PKK Should Be Army Of North Kurdistan Not On Terror List

[Anthea]

Why is PKK on the terror list?

The international Justice for Kurds Initiative initiated a campaign on December 13, 2021 to remove PKK from EU's list of errorist Organizations

The effort, which began in many languages on the website "Justice For Kurds" (https://justiceforkurds.info) and is currently being carried out throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia, intends to collect 4 million signatures. The signatures are sent to the European Union's Council of Ministers, which regularly decides on the lists, and the US Department of State.

It is critical that the PKK be removed from these lists in order to shatter the international criminalization policy maintained for the Kurdish people's freedom struggle. So, why was the PKK labelled a "terrorist" by the EU, and what happened behind closed doors during important processes?

THE PROCESS STARTED WITH GERMANY'S BAN

First, the German government outlawed PKK activities in 1993, citing the "law on associations." Although Germany did not formally recognize the PKK as a "terrorist organization" during those years, it closed Kurdish institutions and imprisoned or fined Kurdish activists and politicians. After Germany, various other European countries followed suit in the early half of the 1990s, outlawing the Kurdish liberation movement one after the other.

The US administration would make the expected decision a few years later. On August 10, 1997, the US Department of State's Department of Foreign Terrorist Organizations added the PKK to its list of "Foreign Terrorist Organizations." Not much more than a year later, the White House administration of the time would be known to have made such a decision, as the first step in the International Conspiracy against Abdullah Öcalan with other world forces on October 9, 1998.

While the US State Department labelled the PKK a "terrorist organization" using events from the 1990s' dirty war in Kurdistan and Turkish court judgements as justifications, the UK made the same decision three years later for similar reasons. Despite the fact that there was no violent attack on the United Kingdom as there had been in the United States,

The PKK was added to the list of "Terrorist Organizations" on July 20, 2000, by the London administration. Following the lead of the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan made similar decisions in 2002, Australia in 2005, and New Zealand in 2010, all of which placed the PKK movement on their lists.

PKK WAS NOT ON THE EU'S LIST IN THE FIRST PLACE

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks that shattered the United States, the Washington administration began to put pressure on the European Union on the basis of "preventing international terrorism." The EU, according to the US, was weak in the "war against terrorism." As a result, under pressure from the United States, the EU created a list of "terrorist organizations" in December 2001.

The EU's initial list, released on December 28, 2001, includes a total of 12 organizations, namely ETA, the November 17 Organization in Greece, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas in Lebanon. This list, which was only valid for six months, did not include the PKK. When the Turkish government and other world powers intervened, the EU's governing body, the Council of Ministers, declared on May 2, 2002, that the PKK had also been added to the list.

CRIMES COMMITTED BY THE TURKISH STATE WERE ALSO BLAMED ON THE PKK

While Brussels revised its attitude in reaction to membership negotiations with Ankara, the reasons for adding the PKK to the list were also based on Turkish state court judgements. The PKK was held responsible for 67 actual occurrences between 2003 and 2013.
However, it should be noted that the majority of these attacks lacked tangible evidence and relied solely on the Turkish government's allegations.

Indeed, for years, the PKK was blamed on the EU's lists for the crimes committed by the Turkish state. The most notable of these was the EU's accusation of the PKK of being responsible for a mine explosion that killed seven soldiers in Çukurca on May 27, 2009. However, audio recordings and military court hearings revealed later that the commanders themselves had planted the mines, and the accused Brigadier General Zeki Es was condemned to 6 years and 8 months in prison.

On September 29, 2007, seven village guards were killed in an attack that targeted a civilian vehicle in Beşağaç (Hemkan) village of Beytüşşebap, Şırnak. According to a detailed assessment compiled by Mazlum-Der and IHD (Human Rights Association) on October 19, 2007, the PKK clearly had nothing to do with the attack. While it was later revealed that the murder had been premeditated by soldiers and carried out by village guards, the EU blamed the incident on the PKK for many years.

THE EU HAS MADE NO CONCLUSIVE ARGUMENTS SINCE 2018

In response to the EU's unlawful stance, PKK executives Murat Karayılan and Duran Kalkan filed an appeal with the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg through their Dutch lawyers in 2014. On November 15, 2018, the EU's top court body issued its judgement on the PKK's application.

The Court of Justice deemed the justifications of the UK as the party bringing the claims on behalf of the EU between 2014 and 2017 insufficient and determined that the PKK could not be included on the list for these reasons. Following the Court's judgment, the United Kingdom reapplied for the PKK to be included on the list for 2018, and the PKK was automatically relisted on January 9, 2019.

However, the Council of Ministers, which implements the EU's legislative, administrative, and foreign policy decisions, omitted the concrete incidents that had previously been included in the decision to include the PKK on the list. On the other hand, the EU referenced the fact that the PKK was on the lists of "Terrorist Organizations" in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, when the Council of Ministers put the PKK on the amended list again in February 2021, a lawsuit was launched. While three PKK lawsuits are ongoing in Luxembourg, global campaigns gained momentum when the Kurdish Freedom Movement was relisted on July 19, 2021.

