You know, judges, what Kenan Ayaz cares about while being tried in the Regional Court of Hamburg for alleged participation in a terrorist organization? Cyprus. He wants to send as many messages as he can to its people, who consider him one of their own, and to the homeland he considers his own. He doesn’t care that we extradited him as the worst criminal in Europe; he bears no grudge against the Cypriot authorities (judicial and executive) that succumbed to Turkish orders and sent him to Germany by signing his conviction. He wants to communicate with the Cypriot people, express solidarity with their struggle, and constantly remind everyone of the shared journey of Cypriots and Kurds.
Hence, his latest message, sent after Erdogan’s statement and his gratitude for the trial against the Kurdish activist. Amid his anxiety about the judicial process, trying to understand the Germans’ poor translations and not yield to the harsh detention conditions, he doesn’t forget Cyprus, which embraced him until March 2023. Whenever he meets one of his lawyers, Efstathios Efstathiou, he ‘steals’ time from the trial break and emphasizes the truth about Cyprus, Kurdistan, occupation, fascism, and ethnic cleansing. And with these few lines, we dedicate this message to the man who challenged a dictatorship for history, language, family, identity, and conscience:
“The fascist Turkish state didn’t only murder Theophilos,” Kenan Ayaz emphasized. “They also wanted to murder his thoughts, his struggle, and the manifesto of his life. Because Theophilos saw the freedom of Cyprus in the mountains of Kurdistan. Because the freedom of Cyprus truly passes through the mountains of Kurdistan.” Kenan cannot bear that European states approve the occupation of Cyprus, and he notes that negotiations are conducted to prolong the occupation, to make the Cypriot people accustomed to it. “I’m sorry, but unfortunately, they succeeded.” But he endures and insists that he will not abandon Theophilos Georgiades’ cause. “I will live in these harsh torture conditions for a lifetime, but I will not abandon Theophilos’s line.”
He calls on the Cypriot people, through his lawyer, to unite against Erdogan’s fascism. He calls on those who played their game, extraditing him to Germany, to apologize to Theophilos. “Do those who betrayed Theophilos have a quiet conscience?” he wonders, emphasizing that in the Presidential Palace, the Ministry of Justice, and the two courts that convicted him, he defends both the Kurdish and Cypriot people equally. “I oppose both the occupation of Kurdistan and the occupation of Cyprus. I sacrifice myself for both the people of Kurdistan and the people of Cyprus. In this sense, for the Cypriot people to embrace this case means embracing their own freedom, based on Theophilos Georgiades’ legacy.”
Kenan Ayaz, passionate and charged, questions whether the Cypriot state is the guardian of the fascist Turkish state and if it will accept his conviction by keeping him in Cypriot prisons. Because, as he declares, he has proven that Erdogan set up this trial, and public opinion will see it. Seizing the opportunity, he thanks the Cypriot people once again and declares, “Freedom in Cyprus, freedom in Kurdistan.” Exposing, once again, those (directly or indirectly) who sent him to Germany obeying Turkish orders and committed an unbearable act of shame against a man fighting for Cyprus.
