Some of you may know Merdan; he is a long time friend of GLS who currently lives in Amsterdam and participated also in the latest Summer Eros retreat in August.  After the retreat Merdan, who is of Kurdish origin, went to Turkey with his family to visit his relatives. There, on the 2nd of September, his mother, Hamide Akbayir, was arrested for allegedly being part of a terroristic propaganda group. To this day, she is still stuck in Turkey and unable to leave the country.

Hamide is a german citizen and was in the North Rhine Westphalian parliament from 2010 until 2012 with the LINKE party and was in the Cologne city council from 2014 until 2020. The accusations moved against her are the classical ones that people who criticize the government and fight for freedom and peace have to face. Even her apparitions at demonstrations and Facebook posts are being used against her.

It is unacceptable that a German citizen enjoying her freedom of speech could be arrested for it in Turkey. The German government is aware of the situation and is in touch with Hamide, but we need to make our voices heard!

A petition addressed to the Federal Foreign Affairs Ministry was created to ask for help in ending her imprisonment and let her come back to Germany as soon as possible. You can find the petition HERE.

Everyone can sign, but only signatures from people living in Germany (though you don’t need to be a german citizen) will count towards the 10.000 necessary to bring the petition forward. People from other countries are also very welcome to sign, and they will be listed separately. Hamide explicitly asked for as much international support as possible.

Please take a couple of minutes to support this cause and share it on social media! For Hamide, for Merdan and for freedom.

Thank you!

More info and an interview with Hamide (in german) available here.