‘Western Kurdistan could be a model for a free and democratic Syria’, PYD co-president tells London audience
Salih Muslim, co-president of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) addressed a well-attended seminar entitled The Kurds and the conflict in Syriaat the London School of Economics last Friday.[1] The LSE Middle East Centre hosted the seminar, which was chaired the Centre’s manager, Robert Lowe.
Providing an overview of the latest developments in the ongoing conflict in Syria, Mr Muslim argued that the anti-regime uprising is no longer a struggle for democracy but a fight for control over the country. The bloody conflict that has ensued since the early pro-democracy protests of 2011, he stressed, is the result of regional and international powers arming the revolution and providing military, diplomatic and practical support to extremist factions.
By contrast, the struggle for genuine democratic change by Kurdish groups in Western Kurdistan, in the northern region of Syria, has been largely ignored or undermined by both the internationally recognised opposition – the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) – and by Western governments and the Western media.
Relative peace has been secured in many parts of Western Kurdistan, Mr Muslim continued, with the People’s Defence Forces (YPG) providing self-defence where necessary and the Kurdish political parties, having united under the banner of the Kurdish Supreme Council at a conference in Erbil in July last year, beginning to administer the region under the principles of democratic self-rule.
Democratic self-rule, Mr Muslim emphasised, does not entail the formation of a separate Kurdish state. Rather, the PYD advocates for a free, democratic and plural Syria in which all minorities are recognised and respected within the country’s political framework. In this sense, he added, what has been achieved so far in Western Kurdistan could be seen as a model for the rest of the country.
The fact that thousands of internally displaced people from all over Syria are flowing into Western Kurdistan as refugees looking for a safe haven is testament to the advances the PYD and Syrian Kurds have made over the last year. That no international humanitarian aid has been offered to Western Kurdistan to help support these refugees is, Mr Muslim argued, also the result of a stubborn refusal to recognise the Kurds as a people or as a political reality.
As Mr Muslim explained, the PYD and the Kurdish people joined the early uprisings but opted to take their own path by not sending fighters to Damascus and instead defending their own areas in the North. The FSA, however, is not at all interested in defending themselves or Syria, he said, and they are instead fighting for the interests of their foreign backers.
This independent approach has been cynically and erroneously reported to be the result of some kind of agreement with the Assad government, but Mr Muslim clarified that in reality, the Kurds have long struggled against oppression in Syria, with grassroots uprisings taking place as recently as 2004.
When asked about what possible effects the renewed peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK may have on Syria and Western Kurdistan, Mr Muslim expressed support for the talks and the positive effect it may have on the struggle for recognition in Syria. “This has mostly been rejected by Turkey’, he said. “If they recognise the Kurds of Turkey, they cannot continue to deny recognition to the Kurds of Syria”. He stressed that the most important change Turkey has made in the last couple of years is the decision to restart peace talks with the Kurdish leadership, and also suggested that events in Syria are also likely to have impacted on this decision.
ENDS
Notes:
1. Mr Muslim was in London on a diplomatic visit to the UK, during which he held meetings with senior diplomats, government officials and NGO’s.
For information contact:
Peace in Kurdistan Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish QuestionEmail: estella24@tiscali.co.uk <mailto:estella24@tiscali.co.uk>
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Sirinathsingh - Tel: 020 7272 7890
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Saturday 22 June 2013
Kurdish News Weekly Briefing, 14 - 20 June 2013
1. VIDEO: Istanbul Rising
12 June 2013 / ViceOn Friday, May 31, Turkish riot police fired tear gas and pepper spray into a peaceful protest held to save Gezi Park, one of the last green areas in central Istanbul. This set off the biggest civil uprising in the history of the Turkish Republic, calling for Prime Minister Erdogan’s resignation. The unrest has spread like wildfire to more than 60 cities where protests are still ongoing. We landed in Istanbul the day it all kicked off.
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/vice-news/istanbul-rising
2. Subcomandante Marcos sends a message to Gezi Resistance
17 June 2013 / ANFSubcomandante Marcos wrote a letter of solidarity with the Taksim Gezi Park resistance and the uprising across Turkey. The letter by the leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), Mexican rebel movement fighting for the rights of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, reads:
To the all citizens of the world, Fellows, Sisters, Women, Men, Homeless People, Poor People,
They asked us how many people the Zapatas are and we told them there are hundreds of thousands out there who are fighting for their rights and freedoms. Now today, we hear that on the Anatolian lands, the land of Turks, Kurds, Circassians, Armenians, the Lazs, and many more than i can count, thousands of masked people who wants to live in honor are hailing for freedom. Like Kurdish fellows who were in an honorable fight. We knew that we were not alone, there were millions of us out there and we weren't alone since we have started fighting.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/subcomandante-marcos-sends-a-message-to-gezi-resistance.htm
3. TTB: 7822 people wounded in Gezi Park protests
18 June 2013 / ANFTurkish Doctors' Union (TTB) said in a written statement on Tuesday that four people were killed and 7822 people wounded, 59 severely, as a result of brutal police attack against Gezi Park protestors across the country.
The figures were grounded on the reports by private and public hospitals and medical care centers. According to the Union, injuries were caused by tear gas leading to superficial inflammation and breathing problems, tear gas canisters fired at close range, rubber bullets leading to injuries in musculoskeletal system and intra-abdominal organs, head trauma, eye injury and loss of sight. TTB said all the injuries they ascertained by 17 June had been caused by police violence.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/ttb-7822-people-wounded-in-gezi-park-protests.htm
4. Police to consider protesters in Istanbul’s Taksim Square terror organization members: Minister
17 June 2013 / HurriyetEveryone who enters Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the heart of nearly 20-day-long protests against the government, will be considered a member or a supporter of a terrorist organization, Turkey’s European Union minister said in a televised interview late last night. “I request our citizens who supported the protests until today kindly to return to their homes,” Egemen Bağış said in an interview on broadcaster A Haber. “From now on the state will unfortunately have to consider everyone who remains there a supporter or member of a terror organization,” he said. “Our prime minister has already assured [activists] about their aim with the protests. The protests from now on will play into the hands of some separatist organizations that want to break the peace and prioritize vandalism and terrorism.”
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/police-to-consider-protesters-in-istanbuls-taksim-square-terror-organization-members-minister.aspx?PageID=238&NID=48875&NewsCatID=338
5. VIDEO: Joan Baez salutes the Gezi resistance in Turkish and sings "Imagine" for the people of Turkey.
17 June 2013 / YouTubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRz090qq4C0
6. Police Raids ESP, ETHA, Özgür Radio, Atılım Newspaper
18 June 2013 / BianetAround 5 am local time this morning, police raided several buildings of Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), Özgür Radio, Etkin News Agency and Atılım newspapers, detaining scores of individuals. Police raids on ESP included the party headquarters as well as apartments of party members and leaders. Peace and Democracy Party deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder was visiting Alp Altınörs from ESP as police raided his apartment.
Police search resumes in ETHA office where journalists Arzu Demir and Derya Okatan are waiting. “Early morning, a special team with snow masks and rifles raided my apartment. They had me and my wife lay on the floor. We had to remain like that until they searched our IDs…” ETHA Editor İsminaz Ergün said on the police raid.
http://www.bianet.org/english/media/147696-police-raids-esp-etha-ozgur-radio-atilim-newspaper
7. Diyarbakir conference announces demands from government
18 June 2013 / KurdpressThe two-day conference Diyarbakir ended on Monday with a declaration listing the demands of Turkey's Kurds including freedom for the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, and special autonomous status for Turkey's Kurdish-dominated regions, Zaman daily said. Titled “North Kurdistan Unity and Solution Conference,” the conference released a declaration and announced the demands of the Turkey Kureds from Ankara government. Read out by Kurdish politician Aysel Tugluk, an independent deputy of Van, and co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) organization, the declaration stated that “The peoples of Kurdistan have the right to determine their own status in the form of autonomy, federation or independence.” The declaration demanded freedom for Ocalan and also that the PKK be taken off of Turkey's and other international organizations' list of terrorist organizations.
http://tinyurl.com/lbnseuy
8. Abdullah Öcalan: I Have 50 Percent Hope
14 June 2013 / BianetMehmet Öcalan told about his recent visit to his brother Abdullah Öcalan, PKK leader who is currently in solitary confinement in Imrali Island. Some of the highlights from the meeting are as follows:
* A. Öcalan said the first step of the process is over even though some of his demands have not been realized. "We hope the second step will be more positive. This is our expectation, hope. We will transition to the second step in the days to come. We don’t know how it will unfold. I have 50 percent hope,” he said.
* A. Öcalan: “At least they must have put off the village guard system. Why are they building gigantic headquarters? They are hiring new village guards. If the process will end good, their is no need to hire village guards. There is no need to build tower-like headquarters. They will not contribute to the process.”
http://www.bianet.org/english/minorities/147571-abdullah-ocalan-i-have-50-percent-hope
9. Demirtaş: Peace process faces the risk of deadlock
18 June 2013 / ANFSpeaking at the parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said that the peace process faced the risk of deadlock because of the practices of the ruling AKP government. We can make no headway by acting with a mentality that prevents the breathing of democratic politics, he underlined.
Demirtaş criticized Diyarbakır public prosecutor for ruling the ongoing Roboski case out of its jurisdiction and transferring the case to the military prosecutor of the chief of General Staff. "Do you have to wait for 18 months to understand that you lack jurisdiction?", he asked, addressing to the public prosecutor and remarked that "We know the prosecutors and law-enforcement officers conducting the investigation, and the Prime Minister are responsible for the Roboski massacre which everyone, from the PM to Uludere Command, are trying to cover up. The solution process will make no progress unless light is shed on Roboski massacre".
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/demirtas-peace-process-faces-the-risk-of-deadlock.htm
10. Kurdish rebel commander warns Turkish state sabotaging peace
19 June 2013 / ReutersA top Kurdish militant commander warned on Wednesday a fragile peace process had been jeopardized by increased military activity and a lack of concrete steps by the government, including the continued detention of Kurdish politicians.
Members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) began a withdrawal from Turkish territory to bases in northern Iraq last month, part of a deal brokered between the state and the group's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan earlier this year aimed at ending a conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives since 1984.
"The state is doing what it can to sabotage this process. It is preparing for war. This is creating serious problems for us," Murat Karayilan, the PKK commander based in northern Iraq, told the Firat news agency, which is close to the rebels.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/19/us-turkey-kurds-idUSBRE95I0V820130619 <http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/19/us-turkey-kurds-idUSBRE95I0V820130619>
11. World and regional situation not ready for Turkey Kurds independence: Layla Zana
19 June 2013 / KurdpressThe Kurdish independent deputy of southeastern province of Diyarbakir Layla Zana said the world and regional situation does not allow the independence of the Turkey Kurds, T24 news portal said. Addressing a two-day Diyarbakir conference, Zana said she wished full independence of the Kurds from Turkey but the ideal is not always possible.
