Germany’s history is supposed to have made German society sensitive to repression of minority groups and of freedom of speech, but only, it seems, for some groups and some ideas. Germany has a long record of repressing its Kurdish community – much the largest Kurdish community outside Kurdistan. They also attempt to silence Palestinian voices and even voices of Jews critical of Israel, demonstrating a failure to embrace the real meaning of “never again”, which has to apply to all peoples.

"Political change is needed. No Kurd is free until Öcalan is free," says Fréderike Geerdink in her latest article, focused on Abdullah Öcalan’s 'right to hope'.

"Much remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: the road to political reform in Turkey is long and arduous," says Matt Broomfield in his latest article looking at the upcoming Turkish elections.

The conditions of isolation in a quarter century of imprisonment have still not made it possible, philosophically, to destroy the bridges between Öcalan and his organisation.

"It is fundamentally right to insist on the observance of human rights, women's rights, minority rights, and climate protection measures. But if these demands are made out of an attitude of arrogance ... then European politicians will not find an audience with their African colleagues." - Jürgen Klute

Across the world, there is a ramping up of authoritarian oppression as ruling elites defend a political system that generates growing inequality and destroys the planet and that is facing a rising tide of resistance. Even here, in picturesque Strasbourg, I have got used to seeing riot police and tear gas, and while the situation in France is hardly of the same order as that in Turkey, both arise from the suppression of challenges to elite power, and oppressors in different countries learn and take encouragement from each other.

Fréderike Geerdink explains why the suggestion that Turkish President Erdoğan's alliance with Hüda-Par is to win Kurdish votes is ludicrous in her latest article for Medya News.

The UN’s expanded guidelines for the protection of prisoners are known as the ‘Nelson Mandela laws’, in honour of the celebrated political prisoner. They enshrine crucial rights as to prisoners’ inherent dignity and value, prohibiting torture, ill-treatment, and various forms of degradation and restraint, notably restricting the use of solitary confinement, to Mandela “the most forbidding aspect of prison life.” In Öcalan’s case, it is clear these guidelines are not being observed.

The question of democracy in Turkey has never been more important as it is now in 2023. Erdoǧan’s AKP government has been in power since 2002, but the elections this year bring hope of a change. Will that change, if there is one, simply be turning from one autocratic ruling party to another, or will democracy have a chance now?

On Monday, at the Turkish Parliament, the presidential candidate of the main opposition alliance, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) visited the leaders of the pro-Kurdish leftist Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) for a much-anticipated discussion; and on Wednesday, the Labour and Freedom Alliance, centred on the HDP, which has been described as the potential king-maker of the forthcoming election, announced that they would not be putting up their own presidential candidate, thus encouraging speculation that Kılıçdaroğlu could achieve a decisive first round victory.