After his deportation was prevented twice, Kurdish activist Muhammed Tunç was expelled from Frankfurt Airport to Turkey on Wednesday - even though he faced imprisonment, political persecution, torture and, in the worst case, even threatened death. The 32-year-old from Ulm had been in detention pending deportation in Pforzheim for three months and had repeatedly gone on hunger strike. But in vain. The green-black state government in Baden-Württemberg hired a charter flight from the airline Sundair, and Tunç was flown to Turkey.

And that despite an arrest warrant in Turkey against Tunç for failure to do his military service, and a large number of death threats that the Kurd also receives from groups and individuals from Turkish fascist circles. "If something happens to the man, blood will run from the hands of the state government," lawyer Detlef Kröger told Radio Dreyeckland (RDL). The lawyer described the case as a scandal and was outraged that his client's agreement to voluntarily leave the country was withdrawn at the last minute, apparently without giving reasons.

State government has betrayed its principles

"I am stunned by a green state government that has a green prime minister who is deporting politically active Kurds to Turkey," said Kröger in the RDL interview. The Ulm lawyer had submitted a settlement proposal to the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Justice in order to obtain an exit for Tunç to an alternative third country. This was probably accepted. But to Kröger's complete dismay, the ministry did not stick to the agreement that had been reached and had Tunç deported. According to Kröger, the state government had thus betrayed its principles of “human rights, the rule of law, fairness”.

Death threats in Germany and Turkey

Shortly before being taken into custody, Tunç was attacked by Turkish nationalists and suffered a wound on his head. When it became known that he was in custody, the nationalists wrote to him: "We are waiting for you in Turkey."

Kröger spoke of "lots of threats" written in Turkish against his client on social networks such as Facebook. He sent this together with a criminal complaint to the Ulm public prosecutor's office, which forwarded the complaint to the authorities in Pforzheim. Investigations were started there and the regional council in Karlsruhe was asked to suspend the deportation until the case had been investigated. "Because the translations by the police revealed a threatening situation," said Kröger. But nobody cared about that anymore. "We have made an ongoing investigation into a threatening situation - with life and limb in Turkey - public and accessible to everyone, including the public prosecutor's office. And yet people are deported.”

"I hope he will survive."

Muhammed Tunç is currently threatened with forced conscription in Turkey. It is unclear where he is currently being held. When he applied for a passport at the Turkish consulate in Stuttgart, he said he had already been told that he would then “have to shoot his Kurdish siblings”. Detlef Kröger is concerned. "I'm scared", Tunç said, adding: "I hope he will survive."

Tunç listed as "enemy" in Turkey

Muhammed Tunç was born and raised in Ulm in 1989 and has Turkish citizenship. In Turkey, he is exposed to the risk of political persecution, imprisonment and torture because of his pro-Kurdish activities in Germany. The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Justice did not want to admit that until the very end. The authorities considered the deportation to be justifiable from the start and justified the decision with a "criminal offense" in connection with two court judgments against Tunç for dangerous harm. The convictions came after clashes with Turkish nationalists associated with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's party. According to Tunç, his name is known to the authorities in Turkey as an "enemy".