The Hamburg Die Linke parliamentary group leader Cansu Özdemir was prevented from leaving from Düsseldorf airport on Saturday together with numerous other participants to a peace delegation to South Kurdistan. In addition to trade unions, groups and the Kurdish umbrella organization KON-MED, the federal executive of the DIE LINKE party has also demanded that German authorities should not become Erdogan's henchmen.

The Federal Police then issued a press release on Saturday evening and stated that a group of 19 people who wanted to travel to Iraq had been stopped at Düsseldorf Airport. According to the federal police, there were German, Turkish and Swiss nationals in the group: “A member of the state parliament from Hamburg was also part of the group. The mandate holder initially did not identify herself as a member of parliament. She was allowed to travel on. As a result of the interviews and reviews, 15 people were banned from leaving Iraq for one month. Four people were allowed to leave the country. The legal basis of the measures were regulations according to the Passport Act (§10), the Residence Act (§46) and the Freedom of Movement Act. The process described was expressly not about arrests, but about measures within the framework of the border police questioning."

"Instruction from above"

Deputy Cansu Özdemir, however, contradicts this explanation. When asked, she told ANF: “I introduced myself as a member of parliament as soon as we were surrounded. The officials were not interested. I told them several times who I was. They said that I had no special rights. I told the officials that of course I am no different from others, but that they would hinder my work as a parliamentarian. They just laughed. My co-chair, Sabine Boeddinghaus, called the service manager and asked him for information about the legality of the whole thing. They continued to hold me there. Then I turned to my lawyer. He also spoke to the service manager and asked for the measure to be terminated. I was called for interrogation anyway. I said that I wanted the measure to be terminated and that the service manager should appear. He was called, he came and said ‘we would look into it and then end the action’. That was after about four hours. I was not banned from leaving the country, but I had already missed two flights."

Cansu Özdemir is of the opinion that the whole action was planned to prevent the trip. “We were already photographed in the entrance hall of the airport and were literally followed. On the way to the gate, after going through the control, we were surrounded and forced to one side and we were told to hand in our passports."

The delegation members were held for hours in a hallway without windows and water and without the possibility of respecting the distance rule as prescribe by the coronavirus regulation. “During this time, our suitcases were unloaded from the plane. It was clear from the start that they would not let us go. Some officials wanted to forbid us from communicating with each other. When I asked about the legal basis of this action, they just said 'political advice' and 'instruction comes from above'."

Only after many hours did the delegation members were served with a travel ban on the grounds that the planned trip would have a negative impact on German-Turkish relations.

Cansu Özdemir announced legal action: “There will be legal repercussions because this measure was clearly illegal. Over the next few days we will be discussing with lawyers about how we will proceed."