Following the international campaign launched in December, thousands of people, including European Parliament members, national assembly deputies, senators, party leaders, mayors, trade union representatives, academics, journalists, artists, and lawyers, have called upon the EU and the US to "remove the PKK from your lists". The inclusion of the PKK on lists of "terrorist groups" legitimizes governmental brutality against the Kurdish people, according to these calls.

[Anthea]

PKK does not belong on terror list

The campaign for the delisting of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), launched in December 2021 by the Justice for Kurds initiative, continues at the international level. The petition for the removal of the PKK from the lists of terrorist organizations in the EU and the US can be signed online. In Europe, Kurdish organizations are promoting the campaign at events and with information stands on the streets

The Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress in Europe (KCDK-E) is the largest Kurdish umbrella organization in Europe and is actively participating in the campaign with its member organizations. The co-chairs, Fatoş Göksungur and Yüksel Koç, spoke about the campaign.

Fatoş Göksungur stated that especially the local people's councils and the women's and youth movement are collecting signatures. "With the terror stigma in the EU countries and especially in Germany, legal political activities of Kurds are prevented. The criminalization of Kurdish institutions in Europe is always put in a context with the PKK. We work on a democratic and legitimate basis, but our work is blocked by the PKK ban," explained Göksungur on the background of the campaign.

The co-chairwoman of the KCDK-E called this attitude of the EU states hypocritical: "It is unacceptable that Europe recognizes the Taliban and puts the PKK on its terror list. The signature campaign is basically a condemnation of this attitude of the EU.

The campaign was started by international personalities who are convinced of the paradigm of Abdullah Öcalan and the legitimacy of the Kurdish liberation movement. As KCDK-E, we are participating in it everywhere in Europe, because the PKK ban is tantamount to banning the Kurds."

"Turkish expansionism is legitimized"

Yüksel Koç said that the campaign initiated by world-renowned figures is of "historical significance." He remarked that the Turkish state is basing its occupation and extermination attacks in Kurdistan on the EU and U.S. stance on the PKK and is itself legitimizing the criminalization of democratically elected politicians with the ban.

This, he said, has led to the de facto abolition of the right to vote and the introduction of a ‘trustee regime’ in Kurdish cities and towns in Turkey.

"The designation of the PKK as a terrorist organization allows Turkey to commit massacres and even occupy Kurdish territories abroad," Koç noted, referring to a January 2020 ruling by the Belgian Court of Cassation that the Kurdistan Workers' Party is not a "terrorist organization" but a party in an armed conflict.

"Therefore, the PKK must be removed from the list. Anything else serves the policy of Erdogan, who is a dictator with ISIS mentality, aiming at genocide. The decision to put the PKK on the terror list was made under pressure from Turkey and NATO at a time when there was no fighting and a dialogue on a solution to the Kurdish question had just begun.

It is a political decision that prevents a solution. It also goes against human conscience because it was mainly the Kurdish movement that successfully fought ISIS and saved countless lives. The PKK does not belong on this list," said Yüksel Koç.

I have always believed that the PKK should be the Army of Northern Kurdistan and should have NOT been tricked into leaving their land

[Anthea]

Click on Photo to Enlarge:


Activists who carried PKK flag

Journalist and activist Mark Campbell and Beritan, a Kurdish woman from Liverpool, are being charged under the Terrorism Act 2000

On 23rd April, in Whitehall, London, Mark Campbell held up a very large PKK flag, to make a political statement against the continued criminalisation by the UK Government of the Kurdish community and the whole Kurdish issue in Turkey and the Middle East.

Today, together with Beritan, a Kurdish woman from Liverpool, he will appear in court charged under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Campbell said: "On 27 October 2022, I received a letter informing me I am being charged under Section 13 (1) and (3) of the United Kingdom’s Terrorism Act 2000"

On the day of the alleged crime, dozens of police blocked off the road in front of our peaceful demonstration as it came into Whitehall and senior officers sent ‘snatch squads’ into the crowd in a pre-planned operation to aggressively target and seize people whom they had identified as holding a flag."

[Anthea]

Kurds cannot be criminalized

British journalist Mark Campbell and Kurdish woman activist Beritan Silêmani are accused of conducting "terrorist propaganda" since they carried PKK flags in public. The first hearing was held in London's Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday

In support of Campbell and Silêmani, human rights defender Margaret Oven, journalist Rahila Gupta, academician Lida Kayhko, writer Charlotte Grace, activist Katie Higgins, KCDK-Bashur Representative Hevan Şivan, Kurdish People's Assembly members Ercan Akbal and Türkan Budak, writer Ali Boyraz and numerous people gathered in front of the courthouse.

