State Interior Minister Herbert Reul gave the thumbs up for the police officers who attacked the “Fascism can’t pass, freedom for Öcalan and all prisoners” march held on Saturday in Düsseldorf for carrying posters of Öcalan.
43 Kurdish, Turkish, Armenian, Assyrian-Syriac and German institutions came together and held a march against the AKP-MHP government’s oppression in Turkey and Kurdistan and Germany’s bans on symbols of Kurdish and democratic institutions in Düsseldorf, capital of North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany.
The march held under the slogan “No Pasaran! Fascism won’t go through! Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan and all political prisoners” was attacked by the police with water cannons, batons and tear gas, citing the Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s posters carried by protesters as an excuse.
The police attack garnered much protest from various circles, while NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul gave the police the thumbs up. Reul, from Chancellor Merkel’s party CDU, said: “I am very pleased with the stance of the Düsseldorf police regarding the Öcalan posters.”
Reul spoke about the events in Düsseldorf to the Rheinische Post newspaper published in NRW and, implying that the protesters should have accounted for the attack, said: “Whoever breaks the law in North Rhine-Westphalia should know that the police won’t just stand there and watch.”
The “broken laws” the German minister talks of refer to the Öcalan posters the marchers carried to protest the isolation imposed upon Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan. Minister Reul openly stated that the Öcalan posters were targeted and also said, “I do wonder how that many banned posters of Öcalan came out.”
