In the trial against Kenan Ayaz before the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg, the Kurdish politician’s application for recusal against the State Security Senate has been rejected. In a statement on Friday, Ayaz commented on the analyses of the expert witness Dr Günter Seufert.
The Hamburg Higher Regional Court held another main hearing day in the PKK trial against Kenan Ayaz on Friday. At the beginning of the trial, presiding judge Wende-Spors announced that the defendant’s application for bias against the three judges had been rejected by another senate. There was no ‘procedural arbitrariness’ to be seen in the fact that the application to read out an article from the FAZ was rejected twice by the judges. In the article in question, Turkish President Erdoğan is quoted as speaking favourably of the proceedings against Ayaz.
Interestingly, the judges then read out a decision in which they again justified their refusal to read out the article. The decision states that a possible endangerment of Kenan Ayaz by Turkish structures after a conviction and release from prison could be relevant to the proceedings, but only if the defence were to offer more than mere conjecture and speculation.
Erdoğan’s and the Turkish regime’s personal interest in these proceedings and Kenan Ayaz is therefore supposed to be pure conjecture, although there is ample evidence of this and the court and the German government are also aware that the Turkish secret service operates abroad and especially in Germany. This was even confirmed by the expert witness Dr Seufert, who said that the secret service had become an operating secret service to the pride of Erdogan.
So what should Kenan Ayaz have shown for his endangerment? He reported that he had already been innocently imprisoned and tortured by the Turkish regime. Also that he is accused in the main KCK trial. But of course he does not have a document with a concrete announcement from the Turkish secret service that his life is being sought in Europe or that they want to intimidate him because his case is causing too much of a stir in Cyprus. Is this what the court is asking of him?
‘My homeland is not the east or south-east, but Kurdistan”
During the hearing of Günter Seufert, the court interrupted Kenan Ayaz several times during his questioning of the expert witness, pointing out that he had not asked a real question but had made a ‘statement’. He was entitled to make statements after the expert witness had finished his questioning.
On Friday, Ayaz began to read out his statement on Günter Seufert’s comments and was again interrupted by the court. The court did not want to hear that the expert witness was making a fundamentally wrong historical categorisation of the Kurdish national movement when he only let it begin with the founding of the republic and claimed that there was no Kurdish national consciousness before the PKK.
In doing so, he is actually ‘blaming’ the PKK for the conflict, namely for the fact that the Kurds did not assimilate like many of the inhabitants of Hatay of Arab origin. In addition to the historical untruth, in this ‘analysis’ the expert deliberately conceals the massive discrimination to which this group is still subjected today – despite partial assimilation, according to Ayaz.
In the parts of his statement that Kenan Ayaz was allowed to present, he explained the contradiction between the thoroughly positive picture that the expert had painted of the PKK and the Kurdish movement in his publications and his statements on the PKK in his expert opinion, which he had to relativise when questioned – especially by Kenan Ayaz. Ayaz also illustrated the problem with the expert’s view by referring to Kurdistan as an example: ‘The expert refers to my homeland as the east or south-east, as the Turkish state calls it due to its policy of denial.’
Further trial dates
The trial against Kenan Ayaz will continue on 26 February at 9:30 am. Ayaz will continue his criticism of expert witness Seufert’s report, and Cypriot defence lawyer Efstathios Efstathiou will also be present.
Further trial dates are Monday, 11 March 2024, Tuesday, 12 March 2024, Wednesday, 20 March 2024, Tuesday 9 April 2024 from 1 p.m., Wednesday, 17 April 2024, Friday, 19 April 2024 and Wednesday, 24 April 2024. The trial will take place on the 1st floor of the OLG at Sievekingplatz 3, either in room 237 or 288.
Postal address and donation account
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. Letters can also be written in languages other than Kurdish or Turkish, as translation is guaranteed. Please note the spelling of the authority’s name ‘Ayas’ to ensure that the letters are delivered.
Kenan Ayas
Hamburg remand centre
Holstenglacis 3
20355 Hamburg
Donation account:
Rote Hilfe e.V. OG Hamburg
Keyword: Free Kenan
IBAN: DE06200100200084610203