“The present political situation of the world and the region never allows the independence of the Kurds and we should not step towards the move”, Zana said in “Northern Kurdistan Unity and Solution” conference. She added the Kurds should think of ways and plans which are in line with the demands of the people and the situation of Turkey and the region.
http://tinyurl.com/q6ehozn
12. Wise People conclude new constitution needed immediately
18 June 2013 / World BulletinThe wise people commision designated by the government to debate the settlement process with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in seven geographical regions of Turkey has concluded that a new civilian, democratic constitution is needed for a permanent solution to the problem. The committee is expected to submit their final reports, which summarize the two-month study of each group from the seven regions, to the prime minister in the near future. The chair of the Marmara region committee, Professor Deniz Ülke Arıboğan, emphasized the need for a new constitution, saying: “At least some articles must be changed. I do not know whether the current Parliament is able to make a new constitution from scratch, but even changing some articles would be a positive development.” The chair of the Black Sea region committee, Professor Yusuf Şevki Hakyemez, also said the primary demand of the people they talked to in the Black Sea region was for a new constitution.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=111336
13. Government works on legal reform for Kurdish solution
18 June 2013 / HurriyetThe Turkish government has started working on a package of legal steps to be submitted to Parliament in the context of an initiative to find a political solution to the country’s painful Kurdish issue, a Justice Ministry source who asked not to be named told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday. The high-level source also said that the work had been carried out on the basis of a plan submitted by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) to Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin on June 10, and that the draft is expected to be ready to be submitted to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in two to three weeks’ time. “That will start the second phase of the process,” the official said. “Following the completion of the pull-back of militants.”
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/government-works-on-legal-reform-for-kurdish-solution.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48992&NewsCatID=338
14. Middle East Women’s Conference Final Resolution
18 June 2013 / Peace in Kurdistan campaignBetween 31 May and 2 June, the first Middle East Women’s Conference took place in Amed (Diyarbakir). This event, organized by the Free Democratic Women Movement was titled ‘Jin – Jiyan – Azadi’ (women – life – freedom) and was dedicated to the three Kurdish women political activists who were murdered in Paris on 9 January, Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez. For three days, 250 women from 26 Middle Eastern and North African countries discussed their experiences in the fight for liberation patriarchal power systems and shared their perspectives on the current political developments in the region.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/middle-east-womens-conference-final-resolution/
15. Iranian Kurdish Struggle Linked to Turkey, Syria
14 June 2013 / Al MonitorOn June 6, near the northwestern border of Iran, Yusuf Hamzelu, a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported. He was buried in Zandan on June 10. However, the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), PKK’s Iranian branch, denied the news report in a media release and actually accused Iran of hiding the fact that the Iranian soldier was killed by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Syria. There have been claims before that Iran is actively assisting Syria’s embattled president Bashar al-Assad. The Lebanese Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has also been actively supporting Assad’s operations against Syrian rebels, which led to Assad retaking Qusair near the Lebanese border.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/iran-Revolutionary-guard-syria.html <http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/iran-Revolutionary-guard-syria.html>
16. Huge Turkish solidarity protest in Harringay as Taksim Square cleared
16 June 2013 / IndymediaOrganisers dealing with the police in Harringay were told that a planned solidarity march in north London would not be authorised. They went ahead anyway, and at 5pm on Saturday evening more than 2000 people assembled with banners, pots, pans and whistles at manor house. their own stewards expertly redirected traffic without incident as they marched the length of green lanes and through wood green to the civic centre where they held a rally listening to speeches from various Turkish organisations and other supporting groups. Bizarrely, the police were completely absent. not one cop in sight, and despite the numbers, the march passed with the minimum of disruption and of course completely peacefully.
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/06/510510.html
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
17. The Battle for the Heart of Istanbul Is Raging On
17 June 2013 / ViceEarly on Saturday night, the protest village of tents and flags that had been set up in Istanbul's Gezi Park was razed, and its inhabitants emphatically tear-gassed and cleared, at the behest of Turkey's combative Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In response, anti-government protesters (mostly, but not exclusively, made up from Turkey's young urban middle class) took to the country's streets all weekend, building barricades and clashing with riot police, with crowds of several thousands blocking major highways and bridges in an effort to join them.
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/battle-heart-of-istanbul-erdogan-tear-gas
18. Welcome to the Turkish Republic of Police State
19 June 2013 / HurriyetTurkey has become a country where the ruling party representing half of the country’s electorate is exercising the state’s police (and military if needed) force in the most brutal way on the other half of electorate, who launched a massive uprising against the government’s growing authoritarian inclinations. How we have managed to arrive at this point surely requires a substantial analysis. I leave this task social and political scientists but my reading of this behavior is as follows. At the core of this behavior lies the “us and them” policy/rhetoric of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose purpose is to discriminate against those who do not share the conservative lifestyle of a pious Muslim and create a sort of “neighborhood pressure” on them.http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/welcome-to-the-turkish-republic-of-police-state-.aspx?PageID=238&NID=49036&NewsCatID=429
19. The PKK’s tentative peace with Turkey
19 June 2013 / Foreign PolicyMurat Karayilan's mustached face soured as he read from the daily intelligence report prepared by his field commanders in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the rebel group that has fought Turkey since 1984. The Turkish army is flying Cobra attack helicopters even as PKK guerrillas withdraw from Turkey to camps in northern Iraq, the report said. U.S. drones still buzz over the PKK's mountain strongholds. Turkish military operations continue near the Iraqi border, the militants have written. Karayilan, chairman of the executive council of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the umbrella formation that encompasses the PKK, denounced these and other "provocations," but insisted they will not upset the tentative peace process with Ankara as long as there are no attacks.
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/06/19/the_pkk_s_tentative_peace_with_turkey<http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/06/19/the_pkk_s_tentative_peace_with_turkey>
20. Turkey: Dilemma of the Kurds
15 June 2013 / Middle East OnlineThe world’s attention is focused at the moment on Taksim Square in Istanbul and the popular uprising against the government of Recip Tayyip Erdogan. Everyone is saying that the anti-authoritarian rebellions that have been sweeping the world, and lately particularly the Middle East, have now reached Turkey, long acclaimed as a “model” government that would be impervious to such uprisings. As with similar uprisings, the focus is on the authoritarian behavior of the government, and for some, its commitment to neo-liberal economic policies. Thus far, what started as a tiny protest of environmentalists against the government’s intention to eliminate the last major green area inside Istanbul in favor of a development project caught on and attracted daily more and more people to Taksim Square in Istanbul and similar sites all over Turkey.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=59474
21. Kurds Uneasy About Turkish Protests
13 June 2013 /IHT RendezvousTurkey’s historically marginalized Kurdish community has been largely absent from the anti-government protests that drew thousands to Taksim Square in Istanbul.
“Turkish protests, Kurdish indifference,” read a headline at the Kurd.net Web site this week above an article by Kani Xulam, a Washington-based Kurdish activist.
“Do we not want to curb the power of sultan wannabe prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan?” Mr. Xulam asked. “Apparently not.”
“In Taksim Square, where are the Kurds?” asked Jenna Krajeski in a New Yorker blog. “With some notable exceptions, Kurds, usually Turkey’s most robust anti-government protesters, had been absent,” she wrote.
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/kurds-uneasy-about-turkish-protests/
22. Turkey’s Terrorism Confusion
17 June 2013 / CommentaryOne of the bedrocks of the U.S.-Turkey partnership has been U.S. provision of so-called counter-terrorism assistance to Turkey. In theory, the counter-terrorism assistance is meant to allow Turkey to counter its Kurdish insurgency, long led by the Kurdistan Workers Party, better known by its Kurdish acronym, the PKK. However, for the past three months, the Turkish government and PKK have been in active peace talks and the truce between them has held. I have written before about how a lack of a universal definition of what terrorism is hampers the fight against it. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will label the PKK as terrorists, but somehow say that Hamas is not a terrorist group. Indeed, as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Jonathan Schanzer pointed out, Erdoğan took time out from managing the state response to protests by liberals, secularists, trade unionists, educators, and others to meet with senior Hamas leaders today.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/06/17/turkeys-terrorism-confusion/
23. Fourth Annual Conference on Turkey
14 June 2013 / Middle East InstitutePodcasts are available of each session of last week’s conference on Turkey, organised by the Middle East Institute and held in Washington DC. Speakers included: Rep. Ed Whitfield, Robert Ford, US Ambassador to Syria, representatives from Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Aliza Marcus and more.
http://www.mei.edu/events/fourth-annual-conference-turkey-0
24. Kurds Advance, Into the Unknown
18 June 2013 / Inter Press ServiceA ban on political and even social gatherings, a bar on Kurdish language and culture; uprooting people, forced disappearances and a ‘caste’ of hundreds of thousands of local Kurds deprived of citizenship… life for Kurds in pre-war Syria was probably as dire as it is today for their kin in Iran. About 40 million Kurds comprise today’s largest stateless nation. Numbering around three million in Syria, they are the biggest minority in the country, as many as the Alawites, the ethno-religious group of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. After decades of brutal repression at the hands of President Assad and earlier his father president Hafez Assad, Syrian Kurds had attempted to revolt in 2004. So it came as no surprise that they joined the uprising in March 2011. A few months later they were shaking off the control of Damascus by manning their own checkpoints and ensuring an area where social centres, Kurdish schools and political parties – both new and those in hiding for decades – would pop up in their dozens.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/06/kurds-advance-into-the-unknown/
12 June 2013 / ViceOn Friday, May 31, Turkish riot police fired tear gas and pepper spray into a peaceful protest held to save Gezi Park, one of the last green areas in central Istanbul. This set off the biggest civil uprising in the history of the Turkish Republic, calling for Prime Minister Erdogan’s resignation. The unrest has spread like wildfire to more than 60 cities where protests are still ongoing. We landed in Istanbul the day it all kicked off.
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/vice-news/istanbul-rising
2. Subcomandante Marcos sends a message to Gezi Resistance
17 June 2013 / ANFSubcomandante Marcos wrote a letter of solidarity with the Taksim Gezi Park resistance and the uprising across Turkey. The letter by the leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), Mexican rebel movement fighting for the rights of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, reads:
To the all citizens of the world, Fellows, Sisters, Women, Men, Homeless People, Poor People,
They asked us how many people the Zapatas are and we told them there are hundreds of thousands out there who are fighting for their rights and freedoms. Now today, we hear that on the Anatolian lands, the land of Turks, Kurds, Circassians, Armenians, the Lazs, and many more than i can count, thousands of masked people who wants to live in honor are hailing for freedom. Like Kurdish fellows who were in an honorable fight. We knew that we were not alone, there were millions of us out there and we weren't alone since we have started fighting.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/subcomandante-marcos-sends-a-message-to-gezi-resistance.htm
3. TTB: 7822 people wounded in Gezi Park protests
18 June 2013 / ANFTurkish Doctors' Union (TTB) said in a written statement on Tuesday that four people were killed and 7822 people wounded, 59 severely, as a result of brutal police attack against Gezi Park protestors across the country.
The figures were grounded on the reports by private and public hospitals and medical care centers. According to the Union, injuries were caused by tear gas leading to superficial inflammation and breathing problems, tear gas canisters fired at close range, rubber bullets leading to injuries in musculoskeletal system and intra-abdominal organs, head trauma, eye injury and loss of sight. TTB said all the injuries they ascertained by 17 June had been caused by police violence.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/ttb-7822-people-wounded-in-gezi-park-protests.htm
4. Police to consider protesters in Istanbul’s Taksim Square terror organization members: Minister
17 June 2013 / HurriyetEveryone who enters Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the heart of nearly 20-day-long protests against the government, will be considered a member or a supporter of a terrorist organization, Turkey’s European Union minister said in a televised interview late last night. “I request our citizens who supported the protests until today kindly to return to their homes,” Egemen Bağış said in an interview on broadcaster A Haber. “From now on the state will unfortunately have to consider everyone who remains there a supporter or member of a terror organization,” he said. “Our prime minister has already assured [activists] about their aim with the protests. The protests from now on will play into the hands of some separatist organizations that want to break the peace and prioritize vandalism and terrorism.”
