In the trial against Kenan Ayaz, the State Protection Senate at Hamburg Higher Regional Court has once again made it clear that it will not oppose the reason of state to condemn any Kurdish expression as terrorist.
Anyone who attended even one of the 29 days of the main trial was able to see for themselves last Friday that the Hamburg Higher Regional Court is doing everything it can to convict Kenan Ayaz of alleged PKK membership. This also includes rejecting all motions by the defence that would allow a differentiated account of events that could exonerate the defendant. Instead, the court pointed out that even the participation and the as yet unproven organisational responsibility for events could be considered an act of so-called activity for the PKK as a cadre.
Kenan Ayaz with his defence lawyers Antonia von der Behrens and Stephan Kuhn. Ayaz was arrested in March 2023 on the basis of a German extradition request in the Republic of Cyprus, where he had been living as a recognised political refugee since 2013. He had already spent a total of twelve years in prison in Turkey for his political activities. Ayaz has been held in Hamburg’s Holstenglacis remand prison since last June and his trial began in November. He is accused of leading various areas, including Hamburg, as a suspected PKK member from 2018 to 2020 and coordinating personnel, financial and organisational matters.
Accusation: organising a cultural festival
In order to obtain clarification, the defence filed counter-motions and motions in response to a court order, which primarily relate to the nature of gatherings for which Ayaz is allegedly responsible, including the Dersim Festival and the Newroz celebration in Frankfurt am Main in 2019. Several thousand people took part in the former. They are all united by their interest in ‘preserving Kurdish culture, especially the culture from Dersim’ and their ‘interest in the topic of the genocide against the Kurds in Dersim and in topics such as ecology and femicides’, as the defence writes in its application. Several music and dance groups performed. There were also several speeches, for example by members of the HDP and DIE LINKE party. These spoke in favour of peace and democracy, ecology and gender equality and condemned the genocide in Dersim. There was no incitement to violence, nor were other groups or people devalued. The festival was also peaceful and no criminal offences were recorded.
The same applies to the Newroz celebrations. The Tagesschau reported on 23 March 2019 at 8 p.m.: ‘More than ten thousand people celebrated the Kurdish New Year in Frankfurt. With demonstrations and a subsequent rally, they called for peace and democracy in the Middle East. Many participants also called for freedom for the Kurdish leader Öcalan, who has been condemned as a terrorist in Turkey. According to the police, the events took place without incident.’ The court is accusing Kenan Ayaz of organisational responsibility for this very event and considers it a criminal offence under Section 129b StGB.
The defence justified its counter-arguments and motions by arguing that ‘the criminal prosecution of participation in or organisation of the assemblies is a restriction of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly that is contrary to fundamental rights and the Convention’. In this context, a number of findings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) were referred to, according to which ‘the penalties imposed for participating in a demonstration constitute an interference with the right to freedom of assembly. […] For an extensive interpretation of the law, according to which a legal activity during a legal demonstration is subsequently penalised in a manner unforeseeable in advance for the person concerned, would not only prevent the person who has been held criminally liable from exercising his right to assembly in the future, but also has the potential to deter other citizens from participating in demonstrations.’
The court should consider carefully whether it wants to violate such a high good as the right of expression and assembly out of sheer desperation and arbitrariness in order to convict Kenan Ayaz as a PKK cadre. The court would once again confirm its bias.
Comment from a visitor
One visitor expressed her displeasure: ‘This court seems so self-righteous to me. How can they judge people who have suffered so much oppression as a matter of course and not even be interested in the context? These are judges at the Higher Regional Court. These people are already at the top of the career ladder. What makes them submit so unquestioningly to the German raison d’état that the Kurds are terrorists? How can they so completely ignore the suffering of the Kurds, including the personal experience of Kenan Ayaz? It hurts all the more because the judges are women, for whose liberation the Kurdish movement is fighting above all others. Cultural festivals such as the Newroz celebrations or the Dersim Festival are associated with terrorism here. Yet these are cultural festivals of an oppressed nation, a nation that has been subjected to genocide for a century.’
Relativisation of repression
In keeping with tradition, the court also rejected several motions on this day of the trial. In one decision, the requested expert opinion on the local elections in the city of Agirî (tr. Ağrı) in 2009 was rejected. Kenan Ayaz had supported the Kurdish candidate, was arrested after the elections and the exposure of electoral fraud and was wrongfully imprisoned for six months. With the application, the defence demanded an expert opinion on these local elections, in which the AKP is alleged to have manipulated the results in its favour. The aim was to show that the AKP was doing everything in its power to thwart legal opportunities for pro-Kurdish politics. But for the court, ‘individual historical events’ such as the local elections are not relevant as evidence. This is justified by the fact that ‘the abstract-generic circumstance that the defendant belongs to an ethnic group that was and is exposed to numerous restrictions by the Turkish government in the perception of its cultural identity and its political ability to act, which may be significant in the event of a conviction, but which must be considered proven’. These words leave one’s mouth agape. What exactly does the court mean by ‘restrictions’ here? The attempt to eradicate Rojava, the targeted assassination of Kurdish intellectuals and politicians in the region, the imprisonment of thousands of Kurds in Turkey, the torture and ill-treatment suffered by them? Or do they mean the systematic suppression of Kurdish culture and, in this context, the banning of festivals and the censorship of various types of media or the banning of pro-Kurdish parties and the removal of their mayors? Declaring all of this as a ‘restriction’ is nothing more than relativising the repression against Kurds and people who stand in solidarity with them. And so it comes as no surprise that the resolution literally refers to ‘experiences’ that Kenan Ayaz had in the course of the local elections. So it is simply an ‘experience’ to spend six months in prison unjustly.
With regard to the last day of the trial, another visitor who has already attended trials in Turkey was shocked by the parallels in the persecution of Kurds in Turkey and Germany: ‘In Turkey, there are certainly judges – albeit few – who oppose the reason of state to condemn any Kurdish expression as terrorist.’
Further hearing dates
Further trial dates are 6 June, 19 June until 1 pm, 27 June, 2 July, 9 July, 11 July, 17 July, 22 July and 19 August. The trial will take place on the first floor of the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg at Sievekingplatz 3, either in room 237 or 288. The hearings usually start at 9.30 am.
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