The 32nd Kurdish Culture Festival took place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on 21 September, drawing tens of thousands of people and garnering widespread attention from the German public. The festival, a major celebration of Kurdish culture, saw speeches from German politicians Jan van Aken and Martina Feldmaier, who both voiced support for Kurdish cultural rights and a united struggle against fascism and oppression.
Jan van Aken, a former German Left Party member of the German Bundestag, began his address by greeting festival participants and recognising the event as a powerful symbol of the Kurdish people’s fight for “life, laughter and freedom.”
He recounted his long-standing support for the Kurdish cause, sharing experiences from his numerous visits to Kurdistan. These included meeting a family in Hakkari (Colêmerg) whose daughter was killed by the Turkish military, investigating Turkey’s use of chemical weapons in Amediya (Amêdî), and paying tribute at cemeteries of fighters who died combating Islamic State (ISIS) in Ayn al-Arab (Kobanê) in Kurdish-led northern Syria (Rojava).
Announcing his candidacy for the Left Party’s presidency, van Aken reaffirmed the party’s staunch commitment to the Kurdish movement, declaring that they would “always and everywhere be on the side of the Kurds to fight together for freedom and against fascism”.
He strongly criticised Germany’s continued arms sales to Turkey, labelling it a scandal and equating it to supplying weapons to Russia. “Turkey’s war of aggression against Kurdish regions in Syria violates international law,” he said, promising to oppose these sales “until the war against the Kurds is over.”
He also emphasised the need to fight against Germany’s ban on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and called for the immediate release from prison of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. Wrapping up his speech, van Aken appealed for support from the Kurdish diaspora to help build a new, strong socialist party in Germany, vowing that the Left Party would “fight for socialism in Germany and internationally”.
Martina Feldmaier, a Green Party member of Hessian state parliament, followed with a speech in which she congratulated the Kurdish community in Germany for preserving and celebrating their culture.
She noted: “Every people has the right to celebrate and live its own identity,” and criticised the ongoing repression of Kurds in several countries where they are denied the right to speak their language or practice their traditions.
Feldmaier also paid tribute to the young Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini, murdered in Iran, whose memory had honoured on 16 September with the renaming of a square in Frankfurt as “Jina Mahsa Amini” square. Amini, she said, “stood for freedom, democracy and women’s rights.”
Feldmaier concluded by highlighting the need to protect Germany’s democratic values, urging festivalgoers to vote “for democratic parties and against populists and right-wing extremists.” She ended her speech with a strong statement: “Everyone should have the right to say they have Kurdish roots without being put into prison.”
