On Wednesday morning, the German police stormed and searched the premises of the Kurdish Democratic Community Centre in Darmstadt and the office of the KAWA Federation. The reason was a memorial event in June 2020 for Ismail Nazlıkul (Kasım Engin), at which a "CDK flag" (Coordination of Kurdish Democratic Society in Europe) was displayed, as the court order states. Nazlıkul, who belonged to the Central Committee of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), had been killed in a Turkish air strike in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) just a few days before the funeral service.

Parallel to the searches, two preliminary proceedings under sections 129 a/b were initiated against the former chairpersons of the Federation of Democratic Associations of Kurdistan, which is the full name of the association. They are claimed to be responsible for the commemorative event on the occasion of Nazlıkul's death and to have "supported the PKK on several occasions".

The Federation condemned the actions of the authorities and spoke of criminalisation of Kurdish structures in Hesse. "The fact that the public prosecutor's office is searching our premises on the basis of flimsy circumstantial evidence and criminalising political activists is highly problematic, especially now - in times of the earthquake and the upcoming elections. It is generally the wrong sign to incriminate democratic community centres of the Kurds in Germany," said a spokesperson.

The KAWA spokesperson said that Darmstadt was currently discussing a reaction in the form of a rally or press conference with representatives of the associations that have been searched.