The organising committee of a march planned for tomorrow, 6 December, in Cologne, to demand the lifting of the ban on the PKK, announced yesterday that the march would go ahead despite a police ban.

The organising committee, representing 84 organisations, held a press conference yesterday, declaring that they would hold the march as planned.

Permission had originally been given by the police for the march prior to the meeting in Cologne of the interior ministers of the 16 German states (lander) on 11-12 December. However, stallholders at the Christmas market (Weinmark) on the route of the demonstration complained their business would be adversely affected and the police cancelled the march. Yesterday members of the platform that organised the march, the “Bündiss Gegen IMK”, held a press conference at which they stated they had applied to a court for an annulment of the decision taken by the police. At the press conference it was stressed that the march would take place on 6 December on the same route.

‘The ban is arbitrary’

John Malamatinas and Torben Stausdat from the Antifa Ak Köln and Sema Kocatepe and Gabriele Metzner on behalf of the YXK attended the press conference at the Cologne Democratic Kurdish Community Centre, which attracted great press interest. Gabriele Metzner spoke first, saying that the ban on the PKK was meaningless and that he could not understand the police banning the march for arbitrary reasons. Metzner said: “This is an anti-democratic and arbitrary measure, which is totally unacceptable.”

'We have applied to the court for an annulment of this decision’

Torben Stausdat said they had applied for permission to hold the march in October, adding: “We applied on behalf of dozens of organisations to hold a demonstration against the PKK ban in Cologne on 6 December. The police accepted our application and we made our preparations accordingly. Then, yesterday the police called, telling us that they had cancelled the march on the grounds that stallholders in the Weinmark had said ‘their business would be affected’. It’s so arbitrary and nonsensical. We refuse to accept this and we will hold our march. We have applied to a higher court for an annulment of the police decision.”

Stausdat said the PKK ban was meaningless, adding: “Are we going to be unable to hold our march just because someone doesn’t like it? This is our democratic right. This is first and foremost a problem of democracy and human rights here.” He stressed they would go ahead with the match on 6 December.

Ban on PKK is meaningless’

YXK representative Sema Kocatepe said that the ban on the PKK restricted the freedoms of Kurds living in Germany, adding: “Today the PKK is struggling against ISIS gangs in Rojava and in Kobanê. It is defending democracy and humanity. It is a great contradiction that while the PKK is doing this in the Middle East, it is banned in Germany and in Europe. It is shameful for democracy and must be lifted immediately. John Malamatinas from Antifa Ak Köln said the ban on the march was unacceptable and arbitrary.

The march calling for the lifting of the PKK ban will begin in Friesen Platz in Cologne on 6 December at 1 pm.