Imprisoned in Germany, Kurdish activist Mehmet Çakas could be deported to Turkey at any time. The case would be unprecedented in German legal practice, and protests are mounting. A demonstration will take place in Hanover on Saturday.
While peace and democracy efforts by the Kurdish freedom movement are underway in Turkey, Germany is intensifying its repression against Kurdish activists. Mehmet Çakas, who is currently imprisoned in Uelzen prison, is now facing deportation to Turkey.
Çakas has been convicted in Germany for PKK membership, and two criminal proceedings are also pending against him in Turkey. Human rights organizations therefore fear that the 45-year-old activist will be subjected to torture and political persecution if he is deported to Turkey. In protest against this planned measure, a demonstration will be organized in Hanover at 2 p.m. on July 12.
“The deportation of Mehmet Çakas would be a scandal! Germany is making itself complicit in the oppression of Kurdish activists. We demand: Stop the extradition—no one should be deported to torture and injustice,” said a spokesperson for the initiative against the threatened deportation of Mehmet Çakas.
Çakas' case marks a new level of escalation in the criminalization of Kurdish activism in Germany: for the first time, a political activist is to be deported directly from prison to a country known for systematic human rights violations. The Lower Saxony Refugee Council, the Republican Lawyers' Association (RAV), the solidarity organization Rote Hilfe, and the Confederation of Kurdish Communities in Germany (KON-MED), together with various individuals, groups, and parties, are calling for an immediate halt to the deportation.
The foreign policy spokesperson for the Left Party in the Bundestag, Cansu Özdemir, also publicly opposed this measure. She also submitted a written inquiry to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) asking whether it intended to wait for the Constitutional Court's decision on a complaint filed by the person concerned before proceeding with a possible deportation.
Several rallies have taken place for Çakas in Hamburg, Hanover, Celle, and Uelzen over the past few days calling for public awareness: “Now is the time to take a stand—for human rights and against political persecution!”
