A session of the Permanent Peoples Tribunal on Turkish war crimes against Kurdish people will be held in Paris’ Bourse du Travail on 15 and 16 March 2018.

Seven judges will examine an indictment served upon the Turkish State and its officials including Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and several military and intelligence officials.

The indictment consists of 100 pages and it’s believed to include the case of three Kurdish women revolutionaries who were murdered in Paris back in 2012 by a Turkish spy. Recently two MIT officials captured by the PKK confessed Turkey’s role in the murders of Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Saylemez.

Allegations about the Turkish war crimes in Cizre, Nusaybin, Sirnak and Sur in 2015-16, unlawful killings of Kurdish journalists and politicians will be heard at the court.

The unlawful capture of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan will also be another topic.

The court will give its verdict on the case two months after the session. The announcement will be made in a meeting to be held in the European Parliament in Brussels. Members of the European Parliament will be invited to that conference to reflect on the political initiatives that flow from the findings of the Court, in particular on measures to fight impunity.

An invitation has been sent to Turkish officials to attend the court sessions but there is no confirmation of attendance.

On day 1, cases about political rights, territorial, economic, cultural and women rights. On day 2, claims of war crimes and human rights violations will be received by the court.

The proposal to hold this session was made by 4 organizations, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH), Mafdad, an organization based in Germany of Kurdish and German Lawyers, and the Kurdish Institute of Brussels. The Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) (http://permanentpeoplestribunal.org) accepted that proposal.

The judges are appointed by the Permanent Peoples Tribunal according to its statute. The judges in this tribunal will be: Mr. Philippe Texier, Mr. Domenico Gallo, Mr. Norman Peach, Mr. Denis J. Halliday, Ms. Luciana Castellina, and Mr. Majid Benchikh.