In a press release, the co-chairs of Mala Kurda (Kurdish House) in Cologne, Yıldız Aydeniz and Şükrü Töre, warned against smear campaigns and psychological warfare by the AKP/MHP regime against Kurdish associations in Germany. In particular, it is about defamatory false allegations that were spread in the Turkish media about associations.

For example, Turkish regime media spread that a young woman who had moved out of her home had been "kidnapped by the PKK" and "held" in the Kurdish association in Cologne. This form of defamation is similar to the special war policy against the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Northern Kurdistan, where the regime has gathered dozens of parents of guerrilla fighters through bribery, blackmail and disinformation in front of the HDP building in Amed (Diyarbakır) to allegedly "reclaim their children", while other mothers demonstrating for peace are bludgeoned by Turkish police. The Cologne association announced that all necessary legal steps would be taken against the defamation campaign.

Turkish defamation policy also active in Germany

The statement said: "As is well known, the Turkish regime has long pursued the concept of criminalizing Kurdish politicians, Kurdish institutions and organizations and discrediting them in the eyes of society. They try to distort the facts through lie propaganda in their press, internet and social media. In this way, the regime, which is in the process of collapsing, is trying to keep itself alive and hide its real problems.”

The statement continued, "We are a cultural institution that addresses the cultural, social and political problems of the Kurdish people and tries to solve them together with our people. In the course of our activities as Mala Kurda, we are systematically attacked by the Turkish regime with smear campaigns and criminalization attempts."

Smear campaigns pose acute danger

Nevertheless, an acute danger emanates from this form of psychological warfare, explained the association's board of directors, and continued: "Now this concept is meant to be effectively implemented in Europe as well. As the German state communicated, approximately 8,000 Turkish secret service coworkers are in Germany in the employment. With the progressive defamation and criminalization of Kurdish associations in Germany it concerns indirect and often also direct working of the Turkish secret service and the regime in general."

The association warned that the Turkish state is trying in this way to incite and organize attacks on Kurdish associations: "Allegations that a young woman who left home in January was kidnapped by the PKK and held in our association are spread and systematically scattered by the regime media as part of the special war policy. This is set to make our association a target of attacks." Last year, there had already been massive attacks on left-wing and Kurdish institutions by Turkish fascists in Vienna.

"We will take legal action"

The board concluded by saying, "We condemn these reports of lies. In this regard, we call on the people who are significantly involved in this game of the Turkish state not to be made a tool. We declare that we will take all legal actions against these attacks on our institutions, their leaders and members, and we call on the people to be vigilant against the lying propaganda."