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/police-to-consider-protesters-in-istanbuls-taksim-square-terror-organization-members-minister.aspx?PageID=238&NID=48875&NewsCatID=338
5. VIDEO: Joan Baez salutes the Gezi resistance in Turkish and sings "Imagine" for the people of Turkey.
17 June 2013 / YouTubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRz090qq4C0
6. Police Raids ESP, ETHA, Özgür Radio, Atılım Newspaper
18 June 2013 / BianetAround 5 am local time this morning, police raided several buildings of Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), Özgür Radio, Etkin News Agency and Atılım newspapers, detaining scores of individuals. Police raids on ESP included the party headquarters as well as apartments of party members and leaders. Peace and Democracy Party deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder was visiting Alp Altınörs from ESP as police raided his apartment.
Police search resumes in ETHA office where journalists Arzu Demir and Derya Okatan are waiting. “Early morning, a special team with snow masks and rifles raided my apartment. They had me and my wife lay on the floor. We had to remain like that until they searched our IDs…” ETHA Editor İsminaz Ergün said on the police raid.
http://www.bianet.org/english/media/147696-police-raids-esp-etha-ozgur-radio-atilim-newspaper
7. Diyarbakir conference announces demands from government
18 June 2013 / KurdpressThe two-day conference Diyarbakir ended on Monday with a declaration listing the demands of Turkey's Kurds including freedom for the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, and special autonomous status for Turkey's Kurdish-dominated regions, Zaman daily said. Titled “North Kurdistan Unity and Solution Conference,” the conference released a declaration and announced the demands of the Turkey Kureds from Ankara government. Read out by Kurdish politician Aysel Tugluk, an independent deputy of Van, and co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) organization, the declaration stated that “The peoples of Kurdistan have the right to determine their own status in the form of autonomy, federation or independence.” The declaration demanded freedom for Ocalan and also that the PKK be taken off of Turkey's and other international organizations' list of terrorist organizations.
http://tinyurl.com/lbnseuy
8. Abdullah Öcalan: I Have 50 Percent Hope
14 June 2013 / BianetMehmet Öcalan told about his recent visit to his brother Abdullah Öcalan, PKK leader who is currently in solitary confinement in Imrali Island. Some of the highlights from the meeting are as follows:
* A. Öcalan said the first step of the process is over even though some of his demands have not been realized. "We hope the second step will be more positive. This is our expectation, hope. We will transition to the second step in the days to come. We don’t know how it will unfold. I have 50 percent hope,” he said.
* A. Öcalan: “At least they must have put off the village guard system. Why are they building gigantic headquarters? They are hiring new village guards. If the process will end good, their is no need to hire village guards. There is no need to build tower-like headquarters. They will not contribute to the process.”
http://www.bianet.org/english/minorities/147571-abdullah-ocalan-i-have-50-percent-hope
9. Demirtaş: Peace process faces the risk of deadlock
18 June 2013 / ANFSpeaking at the parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said that the peace process faced the risk of deadlock because of the practices of the ruling AKP government. We can make no headway by acting with a mentality that prevents the breathing of democratic politics, he underlined.
Demirtaş criticized Diyarbakır public prosecutor for ruling the ongoing Roboski case out of its jurisdiction and transferring the case to the military prosecutor of the chief of General Staff. "Do you have to wait for 18 months to understand that you lack jurisdiction?", he asked, addressing to the public prosecutor and remarked that "We know the prosecutors and law-enforcement officers conducting the investigation, and the Prime Minister are responsible for the Roboski massacre which everyone, from the PM to Uludere Command, are trying to cover up. The solution process will make no progress unless light is shed on Roboski massacre".
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/demirtas-peace-process-faces-the-risk-of-deadlock.htm
10. Kurdish rebel commander warns Turkish state sabotaging peace
19 June 2013 / ReutersA top Kurdish militant commander warned on Wednesday a fragile peace process had been jeopardized by increased military activity and a lack of concrete steps by the government, including the continued detention of Kurdish politicians.
Members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) began a withdrawal from Turkish territory to bases in northern Iraq last month, part of a deal brokered between the state and the group's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan earlier this year aimed at ending a conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives since 1984.
"The state is doing what it can to sabotage this process. It is preparing for war. This is creating serious problems for us," Murat Karayilan, the PKK commander based in northern Iraq, told the Firat news agency, which is close to the rebels.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/19/us-turkey-kurds-idUSBRE95I0V820130619 <http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/19/us-turkey-kurds-idUSBRE95I0V820130619>
11. World and regional situation not ready for Turkey Kurds independence: Layla Zana
19 June 2013 / KurdpressThe Kurdish independent deputy of southeastern province of Diyarbakir Layla Zana said the world and regional situation does not allow the independence of the Turkey Kurds, T24 news portal said. Addressing a two-day Diyarbakir conference, Zana said she wished full independence of the Kurds from Turkey but the ideal is not always possible.
“The present political situation of the world and the region never allows the independence of the Kurds and we should not step towards the move”, Zana said in “Northern Kurdistan Unity and Solution” conference. She added the Kurds should think of ways and plans which are in line with the demands of the people and the situation of Turkey and the region.
http://tinyurl.com/q6ehozn
12. Wise People conclude new constitution needed immediately
18 June 2013 / World BulletinThe wise people commision designated by the government to debate the settlement process with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in seven geographical regions of Turkey has concluded that a new civilian, democratic constitution is needed for a permanent solution to the problem. The committee is expected to submit their final reports, which summarize the two-month study of each group from the seven regions, to the prime minister in the near future. The chair of the Marmara region committee, Professor Deniz Ülke Arıboğan, emphasized the need for a new constitution, saying: “At least some articles must be changed. I do not know whether the current Parliament is able to make a new constitution from scratch, but even changing some articles would be a positive development.” The chair of the Black Sea region committee, Professor Yusuf Şevki Hakyemez, also said the primary demand of the people they talked to in the Black Sea region was for a new constitution.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=111336
13. Government works on legal reform for Kurdish solution
18 June 2013 / HurriyetThe Turkish government has started working on a package of legal steps to be submitted to Parliament in the context of an initiative to find a political solution to the country’s painful Kurdish issue, a Justice Ministry source who asked not to be named told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday. The high-level source also said that the work had been carried out on the basis of a plan submitted by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) to Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin on June 10, and that the draft is expected to be ready to be submitted to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in two to three weeks’ time. “That will start the second phase of the process,” the official said. “Following the completion of the pull-back of militants.”
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/government-works-on-legal-reform-for-kurdish-solution.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48992&NewsCatID=338
14. Middle East Women’s Conference Final Resolution
18 June 2013 / Peace in Kurdistan campaignBetween 31 May and 2 June, the first Middle East Women’s Conference took place in Amed (Diyarbakir). This event, organized by the Free Democratic Women Movement was titled ‘Jin – Jiyan – Azadi’ (women – life – freedom) and was dedicated to the three Kurdish women political activists who were murdered in Paris on 9 January, Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez. For three days, 250 women from 26 Middle Eastern and North African countries discussed their experiences in the fight for liberation patriarchal power systems and shared their perspectives on the current political developments in the region.
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/middle-east-womens-conference-final-resolution/
15. Iranian Kurdish Struggle Linked to Turkey, Syria
14 June 2013 / Al MonitorOn June 6, near the northwestern border of Iran, Yusuf Hamzelu, a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported. He was buried in Zandan on June 10. However, the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), PKK’s Iranian branch, denied the news report in a media release and actually accused Iran of hiding the fact that the Iranian soldier was killed by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Syria. There have been claims before that Iran is actively assisting Syria’s embattled president Bashar al-Assad. The Lebanese Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has also been actively supporting Assad’s operations against Syrian rebels, which led to Assad retaking Qusair near the Lebanese border.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/iran-Revolutionary-guard-syria.html <http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/iran-Revolutionary-guard-syria.html>
16. Huge Turkish solidarity protest in Harringay as Taksim Square cleared
16 June 2013 / IndymediaOrganisers dealing with the police in Harringay were told that a planned solidarity march in north London would not be authorised. They went ahead anyway, and at 5pm on Saturday evening more than 2000 people assembled with banners, pots, pans and whistles at manor house. their own stewards expertly redirected traffic without incident as they marched the length of green lanes and through wood green to the civic centre where they held a rally listening to speeches from various Turkish organisations and other supporting groups. Bizarrely, the police were completely absent. not one cop in sight, and despite the numbers, the march passed with the minimum of disruption and of course completely peacefully.
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/06/510510.html
COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS
17. The Battle for the Heart of Istanbul Is Raging On
17 June 2013 / ViceEarly on Saturday night, the protest village of tents and flags that had been set up in Istanbul's Gezi Park was razed, and its inhabitants emphatically tear-gassed and cleared, at the behest of Turkey's combative Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In response, anti-government protesters (mostly, but not exclusively, made up from Turkey's young urban middle class) took to the country's streets all weekend, building barricades and clashing with riot police, with crowds of several thousands blocking major highways and bridges in an effort to join them.
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/battle-heart-of-istanbul-erdogan-tear-gas
18. Welcome to the Turkish Republic of Police State
19 June 2013 / HurriyetTurkey has become a country where the ruling party representing half of the country’s electorate is exercising the state’s police (and military if needed) force in the most brutal way on the other half of electorate, who launched a massive uprising against the government’s growing authoritarian inclinations. How we have managed to arrive at this point surely requires a substantial analysis. I leave this task social and political scientists but my reading of this behavior is as follows. At the core of this behavior lies the “us and them” policy/rhetoric of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose purpose is to discriminate against those who do not share the conservative lifestyle of a pious Muslim and create a sort of “neighborhood pressure” on them.http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/welcome-to-the-turkish-republic-of-police-state-.aspx?PageID=238&NID=49036&NewsCatID=429
19. The PKK’s tentative peace with Turkey
19 June 2013 / Foreign PolicyMurat Karayilan's mustached face soured as he read from the daily intelligence report prepared by his field commanders in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the rebel group that has fought Turkey since 1984. The Turkish army is flying Cobra attack helicopters even as PKK guerrillas withdraw from Turkey to camps in northern Iraq, the report said. U.S. drones still buzz over the PKK's mountain strongholds. Turkish military operations continue near the Iraqi border, the militants have written. Karayilan, chairman of the executive council of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the umbrella formation that encompasses the PKK, denounced these and other "provocations," but insisted they will not upset the tentative peace process with Ankara as long as there are no attacks.
