Despite various court rulings to the contrary, the police in Germany insist on criminalizing symbols of the Kurdish liberation movement. For example, some cities repeatedly claim that YPG and YPJ flags are banned during demonstrations. This is happening, for example, in the capital Berlin, among other places.

Most recently, the police wanted to limit the number of YPG/YPJ flags at a protest against the Turkish attacks on Rojava on 10 September.

In Berlin, the PYD, the Dest-Dan women's council, the Nav-Berlin association and the Fed-Kurd Federation asked permission for a demonstration against the attacks on Rojava and the murder of minors by killer drones. Although no conditions were mentioned in the permit confirmation, the police commander at Hermannplatz said that only one YPG and YPJ flag may be carried for every fifty participants. In protest against the restriction of their right to assembly, the organizers held a rally instead.

Lukas Theune is one of the lawyers who applied to the Federal Ministry of the Interior in May for the ban on the PKK to be lifted in Germany. As Theune explained to ANF, the Berlin police have ignored court rulings on the subject in previous cases. YPG and YPJ flags are not prohibited in Germany. The meeting authority in Berlin also knew that. In a trial before the Berlin administrative court in 2018, the police had already promised not to take action against YPG/YPJ symbols. The judgment was made on 7 May 2018, similar judgments were made in Munich, Aachen, Frankfurt, Sigmaringen, Gelsenkirchen and Magdeburg. Numerous criminal proceedings against demonstrators were dropped one after the other.

When the Federal Ministry of the Interior ordered the expansion of the list of banned symbols of the Kurdish liberation movement on 2 March 2017, the Federal Government at the time declared that YPG and YPJ flags were not affected.

When asked by the Left Party, the government response of 21 April 2017 stated that the YPG and YPJ posed no threat to Germany's security.