During his visit to Germany, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan explicitly praised the German judiciary for the trial of Kenan Ayaz.
He expressed satisfaction that the Kurdish activist was extradited from Cyprus to Germany, initiated by the federal prosecutor, and is now facing trial at the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg.
In a joint statement, Kenan Ayaz’ three lawyers summarized Erdogan’s remarks, as reported by the renowned German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) on November 19, 2023:
“”The visit to the German capital has opened a new chapter in our deep relations,” said Erdogan. He expressed joy over the criminal trial at the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg against an individual alleged to be an official of the Kurdish terrorist organization PKK. The man had been arrested in Cyprus and extradited to Germany at the initiative of the Federal Prosecutor.
Kenan Ayaz had resisted his extradition to Germany following his arrest in Cyprus in March 2023. He claimed that the German criminal case on charges of his involvement with the PKK was politically motivated and that his arrest was solely prompted by Turkey. The European arrest warrant against him was issued just before the NATO summit in Madrid in June 2022, where negotiations with Turkey regarding the accession of Sweden and Finland were set to take place. Turkey sought to prevent Sweden’s NATO membership to gain concessions on the persecution of Kurds in Europe. On the other hand, Cypriot judges could not imagine that political motives played a role in the German criminal investigation and approved the extradition.
However, Kenan Ayaz’ opinion is now confirmed by Erdogan’s explicit praise. This indicates Erdogan’s personal interest in the criminal case against Kenan Ayaz.
Yesterday’s interrogation of the witness and police officer ‘Sch.’ by the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany also confirms that the arrest and criminal proceedings against Kenan Ayaz are solely driven by Turkey’s interests. The witness is responsible for investigating the PKK in Germany and also examined the case against Kenan Ayaz. Despite repeated questions from the court and the defense, he could not explain why the arrest warrant was requested by the Federal Prosecutor before the NATO summit. Instead, he stated that the last relevant investigative activities within the criminal investigation took place about two years before the submission of the arrest warrant application and that the process had essentially been halted since then. Only during the NATO summit did the Federal Prosecutor reactivate the case.”
