Kurdish activist Abdullah Öcalan and artist Mazlum Dora have been taken into custody in Baden-Württemberg. This was announced by the umbrella organization FCK, which is organized in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. According to the statement, Öcalan - who bears the same name as the PKK founder, who has been imprisoned in Turkey for 22 years - was taken into custody in or in front of the apartment of FCK chairman Sait Öztürk. The arrest of Mazlum Dora took place in Esslingen, in both cases arrest warrants are said to exist.

Kurdish association FCK condemned the arrests and announced legal action. "During the raid on Sait Öztürk's apartment, the police vandalized the facility and frightened the children present. The Kurds are wanted to be criminalized. It gives to think that the arrests took place directly after the visit of the Turkish foreign minister to Germany. Who should actually be arrested is dictator Erdogan," the association's statement said.

The detention of Abdullah Öcalan was made on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the investigating judge of the Federal Supreme Court on May 7, 2021, by officers of the Frankfurt am Main police headquarters and the State Criminal Police Office of Baden-Württemberg. According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, Öcalan is accused of membership in the PKK under Section 129a/b and is alleged to have been active as a "full-time PKK cadre" in Hessen and Saarland since August 2019. Specifically, he is accused of organizing events and collecting donations.

Last Friday, activist Mirza B. had been arrested in Nuremberg as an alleged PKK responsible. Sait Öztürk's apartment in Heilbronn has also been searched in 2019.