German police raided Mesopotamia Publishing and Mir Music in Neuss city this morning.

As the police raid continued, the Interior Ministry issued a statement announcing their decision to shut down both cultural institutions.

Mir Music and Mesopotamia Publishing have been placed under locks. The police confiscated all belongings in both institutions.

Mir Music and Mesopotamia Publishing have been the target of police raids twice in one year.

The previous raid was on March 8, 2018 when the police conducted searches for 3 days and confiscated several truckloads of books, albums, archives and recordings.

The Interior Ministry issued a statement this morning and said the shut down is due to the PKK: “As the PKK is still active in Germany despite the ban issued in 1993, PKK’s side institutions should be banned from activity.”

This ban against the institutions that produce dozens of Kurdish language books and albums every year came before the Munich Security Conference to start this week with attendance from Turkish state officials.

Germany had issued another scandalous ban in 2008 with the ban against Roj TV.

German police raided several Kurdish associations in 2018 for political reasons and escalated the pressure against Kurds up to bans against banners and whole protests. The protests against the Turkish occupation in Afrin were banned and many people were targeted by the police for sharing YPG flags in their social media accounts or having flags in their homes. The police pressure coincided with a period in Turkey when fascist attacks increased to unprecedented highs. The German government continues their intense political and economic relationship with Turkey despite the Ankara regime’s invasions, massacres, arbitrary detentions and arrests, violations against the press and attacks aiming to silence all opposition. German weapons have been documented to be used in the Turkish state’s invasion attacks against Afrin several times.

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