NEWS CENTER – Every year, on the occasion of the murder of the Kurdish youth Halim Dener in Hanover, a memorial rally is held by the Halim Dener initiative, which fights for the creation of a memorial for the Kurdish youth in the city.
Internationalists from various cities such as Frankfurt, Berlin and Hanover have used the anniversary of Halim Dener’s assassination as an opportunity to put up posters in their respective cities in memory of Halim Dener, who died on June 30, 1994 in Hanover in the city center of was shot dead by a German police officer while posting PKK posters. The killer, acquitted by German courts, gained a senior post in another city, while Halim Dener’s relatives and the Kurdish community in Germany were demanding accountability.
To this day, the state has not spoken of a murder, but an “accident” was fabricated, in which a shot from the police officer’s gun is said to have been released in the scramble and accidentally fatally hit the Kurdish youth from a few meters away. In 1994, a year after the PKK was banned in Germany, police officers were given orders to only check Kurds at gunpoint. At that time, the criminalization of Kurdistan’s struggle for freedom had reached a peak. The murder of Halim Dener was one of the consequences of the state anti-propaganda and massive criminalization of Kurdish society and Kurdistan’s struggle for freedom.
The criminalization of the Kurds continues to this day. Especially in Germany and the city of Hanover in particular, the Kurdish society, especially the Kurdish youth, is facing massive criminalization and repression. Even the internationalists who show solidarity with Kurdistan’s struggle for freedom are not exempt from these criminalization attempts.
But the fight for the memory of Halim Dener, the demand for justice continues, because to this day the perpetrators have not been brought to justice, nor has an official memorial for Halim Dener been erected, nor has the criminalization of the Kurds stopped.
For example, yesterday in Hanover, where Halim Dener was shot, a commemoration event took place, in which up to 200 Kurdish and internationalist people took part, gave speeches, put up candles and laid flowers. During the speeches, Nahel, who was shot dead in Nanterre (France) on Wednesday, was also commemorated and a photo taken in solidarity with the uprisings in France.
