A delegation of young activists from Germany was taken into custody by Turkish police on Tuesday in the border region with Syria. According to information from the Association of Freedom Lawyers ÖHD, the 16 participants are currently in custody of the Turkish immigration authority Göc Idaresi in the district town of Mardin.
The delegation also includes a member of the Lower Saxony Left Party and a member of the Left Youth Solid. “We now have to make contact with the prisoners to find out more about their situation,” Left leader Jan van Aken told the taz. There is information that the group is currently being taken to Istanbul and then possibly deported to Germany. “But this has not yet been confirmed by anyone,” says van Aken. Overall, the information situation is “still very thin so far”.
The delegation had traveled to Turkey some time ago to draw attention to the situation of the Kurdish population in northeastern Syria, which is currently under heavy pressure from government troops in the Islamist interim government of President Ahmet al-Sharaa. In recent weeks, government troops have conquered large parts of the areas in northeastern Syria that have been controlled by Kurdish associations for over ten years and are currently besieging them Kurdish city of Kobanê on the border with Türkiye.
Nothing precise is known
On the way from the city of Diyarbakir to the Syrian border, the delegation was stopped and temporarily arrested. ÖHD lawyers report that they have so far been denied access to those detained and have not been given a reason for the arrest of 16 German citizens. Since they have no contact with those arrested, they do not know whether they have already been interrogated or brought before a judge. “We are also in contact with the Foreign Office, which is trying to provide consular support to those arrested,” said van Aken. “But that doesn’t seem to know anything more precise either.”
The Left leader demanded that the federal government must put pressure on the Turkish government to release the delegation members immediately. “It is quite obvious that the Turkish government wants to prevent international observation of what is happening in Kurdistan,” said van Aken. The federal government should “summon the Turkish ambassador in Berlin and tell him very clearly that it doesn’t work that way.” Human rights and freedom of expression are very valuable assets.
In addition to the delegation, a so-called “Caravan for the Defense of Humanity” has also been on the move for a few days, which also wants to draw attention to the catastrophic situation of the Kurds, especially in Kobanê. The caravan consists of more than 100 mostly young people from various European countries who had gathered in Vienna to then travel via Serbia and Greece to Turkey, from where they wanted to travel to the Syrian border opposite Kobanê. However, after the caravan reported on Thursday, they were stopped by Turkish border guards on Wednesday at the Greek-Turkish border and their passports were confiscated.
Both the delegation with the Left members and the caravan activists are primarily concerned with the People in the enclosed city of Kobanê worried. Kobanê became internationally known when the city’s Kurds defended themselves against IS attacks for months in 2014 and the terrorist group was finally able to fight back. “Now the city is being besieged by Islamist militias again,” write the caravan activists.
In fact, the city remains under siege even after a ceasefire between the Kurdish SDF militia and government troops was extended last Saturday evening. However, the government opened a humanitarian corridor and allowed a convoy of trucks carrying food into the city on Sunday. Nevertheless, the situation is still catastrophic because more and more people from the surrounding villages are fleeing into the city.