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Terrorism policing: the YPG/YPJ, an ally abroad but a danger at home?

The erratic treatment members of the YPG/YPJ receive at the hands of Europe’s counterterrorism networks doesn’t look set to change in the near future.

By Nora Martin
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Johannes Koenig, musician, charged by Munich police for liking an article about the Kurdisch YPG on Facebook by the satire site Der Postillion. Sachelle Babbar/Press Association

The first time Roni ( a pseudonym) came home to London after his 8 months as a medic for the anarchist Kurdish YPG/YPJ in northern Syria, he was nervous. If it wasn’t to see his closest Kurdish friend — a filmmaker for the same forces — laid to rest in Highgate Cemetery, he would have never boarded the plane.

The passengers had not yet disembarked when four uniformed officers marched straight to his seat.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0