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/06/19/the_pkk_s_tentative_peace_with_turkey<http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/06/19/the_pkk_s_tentative_peace_with_turkey>
20. Turkey: Dilemma of the Kurds
15 June 2013 / Middle East OnlineThe world’s attention is focused at the moment on Taksim Square in Istanbul and the popular uprising against the government of Recip Tayyip Erdogan. Everyone is saying that the anti-authoritarian rebellions that have been sweeping the world, and lately particularly the Middle East, have now reached Turkey, long acclaimed as a “model” government that would be impervious to such uprisings. As with similar uprisings, the focus is on the authoritarian behavior of the government, and for some, its commitment to neo-liberal economic policies. Thus far, what started as a tiny protest of environmentalists against the government’s intention to eliminate the last major green area inside Istanbul in favor of a development project caught on and attracted daily more and more people to Taksim Square in Istanbul and similar sites all over Turkey.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=59474
21. Kurds Uneasy About Turkish Protests
13 June 2013 /IHT RendezvousTurkey’s historically marginalized Kurdish community has been largely absent from the anti-government protests that drew thousands to Taksim Square in Istanbul.
“Turkish protests, Kurdish indifference,” read a headline at the Kurd.net Web site this week above an article by Kani Xulam, a Washington-based Kurdish activist.
“Do we not want to curb the power of sultan wannabe prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan?” Mr. Xulam asked. “Apparently not.”
“In Taksim Square, where are the Kurds?” asked Jenna Krajeski in a New Yorker blog. “With some notable exceptions, Kurds, usually Turkey’s most robust anti-government protesters, had been absent,” she wrote.
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/kurds-uneasy-about-turkish-protests/
22. Turkey’s Terrorism Confusion
17 June 2013 / CommentaryOne of the bedrocks of the U.S.-Turkey partnership has been U.S. provision of so-called counter-terrorism assistance to Turkey. In theory, the counter-terrorism assistance is meant to allow Turkey to counter its Kurdish insurgency, long led by the Kurdistan Workers Party, better known by its Kurdish acronym, the PKK. However, for the past three months, the Turkish government and PKK have been in active peace talks and the truce between them has held. I have written before about how a lack of a universal definition of what terrorism is hampers the fight against it. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will label the PKK as terrorists, but somehow say that Hamas is not a terrorist group. Indeed, as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Jonathan Schanzer pointed out, Erdoğan took time out from managing the state response to protests by liberals, secularists, trade unionists, educators, and others to meet with senior Hamas leaders today.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/06/17/turkeys-terrorism-confusion/
23. Fourth Annual Conference on Turkey
14 June 2013 / Middle East InstitutePodcasts are available of each session of last week’s conference on Turkey, organised by the Middle East Institute and held in Washington DC. Speakers included: Rep. Ed Whitfield, Robert Ford, US Ambassador to Syria, representatives from Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Aliza Marcus and more.
http://www.mei.edu/events/fourth-annual-conference-turkey-0
24. Kurds Advance, Into the Unknown
18 June 2013 / Inter Press ServiceA ban on political and even social gatherings, a bar on Kurdish language and culture; uprooting people, forced disappearances and a ‘caste’ of hundreds of thousands of local Kurds deprived of citizenship… life for Kurds in pre-war Syria was probably as dire as it is today for their kin in Iran. About 40 million Kurds comprise today’s largest stateless nation. Numbering around three million in Syria, they are the biggest minority in the country, as many as the Alawites, the ethno-religious group of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. After decades of brutal repression at the hands of President Assad and earlier his father president Hafez Assad, Syrian Kurds had attempted to revolt in 2004. So it came as no surprise that they joined the uprising in March 2011. A few months later they were shaking off the control of Damascus by manning their own checkpoints and ensuring an area where social centres, Kurdish schools and political parties – both new and those in hiding for decades – would pop up in their dozens.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/06/kurds-advance-into-the-unknown/
Kurdish Women Festival
Free Kurdish Women’s Festival in London on 28, 29 and 30 June
* Once more Roj Women will be celebrating a year of Kurdish women’s struggles.
* On 28, 29 and 30 June London will host the 10th Kurdish Women’s Festival by Roj Women with a programme full of discussions, music and sisterhood.
There are various reasons why Roj Women keeps putting every effort to organise this festival for the past 10 years. First of all it is a great networking event for many Kurdish women, a time to connect and socialise but also to find out about activities and services they can access, and to feel they are not alone in their private (but common) struggles, including domestic violence, isolation and parenting difficulties.
Not just women, but the Kurdish community overall benefits from the event, having access to debates with key (female) political figures as well as to culture activities (music, dance, and other art forms). Along with Newroz celebrations, this is a major Kurdish event in London.
Beyond the usefulness for the actual participants, the festival fulfils a role for the Kurdish women's movement, giving it visibility in the UK and showing that we are active and internationally connected, that we offer services but that we are also political and demand change and transformation.
For Roj Women the festival is a bastion of our identity and one we hope we'll manage to sustain over the years despite the financial difficulties we are facing.
Visit Roj Women's blog for the full programme: http://rojwomen.com/2013/06/19/free-kurdish-womens-festival-in-london-coming-up-soon/
For more information email rojwomen@gmail.com
-- Roj Women's Association
31-33, Dalston Lane. London, E8 3DF
www.rojwomen.com <http://www.rojwomen.com>
* Once more Roj Women will be celebrating a year of Kurdish women’s struggles.
* On 28, 29 and 30 June London will host the 10th Kurdish Women’s Festival by Roj Women with a programme full of discussions, music and sisterhood.
There are various reasons why Roj Women keeps putting every effort to organise this festival for the past 10 years. First of all it is a great networking event for many Kurdish women, a time to connect and socialise but also to find out about activities and services they can access, and to feel they are not alone in their private (but common) struggles, including domestic violence, isolation and parenting difficulties.
Not just women, but the Kurdish community overall benefits from the event, having access to debates with key (female) political figures as well as to culture activities (music, dance, and other art forms). Along with Newroz celebrations, this is a major Kurdish event in London.
Beyond the usefulness for the actual participants, the festival fulfils a role for the Kurdish women's movement, giving it visibility in the UK and showing that we are active and internationally connected, that we offer services but that we are also political and demand change and transformation.
For Roj Women the festival is a bastion of our identity and one we hope we'll manage to sustain over the years despite the financial difficulties we are facing.
Visit Roj Women's blog for the full programme: http://rojwomen.com/2013/06/19/free-kurdish-womens-festival-in-london-coming-up-soon/
For more information email rojwomen@gmail.com
-- Roj Women's Association
31-33, Dalston Lane. London, E8 3DF
www.rojwomen.com <http://www.rojwomen.com>
PiK Press Release: International monitors to observe fifth hearing in mass trial of lawyers
Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
18 June 2013
International monitors to observe fifth hearing in mass trial of lawyers
A delegation of lawyers from the UK arrives in Turkey today to observe a mass trial of 46 lawyers in Istanbul.
Human rights barrister Margaret Owen OBE, Bar Human Rights Committee member and barrister Melanie Gingell, and solicitor Ali Has, member of the Law Society, will join dozens of other international monitors from across Europe to observe the hearing at Silivri Prison Complex, which hosts the largest courthouse in Europe, on Wednesday 20 June.
The observers will witness the fifth hearing in a long running political mass trial of 46 lawyers who have been accused of supporting terrorism and being members of an illegal organisation. All the defendants had acted as legal representatives for imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan, although some had not even met him in person. It is for this work that the lawyers are being persecuted.
The trial in the midst of an ongoing crisis for the Turkish government, as hundreds of security forces used rubber bullets and tear gas once again on Monday night in an attempt to clear Taksim Square of anti-government protesters. It also comes less than a week after another few dozen lawyers were temporarily detained by police during a rally in Çağlayan Court condemning the violent crackdown of the protests.
The trial has already been heavily criticised for breaching international law and violating their rights, as set out in the UN principles on the role of lawyers, to work without being associated with the crimes of their clients.
Previous hearings have revealed a litany of abuses on the part of the Turkish judiciary in the prosecution of these lawyers, including illegal wiretapping of confidential lawyer-client meetings and other forms of covert surveillance.
This trial is one of dozens of ongoing mass show trials of Kurdish intellectuals and activists in Turkey. Since 2009, over 8,000 people have been arrested in the name of the KCK investigations – counterterrorism operations that in reality have little to do with countering terrorism, but rather have been used as a means of criminalising peaceful dissent and Kurdish political and cultural expression. The thousands of political prisoners now in jail as a result of these investigations, including the lawyers, have been discussed as a critical issue in peace talks between PKK leadership and the Turkish government.
The fourth hearing [http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/resources/pik-campaign-statements/lawyers-of-jailed-kurdish-leader-set-to-face-judges-once-again] took place on 28 March 2013.
Peace in Kurdistan campaign has been monitoring this case, along with other KCK trials, since the initial arrests of the lawyers in November 2011. You can find out more about this work, and read trial monitoring reports by our delegates, here: http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/activities/delegations/international-observation-of-the-kck-trial-of-kurdish-lawyers.
For further information contact:
Peace in Kurdistan Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Sirinathsingh - Tel: 020 7272 7890
Fax: 020 7263 0596
Patrons: Lord Avebury, Lord Rea, Lord Dholakia, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Jill Evans MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Hywel Williams MP, Elfyn Llwyd MP, Conor Murphy MP, John Austin, Bruce Kent, Gareth Peirce, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, John Berger, Edward Albee, Margaret Owen OBE, Prof Mary Davis, Mark Thomas
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
18 June 2013
International monitors to observe fifth hearing in mass trial of lawyers
A delegation of lawyers from the UK arrives in Turkey today to observe a mass trial of 46 lawyers in Istanbul.
Human rights barrister Margaret Owen OBE, Bar Human Rights Committee member and barrister Melanie Gingell, and solicitor Ali Has, member of the Law Society, will join dozens of other international monitors from across Europe to observe the hearing at Silivri Prison Complex, which hosts the largest courthouse in Europe, on Wednesday 20 June.
The observers will witness the fifth hearing in a long running political mass trial of 46 lawyers who have been accused of supporting terrorism and being members of an illegal organisation. All the defendants had acted as legal representatives for imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan, although some had not even met him in person. It is for this work that the lawyers are being persecuted.
The trial in the midst of an ongoing crisis for the Turkish government, as hundreds of security forces used rubber bullets and tear gas once again on Monday night in an attempt to clear Taksim Square of anti-government protesters. It also comes less than a week after another few dozen lawyers were temporarily detained by police during a rally in Çağlayan Court condemning the violent crackdown of the protests.
The trial has already been heavily criticised for breaching international law and violating their rights, as set out in the UN principles on the role of lawyers, to work without being associated with the crimes of their clients.
Previous hearings have revealed a litany of abuses on the part of the Turkish judiciary in the prosecution of these lawyers, including illegal wiretapping of confidential lawyer-client meetings and other forms of covert surveillance.
This trial is one of dozens of ongoing mass show trials of Kurdish intellectuals and activists in Turkey. Since 2009, over 8,000 people have been arrested in the name of the KCK investigations – counterterrorism operations that in reality have little to do with countering terrorism, but rather have been used as a means of criminalising peaceful dissent and Kurdish political and cultural expression. The thousands of political prisoners now in jail as a result of these investigations, including the lawyers, have been discussed as a critical issue in peace talks between PKK leadership and the Turkish government.
The fourth hearing [http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/resources/pik-campaign-statements/lawyers-of-jailed-kurdish-leader-set-to-face-judges-once-again] took place on 28 March 2013.
Peace in Kurdistan campaign has been monitoring this case, along with other KCK trials, since the initial arrests of the lawyers in November 2011. You can find out more about this work, and read trial monitoring reports by our delegates, here: http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/activities/delegations/international-observation-of-the-kck-trial-of-kurdish-lawyers.
