BERLIN – The passport of 18-year-old German citizen Solîn G. was confiscated in September. The police pulled up with three emergency vehicles in front of her family’s apartment in Oberhausen and searched the premises. Serhat Ararat reported on the case in the daily newspaper Yeni Özgür Politika last week . Solîn says that like her mother, she is being punished for defending her Kurdish identity. She grew up in Kurdish institutions and has been taking part in cultural activities such as folklore at the Democratic Kurdish Community Center in Duisburg for about seven years. You can see them at all actions and events organized for the freedom and rights of Kurds in the region.
Passport confiscated after Turkey visit
When she traveled to Turkey to visit family earlier this year, the German police stopped her at the airport and asked why she was flying to Turkey, Solîn says: “I stayed in Turkey for about a month. When I returned to Germany in July, our home was searched and my passport confiscated.”
Family visit turns into weapon training
Solîn describes her experiences as follows: “The police came to the apartment door and asked for my passport. When I asked why, they said, ‘Here, read the letter’. The letter mentioned Kurdish festivals, demonstrations and events that I had attended. The letter even said that I had traveled to Turkey twice to do weapons training and that I was therefore considered a danger and that I was a danger to those around me.“
Endangerment of German-Turkish relations
The accusations went even further, says Solîn: “They also said: ‘You are spoiling our relations with Turkey.’ And that’s why they confiscated my passport. I can no longer leave Germany, except for Turkey.”
She was asked to stay away from the Kurdish freedom struggle. She will only get her passport back when the authorities are convinced that she is not endangering international relations. Solîn says: “This is not the first time. They took action against my mother three years ago. They wanted to take me and my sister away from my mother. But thanks to an intense legal battle and the resulting publicity, they took a step back. Now they are dealing with us again.”
“You should leave my family happy”
Solîn was born and grew up in Germany: “I am a German citizen, I did my Abitur and will be studying psychology at the university next year. I’m not as dangerous as they say. Our whole family is concerned about what we are going through. My mother is the one they really want revenge on. You should stop messing with our family. We expect support from the public.”
Zozan G. was to be stripped of custody
Solîn’s mother, Zozan G., has lived in Germany for 42 years. She is the mother of five children and has been politically active since 2014. In 2019, state security accused her of endangering the welfare of children because one of the daughters had taken part in demonstrations by the Kurdish movement and her personal details had been identified there. The authorities then felt compelled to make a report to the youth welfare office, apparently in an attempt to intimidate the family and dissuade them from political activities. Although the youth welfare office expressly found no endangerment of the child’s well-being, a procedure was initiated that ended in January 2020 with a declaration of commitment . The trial revealed that the family’s phones had been bugged since 2017.
“We will not be intimidated”
Zozan believes she only won the custody case because of strong public pressure. “The German state sees the court case that I won in 2020 as a defeat and now wants to take revenge on me through my daughter. We’re trying to get Solîn’s passport back through legal channels. You cannot intimidate us with such pressure. We believe in this fight and we will not give up,” says Zozan.
