NOVANEWSBy: Dilar Dirik Thousands of Kurds in Germany protest the terror designation of the PKK which has criminalized their communities. The terror-listing of the PKK by Western states criminalizes ordinary Kurds. However, its hypocrisy also created a conscious, mobilized, activist community. Last year, when Western mainstream media was confused about “PKK terrorists” fighting “Islamic State group terrorists,” this evoked a tired smile in the faces of ordinary Kurds who, aside from oppression at home,are stigmatized and criminalized throughout Europe. Terror designations often demonize one side of a conflict, while immunizing the otherThis especially applies to the Turkey-PKK conflict, with the second largest NATO-armyon one side, and an armed national liberation movement on the other. But in this case,a terrorist designation also criminalizes an entire community of ordinary people, denying them fundamental rights. The on and off listings of groups and states, such as Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, according to the day’s political situation, are examples of how blacklistings are political, not moral, regardless of their pretensions. In reality, listings strengthen state- sponsored violence by reinforcing the state’s monopoly on the use of force, ignoring the legitimacy of resistance and making no moral distinction between groups like ISIS and movements reacting to injustice. Today, the Kurdish freedom movement around the PKK, especially with its pioneering women’s liberation paradigm, appeals not only to Kurds, but to all oppressed peoples in the region. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was designated as a terrorist group by the United States in 1997 and by the EU in 2002. While PKK-affiliates committed violent acts in Germany in the 1990s, violence was not the reason to justify the ban, but rather the PKK “disrupting NATO interests in the Middle East.” Still today, European officials state that as long as Turkey’s stance on the PKK remains, they will refrain from lif-ting the ban. Whenever governments look like reconsidering the listing, it is due to tensions with Turkey. While the listing appeases Turkey, it is also a wild card to signal that the ban on their enemy could be removed if Turkey misbehaves. One does not have to be a PKK-sympathizer to view the ban as an anachronism.In an erain which the PKK not only shifted its political perspective, announced several unila-teral cease-fires, and initiated a two-year long peace process, it is also the life guarantee for many ethnic and religious communities in the Middle East as the strong-est enemy of the Islamic State group. Old arguments fail to hold. But, legal and political arguments aside, what social implications does black-listing have? In Europe, Kurdish people constitute one of the most organized and political communi-ties. The concept of democratic autonomy is implemented in the form of people’s and women’s assemblies in the diaspora. This democratic potential itself is seen as a threat. European governments aim to delegitimize organizations perceived as terrorist by tar-geting and “disrupting” support bases through criminalization in an attempt to depol-ticize communities and break their ties with politics at home. But Western governments are often complicit in the oppression that forces these comm-unities abroad. The same states that label the PKK as terrorist are the top arms pro-viders of Turkey’s war on the Kurds. Intelligence provided by U.S. drones killed 34 Kurdish civilians in 2011, German tanks destroyed 5,000 Kurdish villages in the 1990 in the hands of the Turkish army. Ironically, while supporting Turkey’s war on the Kurds, European states also accepted thousands of Kurdish refugees due to political persecution in the 1990s.The explicitly geopolitical nature of these lists reinforcesinjustice; thus,for the Kurdish community,terror-listing is not a standard for moral-ity or legitimacy, as Kurds actively die under its implications. What it is however is harassment and abuse to a community of millions.
Kurds demand an end to the PKK terror designation. Photo: Reuters In Europe, people don’t need to actually commit offenses to be arrested for PKK-memb-ership. In Germany, which pursues the most aggressive criminalization due to the longtradition of German-Turkish political and economic collaboration, the criteria for membership can be mere perceived sympathy, which is answered with phone tapping, psy-chological and physical violence at demonstrations,home raids, and closures of socialand political institutions. Participation in social and political events, which are normally democratic rights protected under international agreements, suffice as memb-ership criteria. Legally registered offices, student organizations, and community centers are under constant suspicion. People are charged without seeing evidence against them due to the secretive nature of counter-terrorism procedures. In the case of Adem Uzun, a prominent Kurdish polit-ician and activist, a reason to arrest him was actively fabricated by French authori-ties. Young Kurds in Germany, France and the U.K., without residence status or citizenship,are targetted because of their vulnerability and coerced to collaborate with authori-ties as spies against their own communities. They face threats of deportation when they refuse. Nowadays,refugees from Kurdistan who escaped the Islamic State group are threatened and harassed by European police for joining political activities. Simultaneous crackdowns are often coordinated across Europe and coincide with develo-pments in Kurdistan. Shortly after peace negotiations were announced between the PKK and the Turkish state in 2013,crackdowns on Kurdish activists took place most notably in Spain, Germany, and France. Angela Merkel’s visit to Turkish President Erdogan before November’s snap elections expressed support for his authoritarian-fascist rule and meant that Europe would close its eyes to Turkish massacres if Erdogan keeps refugees out of the EU. As besieged Kurdish cities like Silvan face massacre by the Turkish army, Germany raids Kurdish houses and arrests activists, as I write. OPINION: Turkey’s Future? State Authoritarianism or Democratic Autonomy Simultaneously,after having spent most of the year in jail,Shilan Özcelik, an 18-yearold Kurdish woman is being tried in a British court under terrorism charges for alle-gedly wanting to join the fight against the Islamic State group. Activists believe that the U.K., which criminalized Kurds for more than a decade, wants to set precede-nce with Shilan’s case,especially after British volunteer Konstandinos Erik Scurfielddied fighting the Islamist terror group alongside Kurds in Syria, the funeral of whomwas received by crowds praising him as a hero. The British government is in tacit alliance with Kurdish forces at the front, but criminalizes the same struggle domestically.
