Kurdish fighter Kenan Ayaz was arrested Thursday at Larnaca airport as he was about to travel to Austria and then Sweden to be reunited with his family.
Kenan is a recognised political refugee in Cyprus and has been here for at least 13 years. His arrest at Larnaca airport was made by Cypriot police on the basis of a warrant issued by the German state, which accused him of involvement in a terrorist organisation.
His extradition to Germany by the Cypriot state will also mean his extradition to Turkey, since the German state is in close cooperation with the Turkish state, especially in matters of criminal prosecution of Kurdish fighters.
Kenan is an important figure in the Kurdish freedom movement and has already spent 20 years in Turkish prisons enduring horrific torture.
Despite what he went through, after his release he left Turkey and continued to lecture wherever he was invited in Europe spreading the messages of universal emancipation and anti-capitalist resistance of the Kurdish freedom movement.
For a Kurdish man and woman to continue their struggle in Europe can mean imprisonment and extradition to Turkey or even direct assassination by secret services as the assassinations of Kurds and Kurds in Paris on 23/12/22 and 9/1/13 showed us.
The story of Kenan is the same as the story of Kormaz Cherkez in 2019 in Cyprus. Despite the legacy left by the historic decision of the court not to hand over a Kurdish fighter like Cherkez to the German state, we see again today the same game against the Kurdish people with the case of Kenan.
The main reason for the criminal prosecution of Kurds and Kurdish people internationally is the fact that the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party of Kurdistan) is considered a terrorist organisation by the majority of Western countries, especially NATO. That is why among the Kurdish movement’s cold demands is to take the PKK out of the list of terrorist organizations.
The Kurdish people and their struggle, which is a struggle for the internationalist solidarity of the peoples against imperialism, is being judged in the face of Kenan.
By executing the arrest warrant, let alone daring to hand over Kenan to Germany, the Cypriot state is aligning itself with the war of the Turkish nato state against the Kurdish people.
We as Gate 9 are always on the side of the peoples fighting for their freedom and self-determination. We stand by those who still keep the message of the revolution alive and we have unreserved respect for fighters like Kenan Ayaz who did not bend in prison and dedicated their entire lives to the struggle for a better world.
Tomorrow Tuesday, at 9 am, the case of Kenan Ayaz will be heard in the Larnaca courts, we invite those who can support with their presence.”