For further information contact:
Peace in Kurdistan Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Sirinathsingh - Tel: 020 7272 7890
Fax: 020 7263 0596
Patrons: Lord Avebury, Lord Rea, Lord Dholakia, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Jill Evans MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Hywel Williams MP, Elfyn Llwyd MP, Conor Murphy MP, John Austin, Bruce Kent, Gareth Peirce, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, John Berger, Edward Albee, Margaret Owen OBE, Prof Mary Davis, Mark Thomas
Panel Discussion: Turkey, peace talks and the PKK, Fri 28 June, 6.30pm
Panel Discussion
Turkey, peace talks and the PKKFreedom and Justice for the Kurds
Friday, 28 June 2013, 6.30pm
Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A (closest tube Holborn)
Turkey, peace talks and the PKKFreedom and Justice for the Kurds
Friday, 28 June 2013, 6.30pm
Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A (closest tube Holborn)
Chaired by Professor Bill Bowring, President of the European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Panel Rights (ELDH); International Secretary, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Speakers include Gareth Peirce, human rights lawyer; Melanie Gingell, barrister Doughty Street Chambers; member of the Bar Human Rights Committee; Dr Ozlem Galip, researcher and lecturer, University of Oxford; Prof Dr Michael Gunter, Professor of Political Science, Tennessee Technological University, Secretary General of EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC); Ali Has, Solicitor Advocate; Barry White, National Organiser of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, member of European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Over recent months dramatic developments have been taking place in Turkey with the emergence of direct talks between representatives of the Turkish government and the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan. The seminar will explore how a lasting peace can be secured now that a ceasefire has been followed by the start of a phased withdrawal of Kurdish guerrillas.
The more than 30 year war has cost Turkey an estimated $300 billion in lost revenues, dispersed millions of people from their homeland and has continued to destabilise the country. The conflict has led to a continuing clampdown on civil liberties, the implementation of draconian anti-terrorism laws, repeated mass arrests and the imposition of a state of martial law in the Kurdish areas.
The panel discussion will seek to show why the peace talks represent a historic shift in Turkey and why both participants deserve support as the consequences of failure would be disastrous for the country and the region. If parallels can be drawn with cases such as in Northern Ireland and South Africa, a fundamental component had been the willingness to bring the armed groups ‘’in from the cold’’ as both Sinn Fein and the ANC were involved in talks that succeeded in reaching mutually acceptable solutions to historic conflicts.
It will be argued that the moment is now right to review the proscribing of the PKK as lifting the ban will contribute towards this vitally important peace process. Turkey’s allies should also work to ensure that grotesque abuses of power as the mass trials no longer form part of the country’s political manoeuvring against its Kurdish population who seek to become free and equal citizens under a new democratic constitution.
This event is free and open to all.
Organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign, with the support of Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers; Kurdistan National Congress UK, Kurdish Federation UK
For further information contact Estella Schmid: estella24@tiscali.co.uk <mailto:estella24@tiscali.co.uk> tel 020 7586 5892
Peace in Kurdistan Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Questionwww.peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com
Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC) www.campacc.org.uk <http://www.campacc.org.uk>
Kurdish News Weekly Briefing, 7 - 13 June 2013
1. Öcalan to monitor the peace process for 15 more days
10 June 2013 / ANFBDP (Peace and Democracy Party) parliamentary group deputy chair Pervin Buldan spoke to Nuçe TV about the most recent visit she paid to Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı prison, together with BDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş on 7 June. According to Buldan, Öcalan said it was time for the government to take steps as the first phase of the democratic solution process, the withdrawal of Kurdish guerrillas across Turkish borders and establishment of commissions, nears the end. Buldan said the Kurdish leader would make a comprehensive evaluation of the process after monitoring it within the next two weeks. Buldan said the Kurdish leader was in good physical condition, and that he had expectations from the ongoing process in search of a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/ocalan-to-monitor-the-peace-process-for-15-more-days.htm
2. Kurds Fear Impact of Istanbul Protests on Peace Process
12 June 2013 / RudawA small protest against the removal of a park in Istanbul has spiraled into a national issue, dragging in the Kurds and stoking fears it could derail Ankara’s historic peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The participation of Sirri Sureyya Onder, the Istanbul representative of the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), in the protests drew massive media attention. The protesters are a mix of anti-government citizens and ultra-nationalists, who demand the resignation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But the character of the protests has raised concerns among Turkey’s Kurds. They sympathize with the protests, but worry how they will impact the unfolding peace process, which is in its sensitive first stages. Co-chair of the BDP, Selahattin Demirtas, said publicly that his party supported the protests against “repressive government policies in Taksim and all over Turkey.”
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/120620131
3. KCK: ‘Support the protests and also be wary of racist agendas’
5 June 2013 / Kurdistan TribuneIn a statement today the PKK-associated Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) condemned recent police brutality in Turkey and called on the government to meet the protestors’ demands. It also said that the ‘democratic solution process’ it advocates in the peace talks is aimed at the democratisation of not only the Kurdish region, but also the entire Turkish territory. The KCK Executive Council Presidency said Kurds are supporting the protest movement, “shoulder to shoulder” with Turks, but that all must be wary of the involvement of nationalist and racist forces with agendas of sabotaging the peace process: “To strengthen the Democratic Solution Process, democratic and workers’ circles must be careful against the nationalist and racist powers that aim to sabotage this process and abuse the reflection of the people.
http://kurdistantribune.com/2013/kck-support-protests-be-wary-of-racist-agendas/
4. Turkey: KESK strikes in solidarity with Taksim protests
4 June 2013 / Kurdistan TribuneKESK (Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions) is holding a two-day general strike across Turkey in solidarity with the Taksim protestors.
“We will hold a strike, making a statement to the press to condemn the violence of those disregarding the freedom of expression and right to hold demonstration … We will collectively take to the streets as part of our demand for ‘Humane Life, Guaranteed Labor and Secure Life, A Democratic Turkey’,” said KESK’s statement. The strike began at noon today.
KESK has been very active in supporting the Kurdish cause in Turkey and many of its members have been jailed in consequence.
http://kurdistantribune.com/2013/turkey-kesk-strikes-solidarity-taksim-protests/
5. US does not remove PKK from terror list
31 May 2013 / KurdpressThe United State of America announced in its 2013 report over world terror the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) a terrorist organization, despite Kurdish politicians efforts to convince White House to remove the party from its annual list, Milliyet daily reported. The US State Department’s report called the PKK as the deadliest terrorist organization in Europe and said it had continued its violent campaign throughout the year in 2012. Turkey Kurdish politicians among the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtas and Democratic Congress Society (DTK) co-leader Ahmet Turk attempted in separate visits to Washington to persuade the White House to remove the outlawed party from the list. The report also criticized the anti-terrorism law and said the limited definition of terrorism under Turkish law, restricted to activities targeting the Turkish state and its citizens, represented an impediment to effective action by Turkey against global terrorist networks, Zaman daily said. Quoting a US official Hurriyet daily said in its report that the US will remove PKK from the list if the party will be firm in its peace process with Ankara government.
6. Taksim Solidarity calls for reaction against police violence
12 June 2013 / ANFTaksim Solidarity called on the whole world to show their reaction to stop the police violence carried out by the direct order of the government, and to support the Solidarity of the people. Taksim Solidarity said that "Police violence that began at Taksim Gezi Park on the morning of the 14th day continues as of midnight.After the failure of the inept play of provocation staged in the morning by the police, the gas-bomb attack that the police continues as of now has led to hundreds of injuries -including many head traumas. All the animals and birds around Taksim Square are dying because of intense gas". The Solidarity pointed out that the people and children in Taksim Square and Gezi Park continue their resistance, risking their lives to protect their dignity. The Solidarity indicated that birds and many other animals in and around the square have also been killed by the intense tear gas used by police against demonstrators.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/taksim-solidarity-calls-for-reaction-against-police-violence.htm
7. VIDEO: 47 Lawyers arrested as part of Gezi Park crackdown
11 June 2013 / Milliyet TVhttp://www.milliyet.tv/video-izle/Caglayan-Adliyesi-nde-polis-mudahalesi-nYPunUty07q4.html
8. More than 50 lawyers detained in Istanbul for supporting Gezi Park protests
11 June 2013 / HurriyetMore than 50 lawyers have been detained by police at Istanbul’s Çağlayan Courthouse today for joining the Taksim Gezi protests, which have been ongoing across the country for 15 days now. A Special Forces Unit intervened in a protest being held inside the Çağlayan Courthouse, leading to a number of lawyers falling to the ground. Around 100 lawyers are now waiting in front of the police station demanding the release of their colleagues. This was the third such protest held by the lawyers to support the Gezi protesters in Taksim.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/at-least-20-lawyers-detained-in-istanbul-for-supporting-gezi-park-protests.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48598&NewsCatID=341#.UbcLt73HR1k.twitter
9. Lawyers Protest Police Violence
12 June 2013 / BianetThousands of lawyers from bar associations in İstanbul, Ankara, Batman, Diyarbakır, Adana, Eskişehir, Bursa, Konya, Antep, Denizli, Aydın and İzmir have protested yesterday’s detention and beating of 44 lawyers in Istanbul Courthouse.
Armored police officers intervened yesterday a group lawyers who were making a press statement on the steps of Istanbul Courthouse to protest the police violence in Taksim Square. Police detention took place as some protestor lawyer shouted slogans “Police out” and “Where is the prosecutor”. 44 lawyers have been detained by the police. Some lawyers have been reportedly battered with ripped coats and shirts.
Police transferred detained lawyers to Istanbul Police Headquarters in Vatan Avenue. Detained lawyers have been released last night upon a prosecutor’s order.
http://www.bianet.org/english/human-rights/147515-lawyers-protest-police-violence
10. VIDEO: Lawyers protest arrest of their colleagues at Çağlayan Court
12 June 2013 / Hurriyethttp://webtv.hurriyet.com.tr/20/50742/0/1/yuzlerce-avukat-caglayan-adliyesi-nde-her-yer-taksim-her-yer-direnis-
11. ‘Harmful for children’: Turkish TV channels fined for live coverage of protests
13 June 2013 / Russia TodayTurkey’s TV watchdog fined four TV channels over their live coverage of the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, citing that the broadcasts were "harming the physical, moral and mental development of children and young people." The Radio and Television Supreme Council fined private channels including Halk TV, Ulusal TV, Cem TV and EM TV. Halk TV has gained local popularity because of their 24-hour live coverage of protests in Turkey, as most of the mainstream media have been slammed for their lack of reporting on the protests in the country. As the unrest unfolded almost two weeks ago, mainstream Turkish media did not cover the violent police clashes, but instead broadcast nature and history documentaries, and cooking shows.
http://rt.com/news/turkey-media-fined-protests-629/
12. Peace and Democracy Conference in Europe to be held on 29-30 June
10 June 2013 / ANFThe Peace and Democracy Conference in Europe will take place in the Belgium capital Brussels on 29-30 June and witness participation from Europe and Scandinavian countries as well as by the representatives of all ethnic groups in European diaspora, belief groups, political groups, left-wing, democrat and opponent groups and all other circles supporting the democratic solution process.
