section_path: Status in Germany
section_name: Status in Germany
paragraph_text: Status in Germany
  
  The PKK could count with a strong support from the diaspora in Germany where the Hunerkom, its cultural branch was based. During the 1990s, the PKK was able to organize blockades of highways and its sympathizers self-immolated for which the PKK official Cemil Bayik apologized in 2015 after sympathizers of the PKK launched several waves of attacks against Turkish institutions in Germany. The PKK's activities were banned by the Minister of the Interior Manfred Kanther in November 1993. In a meeting between German MP Heinrich Lummer of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and Abdullah Öcalan in Damascus in 1996, Öcalan assured Lummer that it was the PKKs aim to find a peaceful solution for their activities in Germany. The PKK also demanded that it should be recognized as a legitimate entity and not as a terrorist organization in Germany, a demand to which Germany did not accede to. In Germany several Kurdish entities such as the Association of Students from Kurdistan (YXK), the Mesopotamia publishing house or the Mir Multimedia music label were deemed to be close to the PKK. The latter two were eventually closed down by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer who accused them of acting as a forefront of the PKK and to support the PKKs activities in Europe with its revenue. The Kurdish satellite channel Roj TV was also accused of being a branch of the PKK by Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and had to end its activities in Germany in 2008. The PKK has received political support for a lift of its prohibition by the Die Linke and its party leader Bernd Riexinger in 2016.