Kurdish journalist Serdar Karakoç has been remanded in custody in the Netherlands awaiting extradition proceedings after being arrested at his home on 23 May. A court order was issued to continue his detention on 28 May; the next hearing in his case is expected to be held in three weeks.
Karakoç was born in Dersim (Tunceli), Turkey, in 1960 and has worked for the Kurdish free press for over 35 years, starting in journalism in the 1980s. In the 80s and 90s, the Turkish state clamped down violently on Kurdish journalism, and numerous journalists and newspaper delivery boys were killed and imprisoned. Karakoç worked for the newspaper ‘Özgür Ülke’, among others, and was present when the Turkish government carried out a bomb attack on its editorial offices in 1994. More than 20 journalists were injured in this attack and one employee of the newspaper was killed.
After being imprisoned in Turkey for several years, Karakoç fled Turkey in 2001 to continue his journalistic work in Europe, and has been living as a recognised refugee in the Netherlands ever since.
In recent years, the number of requests Germany has made for extradition of Kurdish activists has increased. Activist Sabri Çimen was arrested and extradited to Germany from France in 2023 and has been convicted to a prison sentence of three years. Mehmet Çakas was extradited from Italy and convicted to two years and ten months in Germany. Kurdish politician Kenan Ayaz was extradited from Cyprus and is currently being charged in court proceedings, and Ferit Çelik was arrested in Sweden in February at Germany’s request, even though his lawyer has stated that in Çelik’s case that there is a risk of chain extradition to Turkey.
The main focus of the charges in general is that the activists in question were politically active as alleged PKK members, and said to have been responsible as leaders of regions or areas in Germany. Examples of the activities given as evidence are organising meetings or bus trips, giving instructions or advice, collecting donations, also settling disputes, campaigning for Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) or meeting with politicians.
Duran Kalkan from the Executive Council of the PKK said in an interview that “Germany is doing what Turkey is unable to do. The European states do not yet extradite alleged PKK members to Turkey because they are threatened with unfair trials and even torture. So Germany has them arrested and charges them here. This observation cannot be dismissed out of hand.”
