Stop the Deportation of Leyla!

(Young Spartacus pages)

We reprint below a translated article by the Spartakist-Jugend, youth organization of the Spartakist-Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, from the January issue of Spartakist (No. 186). In February a German court temporarily suspended the deportation order against the young Kurdish woman known as Leyla, pending the outcome of a related court case. However Leyla still faces the threat of deportation.

On March 17, eight of the 18 Kurdish youth arrested for repelling a fascist attack were outrageously sentenced to 33 months in prison on charges of aggravated assault and “serious breach of the peace.” Moreover, these leftists were ordered to apologize to the fascist scum and pay them 1,000 euros “for personal suffering.” The prosecutors have announced plans to appeal the 33-month sentence and reintroduce the original charges of attempted murder.

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Shortly after her 18th birthday, Leyla received notice of her deportation from Nürnberg, Germany. The “reason”: she is a danger to German security since she took part in Kurdish demos and, at the age of 13, chanted an allegedly verboten Kurdish slogan. At eleven, Leyla was forced to flee with her family from Turkey because she is part of the Kurdish minority, which has been bloodily oppressed there for decades. Her apprenticeship has now been canceled because of the threatened deportation. Traumatized, she has been placed under psychological care. In imperialist Germany, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and other Kurdish organizations are banned as “terrorist,” as are Turkish left groups like DHKP-C [Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front] and THKP-C [Turkish People’s Liberation Party-Front]. Kurdish activists are regularly subjected to brutal state terror. The racist “war on terror,” which initially put the Muslim minority in the crosshairs of state repression and ultimately targets the left and the workers movement, has escalated even further.

In [the southern German state of] Baden-Württemberg, 18 Kurdish youth were arrested for defending themselves against Turkish fascists in Nürtingen on May Day 2010. These youth have been charged with attempted murder and stand trial on January 17. One is being investigated under Paragraph 129 [of German criminal law] (membership in or support to a criminal organization). On December 16, three alleged members of the left group DHKP-C received heavy sentences for supposedly having been leaders and members of a foreign terrorist organization.

We Spartakists will publicize this state repression against Kurds and leftists in the workers movement in order to build solidarity with the victims. An injury to one is an injury to all. We demand: Down with the ban on the PKK and Kurdish organizations! Down with the ban on the DHKP-C and THKP-C! Down with the racist “war on terror”! We join the protests against the deportation of Leyla and demand: Full citizenship rights for all who live here! Free the arrested Kurdish youth!