BERLIN (AA) – A German court on Monday fined a local politician for posting a symbol of the terrorist group PKK on social media.
A Hamburg court ordered Left Party lawmaker Cansu Ozdemir to donate €1,000 ($1,100) to a charity for violating the ban on using the symbols of the terrorist group PKK, which has been banned in Germany since 1993.
Ozdemir had called for an end to the ban on the PKK, and shared the banned symbol of the terrorist group, in a Twitter post in 2017.
Germany outlawed the PKK terror group in 1993, following violent protests carried out by group members in the country. But the group remains active, with nearly 14,500 followers among the Kurdish immigrant population in the country.
Since the Oct. 9 launch of Turkey's Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria against the terrorist PKK and its Syrian branch YPG — supporters of the terrorist group have carried out attacks on Turkish citizens living in Germany.
In 17 attacks in Germany, YPG/PKK supporters have injured 15 Turkish people, according to Turkish authorities.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union — has been responsible for deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.