Activists displayed a KCK flag and chanted the slogan "Jin, Jiyan, Azadi" (Woman, Life, Freedom), the iconic motto of the Kurdish women’s movement.

The court claimed that Silêmani and Campbell carried the symbols of a banned organization which constituted a crime.

“We carried these symbols and it is not a crime,” Campbell and Silêmani replied to the court. The court postponed the hearing until February 22, 2023.

“The UK should put an end to the genocidal policies pursued by the Turkish state against the Kurdish people. We will say here in court that the Kurdish people cannot be criminalized, and we will fight together to put an end to the genocide policy,” Mark Campbell said before the hearing.

Kurdish activist Silêmani said that they would defend this honourable flag in the spirit of resistance put up in Zap. “Betrayers should know that the guerrilla spirit is everywhere,” she said.

Ercan Akbal, who delivered a speech on behalf of the Kurdish People's Assembly, emphasized that Mark Campbell is an important friend and comrade of the Kurdish people.

“Mark is not just a friend; he is also someone who has significantly contributed to our struggle for freedom. He has devoted his life to the Kurds and the people of Kurdistan. Beritan is also our comrade who has a noble stance against betrayal. Together with comrades, we will continue the fight against criminalization.”

KCDK-South Kurdistan Representative Heval Şivan said that the PKK represented the Kurdish people themselves. “Comrades Mark and Beritan will defend the symbols of freedom of an honourable struggle. These are the symbols of a people. Our comrade Mark also believes that these symbols belong to a people and cannot not be criminalized. We will resist and fight together with Beritan and Mark.”

Journalist Campbell, who is on trial for carrying the PKK flag in the UK, emphasized that the PKK flag is seen by millions of Kurds as a symbol of a national stance and self-defence against assimilation and discrimination.

“British law should not be politicized in favour of Turkey, one of the most oppressive regimes in the world. We will proudly state in the UK Courts that carrying this flag is not a 'criminal' act but an honour,” Campbell said.

Margaret Oven, a human rights defender and lawyer, also came to the courthouse to support Campbell and Silêmani.

Displaying a picture of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan inside the courthouse, Oven emphasized that Britain should take a stance against the genocidal policies that target the Kurdish people, including Erdogan, who is a war criminal.

Oven added that it is rather the UK government which is criminal since it sells weapons to the Turkish state. “If defending a people and their values ​​is a crime, we will continue to commit this crime.”

[Anthea]

Ruling on terror list

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg has published the judgment in the case against the classification of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as a terrorist organisation. The trial was about EU lists of terrorist organisations in the period 2014 to 2020

While the EU Court of Justice had already ruled in 2018 that the PKK was wrongly on the "terrorist list" between 2014 and 2017, the European Council appealed against the ruling. The PKK also appealed against the lists from 2018 to 2020. Both cases have been merged by the court, with the first hearing taking place on 31 March.

In the new ruling, the CJEU confirms that the 2014 list must be annulled with regard to the PKK. With regard to the subsequent lists until 2020, the PKK's claim was rejected. The judgment is very comprehensive and consists of 260 paragraphs. According to the judgement, the parties to the lawsuit must pay their own expenses. Appeals against the judgement are possible in principle. 

According to the information obtained, the PKK's lawyers will meet soon to evaluate the decision and determine the next move since the decision of the Court of Justice can be appealed. The court's overall decision consists of 260 articles.

The "terror list" is formally updated every six months, but the PKK was put on the list again and again for the same reasons. Murat Karayılan and Duran Kalkan, leading members of the PKK, have filed a complaint against this. 

BACKGROUND TO THE CASE

After the German state put the PKK onto its list of banned organizations on November 26, 1993, a new security concept was introduced around the world following the attack on the Twin Towers in the USA in 2001.

The European Union created its own list in December of the same year as part of the "combating terrorism" imposed by the USA. The PKK was thus included in the list in 2002.

Since 2014, the European Court of Justice has dealt with several cases concerning the PKK. A 2018 ruling by the Court canceled the lists between 2014 and 2017.

The court thus found the arguments for listing the PKK as "inadequate" and ruled that the group could not be included in the list.

The EU appealed against this decision. Immediately after, the UK asked in 2018 to keep the PKK on the list, and the PKK was automatically relisted on January 9, 2018, based on the same arguments. Thereupon, the Kurdish side filed a lawsuit against the new list on March 7 the same year.

The objection of the Council of Europe to the previous decision and the case files against the new lists were merged and the first hearing was held on March 31, 2022.

At the hearing on March 31, the Court of Justice criticized the Council of Europe and reacted to the "copy-paste" defence that included the same arguments despite the cancelation of the previous lists.

JUDGEMENT ON 2020-2021 LISTS WILL COME OUT SOON

The European Court of Justice is expected to decide on another case filed by the PKK against the lists after 2020. The judgement is expected to be announced on 14 December.