Germany is home to by far the largest diaspora of Kurds in Europe. Probably more than 500,000 Kurds now live there. Over the years, therefore, the Kurds have carried many of their internal and international struggles to Germany. In 1993, Germany banned the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but it continues to operate there.
In July 2008, the PKK kidnapped three German mountain climbers on the slopes of Mt. Ararat in Turkey. Many saw this action as a response to recent German moves against the PKK in Germany such as shutting down ROJ-TV, the Kurdish television station channel in Germany, and the production company Viko in Wuppertal. There have also been government raids on Kurdish associations in Hanover, Kassel, Bremen, Cologne, and Berlin as well as an increasing number of arrests of top PKK officials and Kurdish asylum revocations. Yeni Ozgur Politika, a Kurdish daily, is published in Germany.
Historical Dictionary of the Kurds. Michael M. Gunter.