The Kurdish activist Kenan Ayaz is accused of being a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The adventurous way in which the court would like to prove this became apparent on the last day of the trial.
On 2 May 2024, the German defence lawyers Antonia von der Behrens and Stephan Kuhn were joined by Cypriot lawyer Efstathios C. Efstathiou at the trial against Kenan Ayaz at Hamburg Higher Regional Court. The Kurdish activist is accused of being a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The adventurous way in which the court would like to prove this was also evident on this day.
The trial day began with the reading out of short messages from 10 and 11 September 2019, which the court claims were sent by the defendant Kenan Ayaz – including sentences such as ‘We are walking, marching’ and ‘But the food is not here yet’. These are said to have been written in the context of the ‘Long March’ of the Kurdish youth movement for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan, which was taking place at the same time. Assuming that responsibility in the organisation for Kenan Ayaz can be established here, the court also considers participation in the Long March to be a punishable activity for the PKK. It is interesting to note that the public prosecutor’s office assumed on the main trial day in early December 2023 that the quoted sentences were messages relating to the alleged collection of donations for the PKK. After the defence pointed out that these messages had been sent at the same time as the Long March and could have referred to it, the court simply changed its mind. Now these messages are said to relate not to fundraising but to participation in the Long March, which is said to be just as punishable. This shows that Kenan Ayaz has hardly any room to defend himself, as everything is being turned against him. The aim therefore seems to be to prove that Kenan Ayaz is a member of and active in the PKK, which is classified as a terrorist organisation, and to impose a corresponding sentence.
This seems all the more absurd when one of the judges reads out an ANF article on the 2019 ‘Long March’. The article clearly states that Abdullah Öcalan has been working for many years to ‘bring about more favourable conditions for a peaceful, political solution to the conflict, despite his imprisonment in 1999. For years, he held talks with the Turkish government about a solution. In 2009, he presented his ‘Roadmap for Peace’. In 2013, his call for the guerrillas to withdraw effectively stopped the armed conflict in Turkey. Time and again, he is the voice of peace and reason. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan abruptly cancelled the peace talks between the AKP government and the PKK that began in 2013 in the summer of 2015 and returned to violence against the Kurdish population.’
It is clear that the PKK and Abdullah Öcalan have not only expressed their desire for a settlement of the military conflict, but have also taken the necessary steps to achieve this. However, Erdoğan clearly has no interest in peaceful coexistence. Nevertheless, it is the PKK and Abdullah Öcalan who are labelled as terrorists by the German government. Even the expert appointed by the court, Günter Seufert, has made it clear that peace negotiations are only possible with the participation of Öcalan. He is described both in the aforementioned article on the ‘Long March’ and by the expert witness as the mastermind of the Kurdish liberation movement. This contradicts the statements of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (BAW), as the defence made clear in a statement, as the BAW describes Öcalan as the leader of the Kurdish movement and accuses him of exerting de facto influence on the fate of the PKK despite his total isolation for years now. However, this is not possible in purely factual terms, as the defence made clear.
‘Political activity only possible by accepting human rights violations”
In the further course of the main trial day, the defence made a few more motions, one of which will be discussed in more detail here. This motion related directly to the life story of Kenan Ayaz, who had supported the Kurdish candidate in the 2009 local elections in the predominantly Kurdish city of Agirî (tr. Ağrı) and had been arrested and unjustly imprisoned for six months after the elections and the discovery of electoral fraud. With the motion, the defence demanded an expert opinion on these local elections, in which the AKP had manipulated the elections against the Kurdish candidate. The aim is to show that the AKP is doing everything in its power to thwart legal opportunities for pro-Kurdish politics. If the expert witness Günter Seufert had already pointed out precisely this curtailment in his expert opinion, the requested evidence has a procedural significance that goes beyond this, according to the defence.
‘[T]his evidence will indicate the credibility of his statements on his personal circumstances, insofar as he stated that he had supported Murat Öztürk, a close friend he knew from prison, in the election campaign in Ağrı during the elections in question. The latter had won the election, but there had been open vote rigging in favour of the AKP candidate and it had finally been declared that the latter had won the election. When he left the house in the morning while the subsequent protests were still going on, he and two of his friends were arrested without further cause.
Mr Ayaz thus experienced first-hand that in Turkey, political activity for the legal Kurdish party is only possible by accepting unlawful arrest and detention and that his ability to act politically and that of countless other Kurds was not only restricted, but only possible by accepting serious human rights violations.’
Whether this and the other applications submitted will be granted will most likely be known on 31 May 2024 from 1 pm. This is the date of the next trial. The last motions are to be submitted by the defence by then. The court itself has concluded the taking of evidence.
Further trial dates
Further scheduled dates are: 31 May from 1pm, 6 June, 19 June until 1pm, 27 June, 2 July, 9 July, 11 July, 17 July, 22 July and 19 August. The trial will take place on the 1st floor of the Hamburg Higher Regional Court at Sievekingplatz 3, either in room 237 or 288. The hearings usually start at 9.30am.
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’ so that the letters can be delivered.
Kenan Ayas
Hamburg remand centre
Holstenglacis 3
20355 Hamburg
Donation account:
Rote Hilfe e.V. OG Hamburg
Keyword: Free Kenan
IBAN: DE06200100200084610203