10 German MPs unfurl PKK flag in parliament, urge lifting of ban

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Ten MPs from the left wing Die Linke party unfurled the flag of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) inside the German parliament building on Friday, urging the lifting of a ban on the group.

The act was also in solidarity with fellow party member Nicole Gohlke, who lost her parliamentary immunity last month after waving a PKK flag at a Munich demonstration. That protest was in support of Kobane, the Kurdish town in Syria where PKK-affiliated fighters have been resisting an Islamic State (ISIS) takeover for some two months.

“Instead of lifting Nicole Gohlke’s immunity, we urge the federal government to remove the ban on the PKK,” the deputies said in a statement.

The German Bundestag waived Gohlke’s parliamentary privilege a month after she waved a PKK flag at an October 18 demonstration in Munich.  "The Kurdish people have fought for freedom, democracy and human rights under this flag," she had said.

The PKK, which fought a three-decade war for autonomy in Turkey after beginning peace talks last year, has been banned in Germany since 1993. It is also considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States and the rest of NATO.

But recent events have raised the PKK’s profile: in Kobane, the PKK-affiliated People’s Protection Units (YPG) have been supplied with some Western weapons and backed by US-led air strikes in the war against ISIS.

“The ban against the PKK is now outdated,” Ulla Jelpke, one of the Die Linke MPs involved in the flag protest, told Rudaw.

“The PKK is now an effective force struggling against ISIS, especially in Kobane. Therefore, they should immediately be delisted from the European Union’s terrorist list,” Jelpke added.

But Tobias Huch, a Liberal Party MP, told Rudaw that, although he did not support the PKK, the unfurling of the flag highlighted the need for a discussion on the issue.

“We have to re-examine whether the PKK really is a terrorist organization -- such as Hamas, whose flag is not banned in Germany ,” Huch said, referring to the hardline Palestinian movement.