Last June, Kurds and their friends held a demonstration in German capital city Berlin in protest at German Ministry of Interior’s decision to ban flags of the PYD, YPG and YPJ. The demonstration against the “criminalization of PYD, YPG, YPJ” witnessed brutality by the German police who injured three people.

Recently, a Kurdish citizen in Germany filed a lawsuit against the ban by the Berlin police. According to Tagesspiegel daily, a police official testifying in the lawsuit stated that PYD, YPG and YPJ were no more banned.

Following this statement, Berlin police are expected to tolerate the flags of the YPG/YPJ that the whole world treats with sympathy. Lawyer for the complainant, Peer Stolle laid emphasis on the importance of Berlin police pulling back from the mistake.

In a recent investigation against a Kurdish citizen who shared a YPG flag on Facebook, Aachen Court of Sessions found the police unjust, stating that it did not constitute a crime to share YPG flag on social media.

As Germany continues to keep silent in the face of the Turkish state attacks and massacres in Afrin, while upholding their intolerance for YPG and YPJ. While several local courts in Germany gave similar decisions against the ban so far, Bavarian police in particular stand out for their peculiar stance against people posting YPG or YPJ flags on their social media accounts, conducting raids on the homes of activists on the grounds of YPG flags.

Most recently, Bavarian police launched a scandalous investigation against Munich resident musician Johannes König, citing a link to an article in the state radio-television Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR). The state media corporation had published an article on the young activist Benjamin Ruß whose home was raided for having posted YPG/YPJ flags on his Facebook account last August. Musician König shared this link in his own account.

The Munich Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation against König because the YPG flag is visible in the article’s preview. König was called in for a deposition via mail for the investigation launched on Munich police’s demand. König is to give a deposition to the police on March 19 for “banned symbols” and said the following on the Munich prosecutor’s stance in a quote to the ANF: “The criminalization of Kurdish freedom movement symbols in Germany is kneeling down in front of the Turkish regime. Kurds deserve our solidarity, especially after the Turkish state attacks against Afrin, the Kurdish people need such solidarity.”

König said he didn’t add any comments when he shared the article subject to the investigation and that the YPG flag was visible in the preview. König said: “This pressure has reached peak madness. It’s ridiculous. If it wasn’t such a serious matter, it would be laughing stock. The Munich police is threatening press freedom as well.”

Recently in November, the police had raided the home of scholar Kerem Schamberger in Munich for showing solidarity with the YPG. As the German police’s fear of the YPG continues in parallel with the Erdoğan regime’s animosity against the YPG, reports say certain Turkish-German police chiefs stationed in the police force are leading the way to create such a perception.

The German Interior Ministry sent a notice to the states on March 2, 2017 and demanded a ban on various Kurdish parties and institutions’ flags, including the PYD, YPG, YPJ, PJAK, YXK and NAV-DEM. The Ministry had announced the reason for the ban as an “update” to the PKK ban that has been in place since 1993.