Kurds plan major demo in central Berlin against Erodgan visit

Demonstration

Berlin, Aug. 3, 2018 (dpa/NAN) Germany’s Kurdish community is planning to launch a major demonstration by Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate against a planned visit by the re-elected Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to the country at the end of September.

“We are not OK with the red carpet being rolled out here for Erdogan,’’ Mehmet Tanriverdi, Deputy Chairman of the German Kurdish Community, said on Friday.

He said the community would mobilise nationwide to increase participation in the demonstration and would reach out to other organisations and representatives of the political parties in the German parliament.

Tanriverdi said they could achieve numbers between 10,000 and 20,000.

“It will be a massive event,’’ he said.

German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, issued the invitation to Erdogan shortly after his re-election in June.

However, it is not yet clear if it will be a state visit with all the accompanying honours; a firm date has also not yet been set for the visit.

Tanriverdi said at the Brandenburg Gate the Kurds would be demanding the release of political prisoners in Turkey, protesting human rights violations there and the Turkish army’s campaign against the Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), in northern Syria.

Kurds make up 15-20 per cent of Turkey’s population and often denounce what they see as systemic discrimination by the state.

The banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting with the Turkish state for more than 30 years, is deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union. (dpa/NAN)

OYE/AIB

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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Abdulfatah Babatunde