The new issue of Spokesman 119 edited by Tony Simpson features a dossier called The Kurdish Question in Turkey.
In December 2012, many Kurds, some Turks and various others gathered at the European Parliament in Brussels to consider ‘The Kurdish Question in Turkey’. The conference was sponsored by the United European Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) political group, with support from Greens and Socialists.
It had the sub-title, ‘time to renew the dialogue and resume direct negotiations’.  Notwithstanding attempts by the Turkish authorities to restrict Kurdish participation, the conference heard from many speakers of diverse backgrounds and nationalities. They included two prominent Kurds, Leyla Zana, now a member of the Turkish Parliament, who was previously imprisoned there, and Zübeyir Aydar of the KNK, who participated in the aborted negotiations with the Turkish intelligence services (the so-called ‘Oslo Process’) that ceased in 2011.  We publish their papers here, alongside Ayse’s own statement from prison on receiving an award from Turkish PEN, part of an international organisation which supports persecuted authors.  Our Dossier section includes eyewitness accounts from some of the KCK trials.
Ayse Berktay has been locked up in a Turkish prison since October 2011. She and some 200 others are, periodically, before Turkey’s Tribunal with Special Powers as part of the ‘KCK trials’. KCK stands for Kurdish Communities Union, which the Turkish government has labelled a ‘terrorist’ organisation, although the actual basis for this draconian claim is not at all clear.
Here the content of the new issue which can be ordered at  [email protected]

CONTENTS:

The arduous business of peace – Leyla Zana MP
Time to talk – Zübeyir Aydar
Questioning 'terror' – Ayse Berktay
***We the peoples – Roger Waters
Nottingham departed – Tony Simpson
In praise of troublemakers – Colin Firth
The problem of China, revisited – Ben Thompson
How I became a Socialist – William Morris
This morning's surprise – Mike Marqusee
Middle East nuke free – Yayoi Tsuchida
Dossier: Kurds on Trial – Tony Fisher, Barry White
Reviews – Michael Barratt Brown, Paul Brennan, Cathy Davis, John Daniels, Glyn Ford
Barry Baldwin, Abi Rhodes and Nigel Potter