Boycotting TV Tax in Germany: Turks Had Enough with Biased Public Broadcast

Turkey’s cross-border operation into Syria to clear the area from Syrian branch of terrorist PKK had butterfly effects in many countries. Pro-PKK people have been on a rampage since the operation kicked off. They have attacked at least 4 Turkish places in the past week. German Turks, on the other hand, call for a peaceful but impossible protest: Boycotting German Public broadcast tax.

“We pay 17.50 euros every month to ARD and ZDF to only watch pro-PKK propaganda,” says Mustafa Uzun, a resident in Cologne, Germany. Many Turks and Kurds who are not sympathetic to PKK/PYD keep their fingers crossed that Turkish army would quickly eliminate the terror group on its border. “But on the other hand we are forced to finance PKK propaganda on public network here,” Uzun continued while smoking his nargile at a bar owned by a Kurdish businessman.

In Germany, every household has to pay 17.50 cents per month to finance the public networks mainly ARD and ZDF regardless of having a TV set or not. Both channels run anti-Turkish programs and news almost on a daily basis. Since the Turkish army launched its operation against PYD in Syria, German media went berserk and throw unconditional support at PYD from ethnic cleansing narration to female fighters propaganda.

Naci Taban called on his followers on twitter to boycott the infamous TV tax. “They assault our country and our politicians with out own money,” he wrote when he made his call. Even though it is almost impossible to avoid the tax in Germany, Taban pointed out some eye-catching details. “There is no legal base for this tax. The German public broadcasters ceased territorial broadcast last year and it made this tax totally illegal,” he wrote.

However some of his followers expressed fear. One twitter user who is born and raised in Germany said “the state jails even Germans for that. Imagine what would they do to us.”

Naci Taban wants to launch a signature campaign to force the issue. He believes 10 thousand signature would put the German government into a situation to re-consider the tax.