Joanna in Kurdistan
Posted on 10/26/2015 5:25:47 PM PDT by markomalley
Police in Denmark have confiscated the passport of a 22-year-old woman named Joanna Palani and slapped a travel ban against her after she returned to Denmark from the Iraqi Kurdistan region and Kurdish areas in Syria, known as Rojava, where she fought alongside Kurdish forces against the Islamic State.
Palani—of Iranian Kurdish background—dropped out of college in Denmark last fall to join the YPJ, the women’s branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria. She fought in Kobani, the Syrian Kurdish city that was liberated from ISIS in January, and later claimed she fought with the Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq against ISIS.
“There is a reason to believe that [Palani’s] actions may be a danger to national security,” Danish police said, according to the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende. "By leaving for Iraq and by receiving training in military skills she could pose a danger to national security or a substantial threat to the public order.”
Palani’s lawyer, Thorkild Høyer, rejected claims his client “posed a threat to national security.”
"It is absurd that Palani is stripped of her passport when she has been fighting against the same enemy, ISIS, as Denmark is fighting against," Høyer told Rudaw. "It is hypocritical that she is punished when so many others who are going down there to fight with IS are not stripped of their passports."
Høyer said he would dispute the decision against Palani in Danish court. “We hope that she can get her passport back,” he said.
Denmark is part of the international effort to arm Iraqi Kurdish forces in the fight against Islamist extremists. It has sent a 55-person military team as well as emergency aid and weapons to help the Peshmerga. The Scandinavian country is also helping with US-led airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq.
Hundreds of Kurds from the West, among them about 10 Danish Kurds, are reported to have gone to fight alongside the KRG’s Peshmerga and the YPG in Syria in their battles against ISIS.
A new Danish law that came into effect last March gives police the right to seize passports and impose travel bans on Danish citizens suspected of planning to travel to Syria or Iraq to fight. According to the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), around 125 Danes are fighting in Syria.
Among the political parties in Denmark, only one has expressed support for Palani. The left-wing Unity List’s legal spokesperson, MP Pernille Skipper, told Rudaw the law is problematic
“If the basis is to take the passport from a person who has battled ISIS, the law is clearly targeting the wrong persons,” Skipper told Rudaw. “It is a huge problem that Danish citizens can be punished for fighting against ISIS, which Danish and American forces are also fighting against.”
The Unity List now wants an explanation from the Danish government to clarify how the law will be used in practice, and who precisely will be targeted.
“In Unity List, we were very worried when they presented the law, because we feared it could target the wrong persons,” Skipper said. “And now we see that it happens. And it is also why we want to find out what you can and you cannot.”
Jorn Vestergaard, professor of criminal law at the University of Copenhagen, told Rudaw “the legal situation is very murky.”
“There is no general prohibition on participating in armed conflict abroad, as long as you do not participate in terrorism, commit war crimes or violate Danish interests,” he told Rudaw.
“But on the other hand, one must not assist terrorist organizations, and the YPG is linked to the PKK, which is on the terrorist lists,” he added referring to the YPG’s connection to Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is on the terrorism lists of the United States and European Union.
Though many countries have looked the other way on citizens and residents traveling abroad to fight ISIS, Palani is not the first European Kurd to be targeted for doing so.
Shilan Ozcelik, a British woman of Kurdish descent, was arrested earlier this year at London’s Stansted Airport. Her supporters say she travelled to Brussels in an attempt to try to join the YPG or YPJ. She was arrested on January 16, 2015 as she returned from Brussels.
Leftist globalists + rope + lampposts
In my most fevered dreams.
Hey, Turkey is in NATO. It stands for everything the west believes in. Like a 100 million dollar mosque built in Maryland with Ergoden’s money.
To be fair to the Dane authorities, it’s a good precaution to do that to anybody who goes to that part of the world until everything gets sorted out.
However, if they can prove that they did not join ISIS, they should get it back.
But read what her lawyer says. That they are NOT doing that with Muslim Danes who go join ISIS and then come back.
So he claims. If true, that is insanely stupid.
I know that and I support her, if she is joining the Kurds to fight ISIS.
But Taqqyia is central to the Islamic faith and every Muslim that goes to join ISIS will happily claim to join the Kurds if it suits their purpose.
Nah... just pragmatic.
The example of the Kurds getting helped by a Danish citizen, improves relations with local Islamists.
The example of taking passport and punishing a Danish muslim, who joins ISIS, and then returns, yields to other muslims cutting other citizen Danes heads off.
If this doesn’t convince you the West is behind ISIS, I don’t know what will. This is weird though, because publicly we are saying we are fighting ISIS, so she’s just reacting to the MSM propaganda.
Europe backs Turkey
Turkey hates the kurds and is fighting them
ISIS is a proxy war against the Shia that Turkey is using to gain land and power Europe is stupid because Turkey is PURPOSEFULLY sending people their way including lots of Turks from the different stan countries
Not Guilty.
“But read what her lawyer says. That they are NOT doing that with Muslim Danes who go join ISIS and then come back.
So he claims. If true, that is insanely stupid.”
It’s not insanely stupid. It simply shows you who’s side the Leftists, whether in Denmark, America, or any other place, are really on. The Leftists love the criminals, terrorists, thugs, mad men, the insane, the mentally ill, genocidal maniacs, control freaks, and every other kind of tyrant out there from large to small. They worship death and destruction just like the Muzzies do. And that is why they need to all be driven from every job with an ounce of political, economic, religious, and educational power.
Nail, meet hammer. Hammer, meet Jack Hydrazine.
“Not Guilty.”
I need a few more (gulp) beers befor I pas jugmnets....
Excellent summary. Turkey, like Saudi Arabia, is a cancer.
She should get a medal, a trophy, and a college scholarship.
I wish she would come and live in Texas. I like her attitude.
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