Again Germany is on the wrong side in the fight against fascism

Statement Of The Turkey Committee, Amsterdam, 6 May 1996

It is becoming more and more obvious that the German state takes sides in the conflict between the Turkish and Kurdish activists on the one side, and the Turkish state with its fascist ideology on the other. The ban on progressive Kurdish and Turkish organisations with whom the German state confronts the Turkish and Kurdish activists for human rights have, by and by, created a climate in which one can speak of a hunt in Germany against Turkish and Kurdish activists. Civil rights, like the right to demonstrate, the right to gather, the freedom of expression, the freedom to go to all member-states of this Unified Europe do not apply to Kurdish and Turkish activists. Hundreds of people were attacked in their homes or in their associations by anti-terror units of the GSG-9. Many people were dragged out of their houses in the middle of the night, naked and blindfolded. The number of raids against Turkish and especially Kurdish organisations exceeds several hundreds. The media are completely gleich geschaltet when it concerns people of Kurdish origin... More than one hundred Turkish and Kurdish activists are locked up in German prisons, thousands are involved in judicial procedures because of alleged support of organisations which are called terrorist by the German state. The financial costs of these procedures are a heavy burden for a group which belongs to the people with a lower income. It seems to be the strategy of the German state to hit individuals financially also.

Are German Interests More Important Than Human Rights In Turkey?

In Europe, Germany is the country which is responsible for most of the weapon deliveries to Turkey. Members of the Turkish contra-guerilla are trained by German anti-terror specialists, in a way as this is done in Latin American dictatorships by American agents. In this way the German political class and the German judicial apparatus construed a direct relationship with the fascist regime in Turkey with its methods which evoke nightmarish pictures of the Nazi-past in Germany. Of all the European states, Germany has the most interests in the present miserable living conditions in Turkey, it is the largest investor in Turkey...

It clearly looks as if Germany is protecting the interests of its business class, which profits from the extreme low wages in Turkey and the iron regime in Ankara which oppresses the people in Turkey with all kind of inhuman means, by attacking and criminalising the oppositional groups, organisations and individuals from Turkey.

In Europe, Germany is the country which knows best what a fascist dictatorship is. It is no honour for the present generation of German politicians that it seems to have forgotten the bloody lessons from the past...

For us, and for everybody who calls himself a democrat and/or a human rights activist, this means that we have to connect the solidarity with the struggle for human rights, democracy, freedom and a dignified life in Turkey with the struggle for civil rights of the Turkish and Kurdish activists in Europe. It can not be doubted that the Kurdish and Turkish activists in Europe are presently used to push through all kinds of anti-terrorist measures which will ultimately turn against everybody who is critical towards present capitalist Europe, the way in which the richness in the West is gathered, the way this wealth is shared, and the way the international flow of refugees is handled, a result of the increasingly growing contradictions between the rich West and the countries at the European edge, in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

If we keep allowing the present treatment of the Turkish and Kurdish activists in Europe, it will only be a question of time and the next group in society will be the victim of these repressive measures.