The drafting committee of the Conference held its second meeting in Brussels on Saturday, following the first meeting on 19 May. The committee has finalized preparations on the context of the conference, including the topics to be discussed and the number of participants to attend the conference which has been increased to 300 due to great interest.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/peace-and-democracy-conference-in-europe-to-be-held-on-29-30-june.htm
13. YPG: Turkish troops repulsed from Afrin
13 June 2013 / ANFIn a statement on recent clashes in the province of Afrin, in western Kurdistan, People's Defense Units (YPG) Command said that Turkish soldiers attacked the village of Mele Xelîl in Afrin late Wednesday. YPG Command pointed out that the attacks armed groups have launched against Afrin since May 25 are aimed at breaking the will of the Kurdish people, remarking that the people in the region have however displayed a strong resistance against the attacks targeting them. YPG said that “The armed groups which first attacked our forces in the villages of Aqîn, Basil and Zarat increased in number as of June 10 when they attacked Meresk and Kefer Mezê villages. The armed groups were strongly responded and defeated by our forces”. The Command remarked that YPG has strengthened its control as armed groups had to withdraw from the region after the clashes one day later.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/ypg-turkish-troops-repulsed-from-afrin.htm
14. Russia Enlists Syrian Kurds For Geneva II
8 June 2013 / Al MonitorMembers of the Supreme Kurdish Council (SKC), a body uniting Kurdish parties from Syria, went for their first official visit to Moscow on June 2 and met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow, despite internal differences between Syrian Kurds. Moreover, they visited the Duma (Russian parliament) on Friday [June 7]. Syrian Kurdish parties went to Moscow in order to secure participation of the Kurds in the international peace conference Geneva II. They did not participate in an earlier conference of the Western-backed Syrian opposition in Istanbul at the end of May, despite efforts of European countries to convince the Syrian Kurds to join the Western-backed coalition.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/syrian-kurds-participate-geneva-ii-conference.html
COMMENT. OPINION AND ANALYSIS
15. In Taksim Square, Where Are the Kurds?
11 June 2013 / The New YorkerOne evening last week, just before six, members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (B.D.P.) gathered in front of the high iron gates of Galatasaray High School, in Istanbul. They planned to march to Taksim Square, about half a mile away, where they would join a mass of protesters. In the square, a range of groups have joined together against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and their political and ideological diversity has been held as evidence of Erdoğan’s sweeping unpopularity. But, with some notable exceptions, Kurds, usually Turkey’s most robust anti-government protesters, had been absent.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/06/in-taksim-square-where-are-the-kurds.html
16. The Turkish Protests the World Ignored
10 June 2013 / Alliance for Kurdish RightsDecember of 2011, a group of 38 young Kurdish men were detected travelling through a smuggling route near the town of Uludere by an American predator drone. Not long after, a Turkish military jet flew over the same spot and dropped a bomb on the caravan. Of the group, 34 were killed. The attack was intended for PKK fighters, but the men — many of them teenage boys — were only civilians attempting to smuggle gasoline from Iraq into Turkey. The massacre was so vicious families looking for their loved ones couldn’t identify the remains. The slaughter signalled complete disregard by the Turkish government for Kurdish life. Erdogan’s response was seen as dismissive and insufficently repentant for the tragedy.
http://kurdishrights.org/2013/06/10/the-turkish-protests-the-world-ignored/
17. Turkey-Kurdish Peace Could Be Victim of Istanbul Showdown
11 June 2013 / Al MonitorOn June 11 before noon, as I sat down at my desk to write this article, a few hundred meters away from my residence the police launched an operation to dismantle scores of barricades preventing entry of vehicles to Taksim Square and to remove the banners and placards on the defunct opera building and the Ataturk statute in the square. Those barricades were put up by Gezi Park protesters after June 1 when the police evacuated Taksim Square.Police forces, which had been an integral part of Taksim Square until May 31, have returned to Turkey’s social center and are working on restoring the AKP government’s authority over the square. As police operations continued to disperse the crowds at Taksim and Gezi Park, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was getting ready to call his own crowds into the streets as a response to the mass protests targeting him since June 1.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/contents/articles/opinion/2013/06/peace-process-kurds-trouble.html <http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/contents/articles/opinion/2013/06/peace-process-kurds-trouble.html>
18. The Kurdish political movement and the Constitution
1 June 2013 / HurriyetThe month of May has ended. Thirty days are left for the works of the Constitution Conciliation Commission. It must be determined what will be done at the end of this period. Will a new Constitution be formed? What are the other alternatives? Yesterday, as a group of journalists, we had a chance to listen to the reviews of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) commission representatives Altan Tan, Meral Danış Bektaş and Sırrı Süreyya Önder regarding these questions. BDP representatives think that it is not very likely that a full consensus will be reached in the commission. “Even if we negotiate for 10 years, we won’t have a consensus, still,” Altan Tan said.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-kurdish-political-movement-and-the-constitution.aspx?pageID=449&nID=47976&NewsCatID=428
19. The international dimensions of Turkey’s Kurdish peace process
6 June 2013 / World BulletinThe Kurdish issue has not only occupied Turkey as an internal problem, but it has also gained importance through its relatively destabilizing impact on a global and regional scale. The most crucial reasons for the transition process which we are currently in are related to internal dynamics. However, in order to see the whole picture, we need also look at the global and regional dynamics of this development. In a period when the situation in Syria has turned into a global arm-wrestle and has heated tensions between the countries of the region, it became necessary that one of the tense elements be cooled so as to create a potential positive effect over the other tense elements. For this reason, it was required that a step be taken to enhance the environment of security and stability in a way that would have an impact on the international arena.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=110639
20. Some Considerations on the Turkish Uprising and Erdogan
6 June 2013 /Huffington Post Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan and his Justice and Development party (AKP) have a fundamental merit: putting an end to military dominance of the Turkish political scene by instituting an apparently moderate, non-ideological Islam, and coming to power through a free and fair vote in a democratic election according to universal values. But Erdogan seems to have failed to understand that his majority vote allows -- and obliges -- him to govern according to democratic rules. This would mean avoiding imposing drastic socio-economic and ethno-sectarian preferences on Turkish civil society. In a democracy, majority rule assumes and requires respect for the rights of all -- including those who are not in the governing majority, and above all with respect and attention to the psychology and traditions of the various communities and trends within Turkish society and the regional ties of these communities.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amir-madani/some-considerations-on-th_b_3412332.html
21. Turkey's troubles: Democrat or sultan?
8 June 2013 / The EconomistBROKEN heads, tear gas, water-cannon: it must be Cairo, Tripoli or some other capital of a brutal dictatorship. Yet this is not Tahrir but Taksim Square, in Istanbul, Europe’s biggest city and the business capital of democratic Turkey. The protests are a sign of rising dissatisfaction with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s most important leader since Ataturk. The rioting spread like wildfire across the country. Over 4,000 people have been hurt and over 900 were arrested; three have died. The spark of protest was a plan to redevelop Gezi Park, one of the last green spots in central Istanbul. Resentment has been smouldering over the government’s big construction projects, ranging from a third bridge over the Bosporus to a crazy canal from the Black Sea. But only after this first protest was met by horribly heavy-handed policing did the blaze spread, via Twitter and other social media.
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21579004-recep-tayyip-erdogan-should-heed-turkeys-street-protesters-not-dismiss-them-democrat-or-sultan
22. Erdogan's mishandling of protests has exposed the myth of a stable Turkey
9 June 2013 / The IndependentThere is something almost comic in the way the missteps of the Turkish government turned a small demonstration aimed at preserving sycamore trees in Taksim Square from the developers' bulldozers into the biggest and most widespread popular protest ever seen in Turkey. The Turkish security forces made the classic mistake of being pictured on television and social media publicly assaulting peaceable protesters with water cannon and pepper spray. Just enough violence was used to enrage and provoke while wholly failing to intimidate.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/erdogans-mishandling-of-protests-has-exposed-the-myth-of-a-stable-turkey-8650706.html
23. Turkey protests: This genie should not be tricked back into its bottle
11 June 2013 / IndependentA new language of freedom and democracy has been emerging in Turkey in the past decade. This atmosphere was created by removing the military’s influence from civilian life and politics and, recently, by opening roads towards peace between Turkey and its Kurdish citizens. The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party deserves applause for these developments. But what the government has not realised is that the youth of this country, who are the main actors in Taksim Square presently calling for a more fully-fledged democracy, have not experienced military oppression. They know about it, but it was not an integral part of their life like it was for my generation, whose members were beaten up, tortured and murdered.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/turkey-protests-this-genie-should-not-be-tricked-back-into-its-bottle-8654603.html
24. The diverse revolt of Turkish youth and the production of the political
6 June 2013 / Open DemocracyMillions are in revolt in Turkey. Although the revolt is called the Gezi Park Resistance, it is no longer about saving trees and parks from the neoliberal capitalist governmental plan of urban renewal. Instead, it is a cry of millions of young people for more freedom and democracy. This is a historic protest of young people, belonging to different social classes, holding different sociocultural and political stands that have no political agenda other than the collective will to end state authoritarianism. It is also momentous due to its politicizing effect on millions of middle class urbanite young people who are often criticized as an apolitical digital generation by their elders. Although this uprising is mobilized and mainly consists of young people of different demographic traits, it is also supported and participated by people from all walks of life and different political stripes across the country.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/burce-celik/diverse-revolt-of-turkish-youth-and-production-of-political
25. Turkey: A History of Sexual Violence
10 June 213 / Guardian "I was blindfolded, stripped naked, beaten...and they tried to put sticks up my anus. I fainted," stated 37-year-old mother of three, Hamdiye Aslan.
Hamdiye Aslan's alleged perpetrators were five police officers. According to a report from Amnesty International in 2003, she had been detained in Mardin Prison, south-east Turkey, for almost three months in which she was reportedly blindfolded, anally raped with a truncheon, threatened and mocked by officers.
Horrific and shocking as it may sound, activists state that Hamdiye's case is one of many.
They say that such methods of abuse are regular practice in Turkish prisons, and have reportedly been used on many Kurdish and Alevi women to enforce fear and to humiliate. Hamdiye was told she was being arrested for sheltering the Kurdish rebel movement, the PKK; a charge she denied
http://m.guardian.co.uk/global-development-professionals-network/2013/jun/10/turkey-history-sexual-violence
26. The Kurds in Turkey and Syria
12 June 2013 / Workers LibertyIn May the Turkish state oil company agreed a oil exploration deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq alongside US company ExxonMobil.
Iraqi oil resources are vast, but heavily concentrated in Northern Iraq under the administration of the KRG. That and the KRG’s relative stability has attracted many multinationals, and governments (Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Israel) to the autonomous area.
There has been increasing pressure on the KRG by the Iraqi Federal Government to stop all further deals and for all investment decisions to be made at the national level. The KRG have said if that happens they will seek a new basis for relations with Baghdad.
Meanwhile the KRG say they are almost ready to launch their a new oil pipeline (a converted gas line) which will end their reliance on central government for exporting and potentially pave the way to self-sufficiency.
