Ayaz was acquitted of the charge of membership of the PKK. In 1995, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, of which he served eleven years and three months, on the basis of a statement made by a third party under torture and a signature of Ayaz, which he also signed under torture and which he recanted in court.
The public prosecutor’s office lodged an appeal against the acquittal in 2013. It was requested that the appeal decision be read out, with which the appeal was only rejected four years later, in 2013.
The third document to be read is a main hearing transcript from a separate part of the KCK main proceedings from the beginning of 2022. It shows that Kenan Ayaz, among others, is wanted and that the court has sent a letter to the Directorate General for International Law and the European Union in this regard. It is not known whether the defendants, including Ayaz, are already wanted internationally. However, according to the defence, this must be assumed.
In the grounds for the motion, reference was made to the hearing of the expert witness Dr Seufert. He had stated that the KCK proceedings criminalised Kurdish civil society in its entirety – regardless of whether the people were actually members of the PKK or, for example, active as trade unionists and environmentalists. The aim of the proceedings was to destroy the structures of Kurdish civil society that had been built up with a view to the peace process and the period of peace.
Newroz 2013: ‘A new era is finally beginning …’
In order to supplement and deepen the information provided by the expert witness Dr Seufert and in view of Kenan Ayaz’s statement on his personal circumstances, the defence requested that a video of the 2013 Newroz celebration in Amed be shown at the main hearing. That year’s celebration is of particular significance as it marked the official start of peace negotiations with the Turkish government. The latter ended that process in July 2015, with the defence describing what can be seen in the video to be shown:
A large square where around one million people celebrate Newroz. A peaceful and festive atmosphere emanates from the square. Many are wearing traditional clothing, dancing and singing. In view of the probably one million participants, the Kurdish movement can be described as a popular movement.
There are also a number of flags on display, some with a picture of Abdullah Öcalan, others are PKK flags and still others bear the Kurdish colours. The stage programme is characterised by music and speeches. Finally, the reading of a letter from Abdullah Öcalan is announced, which is greeted with great cheers. The expert witness Dr Seufert had briefly reported on the letter read out by Öcalan in a hearing, which is why the defence sees the video as supplementary evidence.
The video also makes it easier to understand the statements made by Kenan Ayaz in his statement on personal circumstances. The exuberance and joy of the revellers is what the defendant described: the Newroz Festival 2013 as a high point in the hope of a successful peace process.
To make this tangible, the defence recited excerpts of Öcalan’s message, in which the necessity of peace negotiations is reaffirmed:
“Today a new era begins. A door is opening from the phase of armed resistance to the phase of democratic politics. An era is beginning that is primarily centred on politics, social affairs and the economy; a way of thinking is developing that is based on democratic rights, freedom and equality. […]
In front of millions of witnesses who are listening to this call, I say: a new era is finally beginning; not weapons, but democratic politics will take centre stage. The time has come to withdraw our armed forces behind the border. […]
This is not an end, but a new beginning. The struggle is not over, but a new, different struggle is beginning.
Creating ethnically pure and mono-national territories is an inhuman practice of modernity that contradicts our roots and identity.
To create a country that is worthy of the history of Kurdistan and Anatolia and that offers equality, freedom and democracy to all peoples, including the Kurds, is a great responsibility for all. On the occasion of this Newroz festival, I call on the Armenians, Turkmens, Arameans, Arabs and all other peoples, just as the Kurds do, to see the light of freedom and equality shining from the fires lit today as their own light of freedom and equality.
Honoured people of Turkey, the Turkish people living in Turkey, the ancient Anatolia, should know that the almost millennial coexistence with the Turks under the flag of Islam is based on the law of brotherhood and solidarity. In this law of fraternity in its true meaning, there is no place and must be no place for conquest, denial, rejection, forced assimilation and annihilation.
