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German court overturns ban on YPG flag

A GOVERNMENT ban on flying the flag of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) has been overturned by a German court, which found that it is not a proscribed organisation.

Monika Gartner-Engel had been prosecuted for displaying the YPG flag at a demonstration in March against Turkey’s invasion of the peaceful city of Afrin in northern Syria.

Police attacked the demonstration and confiscated the flag, the German authorities arguing that it was linked to support for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a banned organisation.

It followed a note sent last year by the Interior Ministry advising German states that flags and banners of Kurdish organisations and political parties, including the YPG and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), should be banned. It claimed the new instructions were an update to the ban on the PKK imposed in 1993.

Ms Gartner-Engel was fined €200 (£178) and activists warned that German authorities were criminalising the Kurdish movement and those opposing the Turkish government.

Similar bans have been overturned by courts in Berlin and Frankfurt and a court in Aachen ruled in March against the police, who launched proceedings against a Kurdish man for posting a YPG flag on a Facebook page.

The Gelsenkirchen court found that flying the YPG flag does not amount to a crime and that the demonstration in solidarity with the people of Afrin was not linked to the PKK.

Ms Gartner-Engel said: “This verdict is a signal that it is worth fighting for democratic rights and freedoms. It is worthwhile to live international solidarity and to maintain a backbone.

“And that will be sorely needed in the future, considering the world situation in general and the future plans of [Turkish President] Erdogan in particular.”

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