Following an application by Osman Öcalan, brother of PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) leader Abdullah Öcalan, the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) has overturned the 2002 decision of the European Council to put the PKK on its terrorism list because of an “error of procedure.”
In a decision announced on 3 April, the court said that when the European Council created the list and applied sanctions to the organisation and its members, it did not announce its justification in time.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek has reacted strongly to the court decision.

PKK still on list

The ECJ cited a previous decision based on the appeal by the Iranian People’s Jihadist Organisation in 2006.

Following that decision, the European Council stated its rationale and forwarded it to Öcalan in April 2007, but the court said that this was too late.

However, the ECJ’s decree does not cancel the Council’s decision, but only aims at rectifying mistakes in the decision, and it only affects Öcalan. Because Öcalan had withdrawn any demands for compensation before the hearing, the court did not make any decisions on that issue.

No justification given at the time

The European Council renews its list of “persons and organisations to be sanctioned in the fight against terrorism.” When any individual or organisation is added to the list, the Council is required to give up-to-date and concrete justification. This is because the assets of an organisation may be frozen or some people may be curtailed in some way.

Öcalan had demanded that the court take into consideration the aims of the PKK and the situation of Kurds in Turkey, but the court rejected the demand, arguing that “this does not concern the judiciary.”

Öcalan argued that when the list was first made in 2001, the PKK was not on it, and that there was thus no legitimate justification to add it in 2002.

Some newspaper websites erroneously interpreted this decree as taking the PKK off the list, and Cemil Cicek, Deputy Prime Minister and spokesperson for the government said:

“This decision by Europe, which speaks of justice and democracy, is unacceptable. Then they have to ask themselves, if the PKK, which kills babyies and turns our soldiers into martyrs, is not a terrorist organisation, is it a charitable foundation?” (EÜ/AG)