The international initiative Justice for Kurds launched a campaign in November 2021 for the removal of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from the lists of terrorist organizations in the EU and the USA. The first signatories of the petition include over a thousand personalities from thirty different countries.

Heinz Jürgen Schneider: Because the struggle does not belong on a terrorist list

In the daily newspaper Yeni Özgür Politika, lawyers have commented on why they support the campaign. Dr. Heinz Jürgen Schneider, a lawyer and author from Hamburg, explains: "Because the fight for freedom, democracy and people's rights doesn't belong on a terror list."

Lukas Theune: Unworthy of a Democracy

Dr. Lukas Theune from the board of the Republican Lawyers Association (RAV) supports the initiative to remove the PKK from the "terror list", "because the criminalization of an entire population group is unworthy of a democracy and because a modern society resolves conflicts through dialogue. The courting of the Erdogan regime against the background of the Turkey-EU deal must stop. Human rights are non-negotiable," said the lawyer from Berlin.

Stephan Kuhn: The PKK is a party to the conflict

Criminal lawyer Stephan Kuhn from Frankfurt states that he signed the appeal for a variety of reasons: "Above all, in my view, the PKK is not a terrorist organization but a party to the conflict. The designation as a terrorist organization is an expression of a one-sided partisanship in favor of the Turkish state, which ignores its violations of human and international law and makes a political solution to the conflict more difficult."

Roland Meister: Milestone of racist discrimination

Roland Meister from the law firm Meister & Co in Gelsenkirchen represented the Berxwedan publishing house and the Kurd-HA news agency as a lawyer at the time of the 1993 ban on activities against the PKK issued by the then Federal Minister of the Interior Kanther. "The PKK ban started from the KPD ban decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of 1956, which is still valid today, and was intended to create further possibilities to discriminate against the liberation struggle of the Kurdish people and to criminalize anti-fascist, revolutionary and communist sentiments and activities in Turkey and Germany and solidarity with them. It meant a landmark of racist discrimination against Kurdish migrants and their organizations and institutions," Meister notes on the historical background and explains further:

"To this day, events, demonstrations, concerts, newspapers and emblems allegedly close to the PKK are banned and therefore people are prosecuted. For example, in July 2021, in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the congress of the Kurdish European umbrella organization KCDK-E, which is active in many countries of the EU, was banned in Bergisch-Gladbach with explicit reference to the PKK ban. The international law of nations is ignored on the part of the ruling powers in Germany, which also considers 'armed conflicts in which peoples fight against colonial rule and foreign occupation as well as against racist regimes in the exercise of their right to self-determination' as legitimate. The Erdogan regime is without a doubt a racist and fascist dictatorship. At an event in the Cologne sports hall shortly after the ban, I said that I am sure that the ban cannot prevent the Kurdish liberation struggle and solidarity with it, just as the brutal repression in Turkey, Iran, Iraq or Syria has managed to silence the Kurdish people. In fact, despite all the oppression in the Middle East, the Kurdish freedom struggle has clearly strengthened and solidarity against all defamations and criminalizations in Germany has increased significantly."

“It is time to lift the ban on the PKK and all the repressive measures and sanctions associated with it. The criminal proceedings against the progressive and revolutionary politicians from Turkey and Kurdistan must be ended, the imprisoned must be released immediately and they must also be compensated for their imprisonment," the lawyer demands.

Nick Brauns: Pacesetter in the dismantling of democratic rights

Historian and journalist Dr. Nick Brauns from Berlin has also signed the appeal. In justification, he says: "The persecution of the Kurdish freedom movement in Germany has served as a pacemaker in the dismantling of democratic rights as a whole since the first major PKK trials at the end of the 1980s through the PKK ban in the 1990s to the present day. Primarily, but not exclusively, Kurds living in the Federal Republic are affected by this. The undemocratic and, in its effects, racist PKK ban must finally be dropped. The criminalization of an entire population group must be ended. This would also increase the pressure on the Turkish government to enter into a renewed peace dialogue with the PKK."