Basques and Kurds will meet in Venice to talk peace
Basques and Kurds will meet in Venice to talk peace
The City of Venice is organizing, through its Peace Centre, a major conference to take place on 11-12 February 2011. The conference will be a kind of 'second chapter' of the first conference organised last year (November 2009) about peace processes and conflict resolutions.
At the 2009 conference the Basque Independent Left (its organisation being banned since 2002 by the Spanish state), the Kurdish DTP (banned in December 2009) and the Irish Sinn Fein, have discussed and proposed viable processes to the solution of the conflicts in the three different countries (Spain, Turkey and Ireland).
Among the many speakers, from the pro-Kurdish party BDP, the vice president Demir Celik and mayor of Semdinli Sedato Tore. Mayor of Diyarbakir, Osman Baydemir, can not attend the conference because of a traveling ban on him, but he has sent a video message to be shown on Saturday. Speakers from the Basque country include lawyer Jone Goirizelaia
and mayor of Hernani Marian Beitialarrangoitia. Also attending former mayor of Pasajes, Juan Carlos Alduntzin, member of Udalbiltza, the union of Basque municipalities recently acquitted. Also leading speech by Sinn Fein Alex Maskey. Maskey is former mayor of Belfast and MLA at the North of Ireland Assembly. For Sinn Fein Maskey is also travelling to the Basque country just before the Venice conference to help the process there. From the European Parliament, EMP Jorgen Klute will be attending.
Because of its role as a city always promoting dialogue and encounters, Venice tried to build upon the 2009 conference always supporting peace processes attempts and proposals for dialogue, strongly believing that indeed political dialogue, on equal terms, among all of the parties involved is the way forward. Recognising that each conflict has its own specificity and characteristics, what emerged from the 2009 conference is the fact that the 'Irish peace process' has certainly a 'guiding' role for the other processes because it has put the bases for an agreement based on the fact that two very different "political projects" are able to discuss on political grounds only, with violence being removed from the political arena. In the 2009 conference the Basque Independent Left has presented (in Venice and the Basque Country simultaneously) the political decision (the document, 'Stand up Euskal Herria', Zutik Euskal Herria!) to opt for a democratic process without violence in the search for a just and lasting peace. And on January 10 this year ETA has declared a “permanent, general and verifiable ceasefire’. The Kurdish DTP has presented in Venice the basis of what has become known as 'democratic autonomy' project. The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) is still observing a unilateral ceasefire to favour the creation of conditions for dialogue. This new conference then aims on the one hand to discuss the current situation of the political projects proposed in Venice in 2009. But on the other hands it intends to discuss and present concrete experiences that are taking place in Ireland, Basque Country and Kurdish region of Turkey, in terms of building the common. Which means building a governance able to take into account all of the political discourses to be found in any specific situation.
