Germany: Call for solidarity against the arrest of comrades in Turkey

Neither masscare nor police terror will silence SGDF!

18 arrested in police raids against SGDF (Federation of Socialist Youth Associations) and ESP (Socialist Party of the Oppressed) 

What the Turkish state has not been able to achieve with massacres will not succeed via arrests or police terror. The socialist youth of  SGDG will not be intimidated and make it clear that will not be silenced.

In the early morning of the 4th of December, 18 members of SGDF and ESP were arrested during police raids in 5 cities in Turkey and Kurdistan. Among those those arrested in the cities of Istanbul, Ankara, Antakya and Eskisehir are comrades who survived the July 20 massacre in Suruc that was jointly carried out by the AKP and ISIS. In addition the homes of staff from the BEKSAV cultural center (in Istanbul) were searched and the building was surrounded by police.

Gamze Yildiz, whose daughter Cemil Yildiz was killed in Suruc protested with the following words against the police operation: "Those who were not killed are now being arrested. Those who are responsible for the massacre are not in the dock, only the young people." The mother of Polen Ünlü who was also murdered in Suruc and Dogukan Ünlü who was arrested this morning said she was speechless. Along with Özgen Sadet, the co-chairman of SGDF she made her way to police headquarters after the raid on her home and was also arrested. Dilek Seker, the daughter of Ismet Seker who died in Suruc said: "We are woken up every morning with a new massacre and repression. Our young people were murdered in Suruc and Ankara and now they are trying to intimidate them with arrests. While we wait for the secrecy decision to be repealed in the Suruc process the murderers continue to deepen our pain. Release our friends and our young people!"

Young Struggle consider this attack as an attack against all of us. Because not only are our friends and comrades from Turkey in the sights of the Turkish state but also our common goals and our common struggle. Whether they are keeping us in Germany with bans against participating in the reconstruction of Kobane or trying to intimidate us with mass arrests in Turkey they still cannot stop us!

The arrested from the SGDF are not alone, let our solidarity be our praxis: protests in front of the Turkish embassies and consulates, send protest faxes and e-email! Spread the call for the release of the socialist youth, be creative!

We demand the immediate release of:

1. Oguz Yüzgec (SGDF Co-Chair of the SGDF, survivor of the Suruc massacre)
2. Serif Erbay (MPs candidate of HDP Istanbul, survivor of the massacre Suruc)
3. Ilke Basak Baydar (SGDF, survivor of the Suruc massacre)
4. Cagdas Kücükbattal (ESP Party councilor, survivor from the Suruc massacre, lost an eye during the Gezi Uprising due to police terror)
5. Dogukan Ünlü (SGDF)
6. Taylan Cetina (SGDF)
7. Fethiye Ok (ESP assistant to the ESP chairman)
8. Soner Cicek (Chairman of Diyarbakir ESP)
9 Ece Simsek (press advisor to the Co-chairman of the HDP Figen Yuksekdag)
10. Burcu Demirbas (HDP MP candidate Istanbul)
11. Özgür Bedel (SGDF)
12. Ezgi Bedel (SGDF)
13. Günay Akar
14. Baris Erhan
15. Alper Kaba (former managing editor of the newspaper Atilim)
16. Uzgen Sadet (SGDF Co-Chair of the SGDF, survivor of the Suruc massacre)
17. Aykut Karnap (SGDF)
18. Hakan Öz (Survivor of the Suruc massacre, a member of the music group Vardiya)

source

Press Release: Kurdish activist Mustafa C arrested in Bremen (Germany)

November 13, 2015

By order of the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Celle, Kurdish activist Mustafa C. was arrested on November 11 and his apartment was searched. Since the opening of the arrest warrant the following day, the Kurdish man is being held at Sehnde prison under pre-trial detention.

Mustafa is accused of being a member of an overseas 'terrorist' organization and it is being claimed that he was the leader of the PKK in Oldenburg from June 2013-July 2015 and that since the beginning of August 2015 he was responsible for the areas of Hamburg, Stade and Lüneburg. As with all other accused PKK activists, Mustafa is being criminalized for allegedly organizing rallies, meetings, demonstrations and other events as well as renting buses, collecting donations and enlisting young recruits.

With the ban on the PKK now in it's 22nd year in Germany, including Mustafa there are now eight Kurdish political prisoners in criminal and pre-trial detention.

The consequences of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit two weeks before the elections in Turkey have become noticeable. Shortly after her  return Kurdish politician Kenan B. was arrested on October 21 in the Pegida stronghold of Dresden.

We protest in the strongest terms against Germany's policy of assisting and encouraging the Turkish authorities in it's war against the Kurdish movement and it's civilian population.

We demand the release of all political prisoners and the immediate cessation of all politically motivated processes against them.

AZADÎ e.V.

Kurdish Legal Aid Fund for Kurds in Germany, Cologne.

(via nadir, translated by Rojava Solidarity Worldwide & slightly edited for clarity)