Conference on Kurds at European Parliament
Conference on Kurds at European Parliament
The 9th Annual EU Turkey Civic Commission Conference will be held at the European Union Parliament in Brussels on 5 and 6 December.
A number of focused papers will be presented on the Conference’s theme:
“The Kurdish Question in Turkey: Time to Renew the Dialogue and Resume Direct Negotiations.”
Prominent participants presenting talks at the conference include Helene Flautre and Jurgen Klute who are both MEPs; Walter Schwimmer, the former Secretary-General of the Council of Europe; Saleh Muslim Mohammed, the leader of the (Kurdish) Democratic Union Party of Syria; Roboski massacre survivor Ferhat Encu, Ofra Bengio, the leading Israeli scholar on the Kurds; among numerous others. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from South Africa, will participate via a video message.
All of the presentations papers will elaborate on the findings of the European Commission’s most recent (2012) Progress Report on Turkey’s EU accession process that “The Kurdish issue and options for a solution were widely discussed; however, the 2009 democratic opening aimed at addressing amongst others the Kurdish issue was not followed through. Overall, there was no progress towards a solution as regards the Kurdish issue.”
In their call for the conference board directors Professor Michael Gunter, Kariane Westrheim and Hans Branscheidt underlined that "What is going on in Turkey today appears to be an attempt to stifle Kurdish voices and impose a unilateral Turkish solution to fundamental issues of security and the future of the country. The KCK/PKK arrests in particular look less like a war on terror and more like one on dissent".
Furthermore, the directors noted "supposed Turkish reforms have been too little and too late. For example, the Turkish government’s announcement in June 2012 about initiating elective Kurdish language classes and the opposition CHP’s announced willingness to discuss the Kurdish problem with the government, do not impress disaffected disaffected Kurds very much. Private Kurdish language classes supposedly were made possible several years ago, and why should the CHP not discuss the Kurdish problem?"
More importantly, however, the directors pointed out that "still lacking is the willingness to negotiate genuinely with the PKK. Unilateral Turkish attempts to solve the Kurdish problem with minor unsatisfactory gestures while ignoring or even trying to eliminate the other side which is the PKK will not work.
Although you may have some of Ankara’s, Brussels’s, and Washington’s policy communities impressed by these supposedly new Turkish gestures, their approval amounts to little more than wishful group think and is not going to solve the Kurdish question".
The EUTCC takes note that the recent hunger strike by more than 1,500 imprisoned, non-violent Kurdish dissidents (the so-called KCK arrests and trials) "was only successfully concluded when the Turkish government finally turned to negotiating with Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned Kurdish leader. Surely if Ocalan can help end the dangerous hunger strike that was challenging Turkish authority and stability, it would behoove Turkey to renew discreet negotiations with him and other senior PKK leaders that were broken off in 2011".
Thus the EUTCC calls for "the resumption of the Oslo Process of direct talks between Turkey and the PKK with the intention of instituting Turkey’s full respect for the fundamental democratic rights of all its citizens. Specifically we call for civic rather than ethnic Turkish citizenship, mother-tongue education, and meaningful decentralization, among other necessary reforms, that can be best implemented by writing and ratifying a new civilian and democratic constitution to replace the statist military one imposed in 1982, by the military coup of 1980".
A number of focused papers will be presented on the Conference’s theme:
“The Kurdish Question in Turkey: Time to Renew the Dialogue and Resume Direct Negotiations.”
Prominent participants presenting talks at the conference include Helene Flautre and Jurgen Klute who are both MEPs; Walter Schwimmer, the former Secretary-General of the Council of Europe; Saleh Muslim Mohammed, the leader of the (Kurdish) Democratic Union Party of Syria; Roboski massacre survivor Ferhat Encu, Ofra Bengio, the leading Israeli scholar on the Kurds; among numerous others. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from South Africa, will participate via a video message.
All of the presentations papers will elaborate on the findings of the European Commission’s most recent (2012) Progress Report on Turkey’s EU accession process that “The Kurdish issue and options for a solution were widely discussed; however, the 2009 democratic opening aimed at addressing amongst others the Kurdish issue was not followed through. Overall, there was no progress towards a solution as regards the Kurdish issue.”
In their call for the conference board directors Professor Michael Gunter, Kariane Westrheim and Hans Branscheidt underlined that "What is going on in Turkey today appears to be an attempt to stifle Kurdish voices and impose a unilateral Turkish solution to fundamental issues of security and the future of the country. The KCK/PKK arrests in particular look less like a war on terror and more like one on dissent".
Furthermore, the directors noted "supposed Turkish reforms have been too little and too late. For example, the Turkish government’s announcement in June 2012 about initiating elective Kurdish language classes and the opposition CHP’s announced willingness to discuss the Kurdish problem with the government, do not impress disaffected disaffected Kurds very much. Private Kurdish language classes supposedly were made possible several years ago, and why should the CHP not discuss the Kurdish problem?"
More importantly, however, the directors pointed out that "still lacking is the willingness to negotiate genuinely with the PKK. Unilateral Turkish attempts to solve the Kurdish problem with minor unsatisfactory gestures while ignoring or even trying to eliminate the other side which is the PKK will not work.
Although you may have some of Ankara’s, Brussels’s, and Washington’s policy communities impressed by these supposedly new Turkish gestures, their approval amounts to little more than wishful group think and is not going to solve the Kurdish question".
The EUTCC takes note that the recent hunger strike by more than 1,500 imprisoned, non-violent Kurdish dissidents (the so-called KCK arrests and trials) "was only successfully concluded when the Turkish government finally turned to negotiating with Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned Kurdish leader. Surely if Ocalan can help end the dangerous hunger strike that was challenging Turkish authority and stability, it would behoove Turkey to renew discreet negotiations with him and other senior PKK leaders that were broken off in 2011".
Thus the EUTCC calls for "the resumption of the Oslo Process of direct talks between Turkey and the PKK with the intention of instituting Turkey’s full respect for the fundamental democratic rights of all its citizens. Specifically we call for civic rather than ethnic Turkish citizenship, mother-tongue education, and meaningful decentralization, among other necessary reforms, that can be best implemented by writing and ratifying a new civilian and democratic constitution to replace the statist military one imposed in 1982, by the military coup of 1980".
