Germany asks Ukraine not to extradite detained Kurd to Turkey
At Turkey’s request, Cologne resident Kemal K., who has both German and Turkish citizenship, was arrested in Ukraine on an Interpol arrest warrant.
As reported by Deutsche Welle, it came out on October 17 that Kemal had been arrested already at the middle of this year at a request made by Turkey through Interpol. He is free to move about, but he cannot leave Ukrainian territory until a decision is made regarding his extradition to the Turkish authorities.
Residing in Germany since 2017, Kemal K. is a Kurd by nationality. He has lived an actively political life, being a member of Turkey’s Communist Party. Ankara accuses him of involvement in a terrorist group and committing an act of terror, but already in 2008, Germany refused to extradite Kemal K. due to significant doubts regarding the validity of the charges made by the Turkish authorities. In 2010, Germany gave him the status of political refugee, and in 2016 he was granted German citizenship.
Kemal K. is married to a Ukrainian, and visited Ukraine for personal reasons. Before the trip to Ukraine, the prosecutor’s office in Cologne warned him that it would be dangerous to travel abroad.
The Christian Democratic and Christian Social Unions (CDU/CSU) asked the Germany government to assist Kemal K. “Taking into account the fate of Deniz Yücel and Peter Steudtner, the German government must take the necessary steps as quickly as possible to prevent the extradition of Kemal K. to Turkey,” CDU/CSU domestic policy expert Stephan Mayer told the Rheinische Post in an interview.
Mayer called Turkey’s use of Interpol red notices to arrest German citizens abroad “unacceptable”. According to him, Ankara is misusing its Interpol membership. Mayer urged Kyiv not to comply with the Turkish authorities’ request.