Below the full programme:
Friday 11 February
Democratic processes of conflict resolution: recognising dialogue and decision context
Time : 15 -19
Introduce and coordinate : Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary Permanent People's Tribunal
Demir Celik, BDP (Peace and Democracy Party)
Jone Goirizelaia, Abertzale Left (Basque Country)
Alex Maskey, Sinn Fein MLA, former Mayor of Belfast
Jorgen Klute, EMP, Die Linke, GUE
Saturday 12 February
Time 10 – 13
Second session
A contribution to the development of the democratic framework. Experiences of participative democracy
Introduction: Pietrangelo Pettenò, Regional Councillor
Moderator: Enrico Palandri, writer
Marian Beitialarrangoitia, Mayor of Hernani
Sedat Tore, Mayor Semdinli
Alex Maskey, MLA, former Mayor of Belfast
Juan Carlos Alduntzin, former Mayor of Pasajes, Udalbiltza, Basque Councils assembly
Gianfranco Bettin, City of Venice minister for peace
Video message from Osman Baydemir, mayor of Diyarbakir
Third Session Time 15 – 19
Democratic processes of conflict resolution: the role of the international community and the European Union
Moderator: Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary Permanent People's Tribunal
Demir Celik, BDP
Jone Goirizelaia, Abertzale Left
Alex Maskey, Sinn Fein MLA, former Mayor of Belfast
Jorgen Klute, EMP, Die Linke, GUE
Among the many speakers, from the pro-Kurdish party BDP, the vice president Demir Celik and mayor of Semdinli Sedato Tore. Mayor of Diyarbakir, Osman Baydemir, can not attend the conference because of a traveling ban on him, but he has sent a video message to be shown on Saturday. Speakers from the Basque country include lawyer Jone Goirizelaia
and mayor of Hernani Marian Beitialarrangoitia. Also attending former mayor of Pasajes, Juan Carlos Alduntzin, member of Udalbiltza, the union of Basque municipalities recently acquitted. Also leading speech by Sinn Fein Alex Maskey. Maskey is former mayor of Belfast and MLA at the North of Ireland Assembly. For Sinn Fein Maskey is also travelling to the Basque country just before the Venice conference to help the process there. From the European Parliament, EMP Jorgen Klute will be attending.
Because of its role as a city always promoting dialogue and encounters, Venice tried to build upon the 2009 conference always supporting peace processes attempts and proposals for dialogue, strongly believing that indeed political dialogue, on equal terms, among all of the parties involved is the way forward. Recognising that each conflict has its own specificity and characteristics, what emerged from the 2009 conference is the fact that the 'Irish peace process' has certainly a 'guiding' role for the other processes because it has put the bases for an agreement based on the fact that two very different "political projects" are able to discuss on political grounds only, with violence being removed from the political arena. In the 2009 conference the Basque Independent Left has presented (in Venice and the Basque Country simultaneously) the political decision (the document, 'Stand up Euskal Herria', Zutik Euskal Herria!) to opt for a democratic process without violence in the search for a just and lasting peace. And on January 10 this year ETA has declared a “permanent, general and verifiable ceasefire’. The Kurdish DTP has presented in Venice the basis of what has become known as 'democratic autonomy' project. The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) is still observing a unilateral ceasefire to favour the creation of conditions for dialogue. This new conference then aims on the one hand to discuss the current situation of the political projects proposed in Venice in 2009. But on the other hands it intends to discuss and present concrete experiences that are taking place in Ireland, Basque Country and Kurdish region of Turkey, in terms of building the common. Which means building a governance able to take into account all of the political discourses to be found in any specific situation.
Below the full programme:
Friday 11 February
Democratic processes of conflict resolution: recognising dialogue and decision context
Time : 15 -19
Introduce and coordinate : Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary Permanent People's Tribunal
Demir Celik, BDP (Peace and Democracy Party)
Jone Goirizelaia, Abertzale Left (Basque Country)
Alex Maskey, Sinn Fein MLA, former Mayor of Belfast
Jorgen Klute, EMP, Die Linke, GUE
Saturday 12 February
Time 10 – 13
Second session
A contribution to the development of the democratic framework. Experiences of participative democracy
Introduction: Pietrangelo Pettenò, Regional Councillor
Moderator: Enrico Palandri, writer
Marian Beitialarrangoitia, Mayor of Hernani
Sedat Tore, Mayor Semdinli
Alex Maskey, MLA, former Mayor of Belfast
Juan Carlos Alduntzin, former Mayor of Pasajes, Udalbiltza, Basque Councils assembly
Gianfranco Bettin, City of Venice minister for peace
Video message from Osman Baydemir, mayor of Diyarbakir
Third Session Time 15 – 19
Democratic processes of conflict resolution: the role of the international community and the European Union
Moderator: Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary Permanent People's Tribunal
Demir Celik, BDP
Jone Goirizelaia, Abertzale Left
Alex Maskey, Sinn Fein MLA, former Mayor of Belfast
Jorgen Klute, EMP, Die Linke, GUE