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2013/06/12/kurds-turkey-and-syria
STATEMENTS
27. CENI Statement on the six-month anniversary of the Paris Assassinations: We demand Justice! 12 June 2013.http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/we-demand-justice/
28. Lawyers’ associations rally around arrested colleagues in Istanbul, 13 June 2013.
After the arrests on Tuesday of at least 47 lawyers at Caglayan Court in Istanbul who were issuing a statement regarding the Gezi Park protests, the European Association for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH); the Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC); and the Law Society of England and Wales have all issued statements in support of their colleagues. Read them here: http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/lawyers-assoications-rally-around-arrested-colleagues-in-istanbul/
EVENTS
28. Friday 28 June, 6.30pm
Turkey, Peace Talks and the PKK: Freedom and Justice for the KurdsThis panel discussion will seek to show why the peace talks represent a historic shift in Turkey and why both participants deserve support as the consequences of failure would be disastrous for the country and the region. If parallels can be drawn with cases such as in Northern Ireland and South Africa, a fundamental component had been the willingness to bring the armed groups ‘’in from the cold’’ as both Sinn Fein and the ANC were involved in talks that succeeded in reaching mutually acceptable solutions to historic conflicts. It will be argued that the moment is now right to review the proscribing of the PKK as lifting the ban will contribute towards this vitally important peace process.
Speakers include Gareth Peirce, human rights lawyer; Melanie Gingell, barrister Doughty Street Chambers; member of the Bar Human Rights Committee;Dr Ozlem Galip, researcher and lecturer, University of Oxford; Prof Dr Michael Gunter, Professor of Political Science, Tennessee Technological University, Secretary General of EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC); Barry White, National Organiser of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, member of European Federation of Journalists (EFJ). Chair: Professor Bill Bowring, President of the European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Panel Rights (ELDH); International Secretary, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.Venue: Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A (closest tube Holborn). Jointly organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign, with the support of Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers; Kurdistan National Congress UK, Kurdish Federation UK.
Full details: http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/turkey-peace-talks-and-the-pkk-freedom-and-justice-for-the-kurds/#more-2641
10 June 2013 / ANFBDP (Peace and Democracy Party) parliamentary group deputy chair Pervin Buldan spoke to Nuçe TV about the most recent visit she paid to Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı prison, together with BDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş on 7 June. According to Buldan, Öcalan said it was time for the government to take steps as the first phase of the democratic solution process, the withdrawal of Kurdish guerrillas across Turkish borders and establishment of commissions, nears the end. Buldan said the Kurdish leader would make a comprehensive evaluation of the process after monitoring it within the next two weeks. Buldan said the Kurdish leader was in good physical condition, and that he had expectations from the ongoing process in search of a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/ocalan-to-monitor-the-peace-process-for-15-more-days.htm
2. Kurds Fear Impact of Istanbul Protests on Peace Process
12 June 2013 / RudawA small protest against the removal of a park in Istanbul has spiraled into a national issue, dragging in the Kurds and stoking fears it could derail Ankara’s historic peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The participation of Sirri Sureyya Onder, the Istanbul representative of the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), in the protests drew massive media attention. The protesters are a mix of anti-government citizens and ultra-nationalists, who demand the resignation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But the character of the protests has raised concerns among Turkey’s Kurds. They sympathize with the protests, but worry how they will impact the unfolding peace process, which is in its sensitive first stages. Co-chair of the BDP, Selahattin Demirtas, said publicly that his party supported the protests against “repressive government policies in Taksim and all over Turkey.”
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/120620131
3. KCK: ‘Support the protests and also be wary of racist agendas’
5 June 2013 / Kurdistan TribuneIn a statement today the PKK-associated Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) condemned recent police brutality in Turkey and called on the government to meet the protestors’ demands. It also said that the ‘democratic solution process’ it advocates in the peace talks is aimed at the democratisation of not only the Kurdish region, but also the entire Turkish territory. The KCK Executive Council Presidency said Kurds are supporting the protest movement, “shoulder to shoulder” with Turks, but that all must be wary of the involvement of nationalist and racist forces with agendas of sabotaging the peace process: “To strengthen the Democratic Solution Process, democratic and workers’ circles must be careful against the nationalist and racist powers that aim to sabotage this process and abuse the reflection of the people.
http://kurdistantribune.com/2013/kck-support-protests-be-wary-of-racist-agendas/
4. Turkey: KESK strikes in solidarity with Taksim protests
4 June 2013 / Kurdistan TribuneKESK (Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions) is holding a two-day general strike across Turkey in solidarity with the Taksim protestors.
“We will hold a strike, making a statement to the press to condemn the violence of those disregarding the freedom of expression and right to hold demonstration … We will collectively take to the streets as part of our demand for ‘Humane Life, Guaranteed Labor and Secure Life, A Democratic Turkey’,” said KESK’s statement. The strike began at noon today.
KESK has been very active in supporting the Kurdish cause in Turkey and many of its members have been jailed in consequence.
http://kurdistantribune.com/2013/turkey-kesk-strikes-solidarity-taksim-protests/
5. US does not remove PKK from terror list
31 May 2013 / KurdpressThe United State of America announced in its 2013 report over world terror the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) a terrorist organization, despite Kurdish politicians efforts to convince White House to remove the party from its annual list, Milliyet daily reported. The US State Department’s report called the PKK as the deadliest terrorist organization in Europe and said it had continued its violent campaign throughout the year in 2012. Turkey Kurdish politicians among the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtas and Democratic Congress Society (DTK) co-leader Ahmet Turk attempted in separate visits to Washington to persuade the White House to remove the outlawed party from the list. The report also criticized the anti-terrorism law and said the limited definition of terrorism under Turkish law, restricted to activities targeting the Turkish state and its citizens, represented an impediment to effective action by Turkey against global terrorist networks, Zaman daily said. Quoting a US official Hurriyet daily said in its report that the US will remove PKK from the list if the party will be firm in its peace process with Ankara government.
6. Taksim Solidarity calls for reaction against police violence
12 June 2013 / ANFTaksim Solidarity called on the whole world to show their reaction to stop the police violence carried out by the direct order of the government, and to support the Solidarity of the people. Taksim Solidarity said that "Police violence that began at Taksim Gezi Park on the morning of the 14th day continues as of midnight.After the failure of the inept play of provocation staged in the morning by the police, the gas-bomb attack that the police continues as of now has led to hundreds of injuries -including many head traumas. All the animals and birds around Taksim Square are dying because of intense gas". The Solidarity pointed out that the people and children in Taksim Square and Gezi Park continue their resistance, risking their lives to protect their dignity. The Solidarity indicated that birds and many other animals in and around the square have also been killed by the intense tear gas used by police against demonstrators.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/taksim-solidarity-calls-for-reaction-against-police-violence.htm
7. VIDEO: 47 Lawyers arrested as part of Gezi Park crackdown
11 June 2013 / Milliyet TVhttp://www.milliyet.tv/video-izle/Caglayan-Adliyesi-nde-polis-mudahalesi-nYPunUty07q4.html
8. More than 50 lawyers detained in Istanbul for supporting Gezi Park protests
11 June 2013 / HurriyetMore than 50 lawyers have been detained by police at Istanbul’s Çağlayan Courthouse today for joining the Taksim Gezi protests, which have been ongoing across the country for 15 days now. A Special Forces Unit intervened in a protest being held inside the Çağlayan Courthouse, leading to a number of lawyers falling to the ground. Around 100 lawyers are now waiting in front of the police station demanding the release of their colleagues. This was the third such protest held by the lawyers to support the Gezi protesters in Taksim.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/at-least-20-lawyers-detained-in-istanbul-for-supporting-gezi-park-protests.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48598&NewsCatID=341#.UbcLt73HR1k.twitter
9. Lawyers Protest Police Violence
12 June 2013 / BianetThousands of lawyers from bar associations in İstanbul, Ankara, Batman, Diyarbakır, Adana, Eskişehir, Bursa, Konya, Antep, Denizli, Aydın and İzmir have protested yesterday’s detention and beating of 44 lawyers in Istanbul Courthouse.
Armored police officers intervened yesterday a group lawyers who were making a press statement on the steps of Istanbul Courthouse to protest the police violence in Taksim Square. Police detention took place as some protestor lawyer shouted slogans “Police out” and “Where is the prosecutor”. 44 lawyers have been detained by the police. Some lawyers have been reportedly battered with ripped coats and shirts.
Police transferred detained lawyers to Istanbul Police Headquarters in Vatan Avenue. Detained lawyers have been released last night upon a prosecutor’s order.
http://www.bianet.org/english/human-rights/147515-lawyers-protest-police-violence
10. VIDEO: Lawyers protest arrest of their colleagues at Çağlayan Court
12 June 2013 / Hurriyethttp://webtv.hurriyet.com.tr/20/50742/0/1/yuzlerce-avukat-caglayan-adliyesi-nde-her-yer-taksim-her-yer-direnis-
11. ‘Harmful for children’: Turkish TV channels fined for live coverage of protests
13 June 2013 / Russia TodayTurkey’s TV watchdog fined four TV channels over their live coverage of the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, citing that the broadcasts were "harming the physical, moral and mental development of children and young people." The Radio and Television Supreme Council fined private channels including Halk TV, Ulusal TV, Cem TV and EM TV. Halk TV has gained local popularity because of their 24-hour live coverage of protests in Turkey, as most of the mainstream media have been slammed for their lack of reporting on the protests in the country. As the unrest unfolded almost two weeks ago, mainstream Turkish media did not cover the violent police clashes, but instead broadcast nature and history documentaries, and cooking shows.
http://rt.com/news/turkey-media-fined-protests-629/
12. Peace and Democracy Conference in Europe to be held on 29-30 June
10 June 2013 / ANFThe Peace and Democracy Conference in Europe will take place in the Belgium capital Brussels on 29-30 June and witness participation from Europe and Scandinavian countries as well as by the representatives of all ethnic groups in European diaspora, belief groups, political groups, left-wing, democrat and opponent groups and all other circles supporting the democratic solution process.
The drafting committee of the Conference held its second meeting in Brussels on Saturday, following the first meeting on 19 May. The committee has finalized preparations on the context of the conference, including the topics to be discussed and the number of participants to attend the conference which has been increased to 300 due to great interest.
http://en.firatajans.com/news/news/peace-and-democracy-conference-in-europe-to-be-held-on-29-30-june.htm
13. YPG: Turkish troops repulsed from Afrin
13 June 2013 / ANFIn a statement on recent clashes in the province of Afrin, in western Kurdistan, People's Defense Units (YPG) Command said that Turkish soldiers attacked the village of Mele Xelîl in Afrin late Wednesday. YPG Command pointed out that the attacks armed groups have launched against Afrin since May 25 are aimed at breaking the will of the Kurdish people, remarking that the people in the region have however displayed a strong resistance against the attacks targeting them. YPG said that “The armed groups which first attacked our forces in the villages of Aqîn, Basil and Zarat increased in number as of June 10 when they attacked Meresk and Kefer Mezê villages. The armed groups were strongly responded and defeated by our forces”. The Command remarked that YPG has strengthened its control as armed groups had to withdraw from the region after the clashes one day later.