The politics of the last century was based on repression, annihilation and assimilation and was based on capitalist modernity. It represented the endeavours of a small power elite that denied history and the law of fraternity in its entirety, but did not represent the will of the people. Today it is obvious that this yoke of tyranny contradicts history and fraternity. To throw it off together, I call on all of us, as the two fundamental strategic powers of the Middle East, to build democratic modernity in a way that does justice to our cultures and civilisations.
The time of strife, conflict and mutual contempt is over, the time is ripe for unity, togetherness, embrace and forgiveness. Turks and Kurds fell together at Çanakkale, they fought the war of liberation together, they opened the parliament together in 1920. The fact of our common past suggests that we should also build our common future together. The founding spirit of the National Assembly of Turkey also illuminates the new era that begins today. […]
We do not completely deny the current civilisational values of the West. We take their values of enlightenment, freedom, equality and democracy and lead them into a living synthesis with our own values and universal forms of life. The basis of the new struggle is thought, ideology, democratic politics and the beginning of a great democratic offensive.” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1KRLDZ4_Fs)
According to the defence, the content of Abdullah Öcalan’s letter, which Dr. Seufert had also mentioned, ‘can be used to prove the profound ideological and political reorientation of the PKK since 2005 and thus also to refute the construct of the accusation of an alleged continuity of the ideological foundation and goals of the PKK, which has been drawn from 1978 to the present day, and to show that there has been a permanent departure from the goal of a Kurdish state of its own to be enforced by force of arms.’
Motions on the assessment of Turkish invasions under international law
In a further motion, the defence also referred to statements made by expert witness Dr Seufert concerning the Turkish invasions in Rojava and northern Iraq and thus the territory of Turkey’s sovereign neighbouring states. It is striking that the invasions were trivialised by Turkey and described as ‘operations’. Turkish attacks were cited that were carried out before and during the alleged period of Kenan Ayaz’s offence. For example, the ‘Operation Euphrates Shield’, which was carried out from 24 August 2016 to March 2017. The focus here was on Syrian areas west of the Euphrates. Ostensibly, the aim was to fight IS. However, the actual aim was to expel the Kurdish population and establish a ‘security strip’. The city of Afrin and the surrounding region were captured in ‘Operation Olive Branch’ in January 2018. ‘Operation Peace Spring’ began on 9 October 2019. During this operation, areas east of the Euphrates were attacked in order to establish a 30-kilometre-wide security strip as part of the expulsion of the Kurdish population. Finally, reference was made to the attacks on the areas controlled by the PKK in northern Iraq under the operation designation ‘Claw’, which have been taking place since 2019, especially in spring.
For the assessment under international law, the defence requested that expert reports from the Bundestag’s Scientific Service be read out. These should serve to supplement and deepen the information provided by Dr Seufert, which would show gaps in knowledge. However, he had already pointed out that the Iraqi central government had protested against the Turkish invasions and had not given its approval for them. This was relevant to the decision in so far as the invasions concerned the alleged period of Kenan Ayaz’s offence. They also show that the PKK defended itself in northern Iraq against attacks by the Turkish military that violated international law.
The trial day ended with the announcement of amended and supplemented dates. The 5th, 8th and 12th of February were cancelled due to the self-reading procedure. The next trial date is 6 February 2024. The trial observers left the courtroom to applause of solidarity.
Further trial dates, 9:30 a.m. (any deviations can be found in the respective date announcement), Hamburg Higher Regional Court (Sievekingplatz 3), Room 237:
Tuesday, 6.2.2024
Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Friday, 16 February 2024, from 1 p.m.
Monday, 26 February 2024, until noon
Friday, 8 March 2024
Monday, 11 March 2024, until 1 p.m.
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Friday, 22 March 2024
The website kenanwatch.org provides information in Greek, English and German about the trial and the protests in Cyprus and Germany.
Kenan Ayaz is happy to receive mail. Even if you speak Kurdish or Turkish, please write to him, as the mail can also be translated. Be sure to write ‘Ayas’ so that the letters are also delivered to him.
Kenan Ayas
Hamburg remand centre
Holstenglacis 3
20355 Hamburg
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