Freedom for Hasan Unutan! Demonstration against the §129b Arrest

On the 9th of February 2023 Hasan Unutan got arrested by the German imperialist state under the paragraph 129b of the criminal law. Hasan Unutan is originally from Turkey, but he moved to Germany in 2002. He is a worker and a father of three children. He is politically active in the anti-imperialist left movement and a member of the solidarity committee for the music band Grup Yorum, which is politically persecuted in Turkey and in Germany.

We call all organizations, groups and individuals who are against the arbitrary detentions and imprisonment related to §129 cases to attend the demonstration(Kudgebung) on 20th of February in Kottbusser Tor at 18:00. It will be in the square where the statue for the murdered communist Celalettin Kesim. (Kottbusser Tor/Ecke Reichenbergstr.)

The main accusation he has been charged with is being a member of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party Front (DHKP-C), which is on the EU list of “terrorist” organizations.

Some of the evidences that the state provides for such an accusation are:

  • taking part in Grup Yorum concerts;
  • attending the funerals of DHKP-C members;
  • setting up the sound system at the demonstration in Berlin against paragraph 129;
  • transferring money to the imprisoned revolutionary journalist Özgül Emre, who was arrested in May 2022 under the same paragraph, and she has been kept in preventive detention since then; and
  • keeping the picture of Özgül Emre in his Facebook account.

We have to think that this arrest was executed by the German state just three days after one of the most destructive and deadly earthquakes of the last decades, with which the population of Turkey has to cope. Affected by this earthquake are not only the victims and people living in the region of the epicenter, but also their families and friends, living thousands of kilometers away.

This arrest, in this moment, reveals the base ground upon which the collaboration between Turkish and German state is built. Rather than being directed to the people, the aid is given to the fascist Turkish state.