http://en.firatnews.com/news/news/ypg-turkish-troops-repulsed-from-afrin.htm
14. Russia Enlists Syrian Kurds For Geneva II
8 June 2013 / Al MonitorMembers of the Supreme Kurdish Council (SKC), a body uniting Kurdish parties from Syria, went for their first official visit to Moscow on June 2 and met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow, despite internal differences between Syrian Kurds. Moreover, they visited the Duma (Russian parliament) on Friday [June 7]. Syrian Kurdish parties went to Moscow in order to secure participation of the Kurds in the international peace conference Geneva II. They did not participate in an earlier conference of the Western-backed Syrian opposition in Istanbul at the end of May, despite efforts of European countries to convince the Syrian Kurds to join the Western-backed coalition.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/06/syrian-kurds-participate-geneva-ii-conference.html
COMMENT. OPINION AND ANALYSIS
15. In Taksim Square, Where Are the Kurds?
11 June 2013 / The New YorkerOne evening last week, just before six, members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (B.D.P.) gathered in front of the high iron gates of Galatasaray High School, in Istanbul. They planned to march to Taksim Square, about half a mile away, where they would join a mass of protesters. In the square, a range of groups have joined together against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and their political and ideological diversity has been held as evidence of Erdoğan’s sweeping unpopularity. But, with some notable exceptions, Kurds, usually Turkey’s most robust anti-government protesters, had been absent.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/06/in-taksim-square-where-are-the-kurds.html
16. The Turkish Protests the World Ignored
10 June 2013 / Alliance for Kurdish RightsDecember of 2011, a group of 38 young Kurdish men were detected travelling through a smuggling route near the town of Uludere by an American predator drone. Not long after, a Turkish military jet flew over the same spot and dropped a bomb on the caravan. Of the group, 34 were killed. The attack was intended for PKK fighters, but the men — many of them teenage boys — were only civilians attempting to smuggle gasoline from Iraq into Turkey. The massacre was so vicious families looking for their loved ones couldn’t identify the remains. The slaughter signalled complete disregard by the Turkish government for Kurdish life. Erdogan’s response was seen as dismissive and insufficently repentant for the tragedy.
http://kurdishrights.org/2013/06/10/the-turkish-protests-the-world-ignored/
17. Turkey-Kurdish Peace Could Be Victim of Istanbul Showdown
11 June 2013 / Al MonitorOn June 11 before noon, as I sat down at my desk to write this article, a few hundred meters away from my residence the police launched an operation to dismantle scores of barricades preventing entry of vehicles to Taksim Square and to remove the banners and placards on the defunct opera building and the Ataturk statute in the square. Those barricades were put up by Gezi Park protesters after June 1 when the police evacuated Taksim Square.Police forces, which had been an integral part of Taksim Square until May 31, have returned to Turkey’s social center and are working on restoring the AKP government’s authority over the square. As police operations continued to disperse the crowds at Taksim and Gezi Park, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was getting ready to call his own crowds into the streets as a response to the mass protests targeting him since June 1.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/contents/articles/opinion/2013/06/peace-process-kurds-trouble.html <http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/contents/articles/opinion/2013/06/peace-process-kurds-trouble.html>
18. The Kurdish political movement and the Constitution
1 June 2013 / HurriyetThe month of May has ended. Thirty days are left for the works of the Constitution Conciliation Commission. It must be determined what will be done at the end of this period. Will a new Constitution be formed? What are the other alternatives? Yesterday, as a group of journalists, we had a chance to listen to the reviews of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) commission representatives Altan Tan, Meral Danış Bektaş and Sırrı Süreyya Önder regarding these questions. BDP representatives think that it is not very likely that a full consensus will be reached in the commission. “Even if we negotiate for 10 years, we won’t have a consensus, still,” Altan Tan said.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-kurdish-political-movement-and-the-constitution.aspx?pageID=449&nID=47976&NewsCatID=428
19. The international dimensions of Turkey’s Kurdish peace process
6 June 2013 / World BulletinThe Kurdish issue has not only occupied Turkey as an internal problem, but it has also gained importance through its relatively destabilizing impact on a global and regional scale. The most crucial reasons for the transition process which we are currently in are related to internal dynamics. However, in order to see the whole picture, we need also look at the global and regional dynamics of this development. In a period when the situation in Syria has turned into a global arm-wrestle and has heated tensions between the countries of the region, it became necessary that one of the tense elements be cooled so as to create a potential positive effect over the other tense elements. For this reason, it was required that a step be taken to enhance the environment of security and stability in a way that would have an impact on the international arena.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=110639
20. Some Considerations on the Turkish Uprising and Erdogan
6 June 2013 /Huffington Post Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan and his Justice and Development party (AKP) have a fundamental merit: putting an end to military dominance of the Turkish political scene by instituting an apparently moderate, non-ideological Islam, and coming to power through a free and fair vote in a democratic election according to universal values. But Erdogan seems to have failed to understand that his majority vote allows -- and obliges -- him to govern according to democratic rules. This would mean avoiding imposing drastic socio-economic and ethno-sectarian preferences on Turkish civil society. In a democracy, majority rule assumes and requires respect for the rights of all -- including those who are not in the governing majority, and above all with respect and attention to the psychology and traditions of the various communities and trends within Turkish society and the regional ties of these communities.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amir-madani/some-considerations-on-th_b_3412332.html
21. Turkey's troubles: Democrat or sultan?
8 June 2013 / The EconomistBROKEN heads, tear gas, water-cannon: it must be Cairo, Tripoli or some other capital of a brutal dictatorship. Yet this is not Tahrir but Taksim Square, in Istanbul, Europe’s biggest city and the business capital of democratic Turkey. The protests are a sign of rising dissatisfaction with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s most important leader since Ataturk. The rioting spread like wildfire across the country. Over 4,000 people have been hurt and over 900 were arrested; three have died. The spark of protest was a plan to redevelop Gezi Park, one of the last green spots in central Istanbul. Resentment has been smouldering over the government’s big construction projects, ranging from a third bridge over the Bosporus to a crazy canal from the Black Sea. But only after this first protest was met by horribly heavy-handed policing did the blaze spread, via Twitter and other social media.
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21579004-recep-tayyip-erdogan-should-heed-turkeys-street-protesters-not-dismiss-them-democrat-or-sultan
22. Erdogan's mishandling of protests has exposed the myth of a stable Turkey
9 June 2013 / The IndependentThere is something almost comic in the way the missteps of the Turkish government turned a small demonstration aimed at preserving sycamore trees in Taksim Square from the developers' bulldozers into the biggest and most widespread popular protest ever seen in Turkey. The Turkish security forces made the classic mistake of being pictured on television and social media publicly assaulting peaceable protesters with water cannon and pepper spray. Just enough violence was used to enrage and provoke while wholly failing to intimidate.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/erdogans-mishandling-of-protests-has-exposed-the-myth-of-a-stable-turkey-8650706.html
23. Turkey protests: This genie should not be tricked back into its bottle
11 June 2013 / IndependentA new language of freedom and democracy has been emerging in Turkey in the past decade. This atmosphere was created by removing the military’s influence from civilian life and politics and, recently, by opening roads towards peace between Turkey and its Kurdish citizens. The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party deserves applause for these developments. But what the government has not realised is that the youth of this country, who are the main actors in Taksim Square presently calling for a more fully-fledged democracy, have not experienced military oppression. They know about it, but it was not an integral part of their life like it was for my generation, whose members were beaten up, tortured and murdered.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/turkey-protests-this-genie-should-not-be-tricked-back-into-its-bottle-8654603.html
24. The diverse revolt of Turkish youth and the production of the political
6 June 2013 / Open DemocracyMillions are in revolt in Turkey. Although the revolt is called the Gezi Park Resistance, it is no longer about saving trees and parks from the neoliberal capitalist governmental plan of urban renewal. Instead, it is a cry of millions of young people for more freedom and democracy. This is a historic protest of young people, belonging to different social classes, holding different sociocultural and political stands that have no political agenda other than the collective will to end state authoritarianism. It is also momentous due to its politicizing effect on millions of middle class urbanite young people who are often criticized as an apolitical digital generation by their elders. Although this uprising is mobilized and mainly consists of young people of different demographic traits, it is also supported and participated by people from all walks of life and different political stripes across the country.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/burce-celik/diverse-revolt-of-turkish-youth-and-production-of-political
25. Turkey: A History of Sexual Violence
10 June 213 / Guardian "I was blindfolded, stripped naked, beaten...and they tried to put sticks up my anus. I fainted," stated 37-year-old mother of three, Hamdiye Aslan.
Hamdiye Aslan's alleged perpetrators were five police officers. According to a report from Amnesty International in 2003, she had been detained in Mardin Prison, south-east Turkey, for almost three months in which she was reportedly blindfolded, anally raped with a truncheon, threatened and mocked by officers.
Horrific and shocking as it may sound, activists state that Hamdiye's case is one of many.
They say that such methods of abuse are regular practice in Turkish prisons, and have reportedly been used on many Kurdish and Alevi women to enforce fear and to humiliate. Hamdiye was told she was being arrested for sheltering the Kurdish rebel movement, the PKK; a charge she denied
http://m.guardian.co.uk/global-development-professionals-network/2013/jun/10/turkey-history-sexual-violence
26. The Kurds in Turkey and Syria
12 June 2013 / Workers LibertyIn May the Turkish state oil company agreed a oil exploration deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq alongside US company ExxonMobil.
Iraqi oil resources are vast, but heavily concentrated in Northern Iraq under the administration of the KRG. That and the KRG’s relative stability has attracted many multinationals, and governments (Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Israel) to the autonomous area.
There has been increasing pressure on the KRG by the Iraqi Federal Government to stop all further deals and for all investment decisions to be made at the national level. The KRG have said if that happens they will seek a new basis for relations with Baghdad.
Meanwhile the KRG say they are almost ready to launch their a new oil pipeline (a converted gas line) which will end their reliance on central government for exporting and potentially pave the way to self-sufficiency.
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2013/06/12/kurds-turkey-and-syria
STATEMENTS
27. CENI Statement on the six-month anniversary of the Paris Assassinations: We demand Justice! 12 June 2013.http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/we-demand-justice/
28. Lawyers’ associations rally around arrested colleagues in Istanbul, 13 June 2013.
After the arrests on Tuesday of at least 47 lawyers at Caglayan Court in Istanbul who were issuing a statement regarding the Gezi Park protests, the European Association for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH); the Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC); and the Law Society of England and Wales have all issued statements in support of their colleagues. Read them here: http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/lawyers-assoications-rally-around-arrested-colleagues-in-istanbul/
EVENTS
28. Friday 28 June, 6.30pm
Turkey, Peace Talks and the PKK: Freedom and Justice for the KurdsThis panel discussion will seek to show why the peace talks represent a historic shift in Turkey and why both participants deserve support as the consequences of failure would be disastrous for the country and the region. If parallels can be drawn with cases such as in Northern Ireland and South Africa, a fundamental component had been the willingness to bring the armed groups ‘’in from the cold’’ as both Sinn Fein and the ANC were involved in talks that succeeded in reaching mutually acceptable solutions to historic conflicts. It will be argued that the moment is now right to review the proscribing of the PKK as lifting the ban will contribute towards this vitally important peace process.
Speakers include Gareth Peirce, human rights lawyer; Melanie Gingell, barrister Doughty Street Chambers; member of the Bar Human Rights Committee;Dr Ozlem Galip, researcher and lecturer, University of Oxford; Prof Dr Michael Gunter, Professor of Political Science, Tennessee Technological University, Secretary General of EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC); Barry White, National Organiser of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, member of European Federation of Journalists (EFJ). Chair: Professor Bill Bowring, President of the European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Panel Rights (ELDH); International Secretary, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.Venue: Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A (closest tube Holborn). Jointly organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign, with the support of Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers; Kurdistan National Congress UK, Kurdish Federation UK.
Full details: http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/turkey-peace-talks-and-the-pkk-freedom-and-justice-for-the-kurds/#more-2641
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