Thousands marched in Berlin against the ban on PKK

More than 70 civil society organisations, academics and human rights defenders have called on people to demonstrate in Berlin to protest the 25-years old ban on the PKK.

Thousands answered the call and gathered at Alexanderplatz Square in Berlin, since the morning.

The slogan of the march is ‘The demand for freedom cannot be banned - common struggle against police law, the PKK ban and nationalism’.

Kurds together with Germans joined the march to protest not only the ban imposed on the PKK, 25 years ago, but also the German state and its criminalisation policy against the Kurdish people, and against racism and police law.

Marching in front of the large city town hall (Roteshaus) in Berlin, activists walking behind the banner ‘The PKK belongs to Germany’ (the Taz headline in 2014), were chanting slogans and carried banners reclaiming the PKK as ‘antifascist’ and ‘a women's movement’.

Against the US decision

Activists also reacted strongly to the US administration recent decision to put a bounty on the heads of three Kurdish freedom movement senior figures.

‘We are all Cemil Bayık’, ‘We are all Murat Karayılan’ and ‘We are all Duran Kalkan’ were the most carried banners.

It is noteworthy that despite the recent ban issued by the Berlin Administration against the Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, the crowd incessantly chanted ‘Bijî Serok Apo’ (Long Live President Apo).

German people: We thank the PKK

German activists repeatedly thanked the PKK, YPG and YPJ for “saving us from DAESH”.

The march was coloured and lively and it passed through Berlin’s little Kurdistan, Kreuzberg.

The rally ended in Spreewaldplatz Square.