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Protests for Mehmet Çakas: threatened with deportation to Turkey!
Protests in Uelzen against the threatened deportation of Mehmet Çakas, Kurdish activist, due to a controversial prison sentence.
Protests for Mehmet Çakas: threatened with deportation to Turkey!
In recent days there have been massive protests in Lower Saxony and Hamburg against the threatened deportation of Kurdish activist Mehmet Çakas to Turkey. Activists are loudly demanding “freedom for Mehmet Çakas” and “right to stay for Mehmet Çakas”. The protests began on Friday in Hanover and are continuing with another meeting in Hamburg as well as announced demonstrations in Celle and Uelzen, as anfdeutsch.com reports.
Mehmet Çakas, 45 years old and originally from Çewlîg (Bingöl) in Turkey, is currently in the Uelzen Correctional Facility. He was arrested in Italy in December 2022 at the instigation of German authorities and transferred to Germany in March 2023. In April 2024, the Celle Higher Regional Court sentenced him to two years and ten months in prison for his membership in the PKK. His regular release would be expected on October 4, 2025.
Current developments and concerns
The situation surrounding Çakas is now coming to a head: On Thursday, the public prosecutor's office announced that it would waive the execution of his prison sentence in order to enable him to be deported. This is a cause for concern as Çakas could be removed from custody and deported to Turkey at any time. In Turkey he faces further criminal proceedings as well as torture and inhumane prison conditions, according to his lawyer Dr. Björn Elberling emphasizes. An urgent application to the Constitutional Court is intended to prevent the deportation. The decision is expected at the beginning of next week, reports rf-news.de.
KON-MED, the Confederation of Kurdistan Communities in Germany, condemns the threatened extradition to the Erdogan regime as a violation of human rights and calls for the immediate suspension of the proceedings. Co-chair Ruken Akça describes the possible deportation as a scandal that requires urgent political action. Many people see the case of Mehmet Çakas as an exemplary example of the criminalization of Kurdish involvement in Germany, as Kerem Gök from KON-MED points out.
General deportation practice
The number of deportations to Turkey has increased sharply in recent years, fueling public debate about human rights and the treatment of Kurdish activists in Germany. According to spiegel.de, the federal government is being criticized for tightening the deportation policy, while at the same time more and more people are facing repression and persecution in their home countries flee.
The coming days will be crucial, both for Mehmet Çakas and for the broad solidarity movement that supports him. The calls for a fair asylum procedure and respect for human rights are unmistakable, and they show that the fight for freedom and justice continues.