Jürgen Klute
On the night of 22 to 23 April 2024, the Belgian police broke into the facilities of the Kurdish broadcaster Roj-TV in Denderleeuw near Brussels and confiscated laptops and files, among other things. It was learned that the search and seizure was carried out on the instructions of the Belgian federal public prosecutor’s office. According to information from a lawyer working on the case on behalf of Roj-TV, the initiative for the search does not appear to have come from the Belgian public prosecutor. According to the information available so far, the Belgian public prosecutor’s office acted at the request of the French public prosecutor’s office. The background to the French request appears to be investigations in connection with PKK financing. From the point of view of the French public prosecutor’s office, this is obviously an investigation into suspected terrorist financing, as the PKK is still on the European Union’s terrorist list.
However, this case is a sensitive one for the Belgian public prosecutor’s office. Back in September 2017, the Brussels Court of Appeal (Cour d’appel) ruled that the PKK is not a terrorist organisation, but a party to an internal armed conflict. Therefore, according to the Court of Appeal, anti-terrorism legislation may not be applied to the PKK, but international war law must be applied. This judgement was confirmed once again in 2020. A public prosecutor’s office is also subject to this supreme court ruling.
Against this background, the Belgian public prosecutor’s office should actually have rejected the French public prosecutor’s request for legal assistance. However, it did not do so. The background to this is that the Belgian government and the Belgian public prosecutor’s office are not amused by the decision of the Cour d’appel. But in a constitutional state, governments and public prosecutors are also bound by decisions of the highest courts. That is the basic principle of a constitutional state and the democratic separation of powers.
Alongside Switzerland and Great Britain, Belgium is one of the oldest democracies in Europe. Today’s Belgian state was founded in 1830 through secession from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This long democratic tradition obliges the Belgian government and the Belgian public prosecutor’s office to take a self-critical look at the police action of 22/23 April 2024 against the Kurdish broadcaster Roj-TV and to ensure that such an attack does not happen again. The French public prosecutor’s request is no reason to ignore the decision of Belgium’s highest court.
But the European Union also has a role to play. Belgium currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union and the President of the European Council is the Belgian politician Charles Michel, who belongs to the French-speaking liberal party “Mouvement Réformateur” (for short: MR – Reform Movement).
The European Union claims to be a defender of human rights, freedom of expression and the rights of minorities. Accordingly, the European Parliament has for a long time awarded the annual Sakharov Prize to individuals or organisations that are committed to defending human rights and freedom of expression. And since 2021, the European Parliament has also awarded the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize to journalists. This prize is named after the investigative Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was murdered by a car bomb on 16 October 2017. By awarding this prize, the European Parliament aims to promote and strengthen press freedom and critical reporting.
A political institution that boasts in such a way about the defence of human rights, freedom of opinion, freedom of the press and thus also the defence of minority rights cannot remain silent about the police action against the Kurdish broadcaster Roj-TV if it does not want to lose its credibility.
Kurds living in the European Union are seeking protection here from the persecution they often face in their countries of origin. From Europe, they are using political and diplomatic means to defend their rights in their countries of origin. For years, Kurdish organisations in Turkey have been offering the Turkish state talks. They want to end the armed conflict and achieve their justified demands for cultural and political recognition and autonomy by political means. Nevertheless, the Turkish government continues to use violence against Kurdish organisations, politicians and journalists. Only recently, the Turkish army again attacked Kurdish settlement areas in northern Iraq/southern Kurdistan. These attacks are clearly in violation of international law. Something similar has been happening regularly in northern Syria/Rojava for years.
If the European Union is serious about the defence of human rights, freedom of expression, freedom of the press and the defence of minority rights, then it cannot remain silent about the police attacks against the Kurdish broadcaster Roj-TV in Denderleeuw, Belgium. Then the President of the European Council, who comes from Belgium, should remind the government of his home country unmistakably of the values of the European Union. Because as a member state of the European Union, Belgium is also committed to these values. During two world wars, Belgium itself experienced twice what it means to be occupied and oppressed and that there are situations in which resistance against occupiers is necessary. Because of these experiences, Belgium was one of the six founding states of the European Union. The aim of the European Union was and is to provide a political institution to resolve the conflicts of interest between the member states politically and diplomatically. Based on this historical experience, the President of the European Union, Charles Michel, who comes from Belgium, and the Belgian government should support the Kurdish organisations in their political struggle for their cultural and political rights in their countries of origin, instead of taking action against their TV station based in Belgium due to French desires and contrary to the decision of the highest Belgian court.
*Jürgen Klute is a former Die Linke (The Left) MEP and spokesman for the Kurdish Friendship Group in the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014. He is editor of Europa.blog and a columnist for Medya News.
