What's driving France's sudden deportation of Kurdish activists?

Kurdish demonstrators hold the green, red and yellow Kurdistan flag and others featuring PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan during a rally in Paris in 2016 to protest against Turkish President Erdogan after Turkey detained 11 HDP lawmakers as part of terror-related investigations.

France has a history of granting political asylum to Kurdish nationalists from Turkey who risk prison and torture back home. But recent deportations of Kurdish activists show a growing rift between the French state and its judiciary. One of these deportations has since been ruled illegal on appeal.

In March and April, France deported three Kurdish activists to Turkey – Firaz Korkmaz, 24, Mehmet Kopal, 37 and Serhat Gultekin, 28.

All were suspected of having close ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been in conflict with the Turkish state for 40 years. France, along with its Western allies, considers the PKK a terrorist organisation.

The Kurds are a stateless people spread across the Middle East, with about one third living in Turkey. Around 150,000 Kurds reside in France.

The Kurdish Democratic Council of France (CDKF), an umbrella group of 27 Kurdish associations, has condemned the deportations and warned that more cases are under investigation.

In late April, eight Kurdish men were arrested in Paris and southeast France, accused of extorting funds from the Kurdish community to support PKK activities, which is seen as financing terrorism.

French authorities also raided exiled Kurdish broadcasters Sterk TV and Medya Haber TV in Belgium at the request of the French judiciary.

“In the truck, they told him: 'Serhat, we're going to send you to Turkey. Whether you like it or not’.”


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