FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU TURKEY AND THE KURDS

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FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS sometimes you meet at certain points and sometimes you take different paths. The important thing is to move in the right direction. Another thing that is particularly important for identity politics is that Turkey is giving back some places their former names that had been changed to Turkish. It happened in Bulgaria, which is now an EU member, and Turks suffered from this in Bulgaria, where the names of villages were changed, and the same thing happened to the Kurds in Turkey. This is totalitarianism and without changing it Turkey cannot become a member of the EU. The title of this conference is ‘Time for Change in Turkey’ which is a correct title. There is a black president in the US. Would we have ever dreamed of that before? It is a time for change in the world. We need to change our language, rhetoric and mentality. It is a time for change altogether. Turkey will become a member of the EU because we are there, because there are Kurds and Turks living in Turkey who will make it possible. Thank you. 114
FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS SESSION 3: ONGOING CONFLICT: DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES 3.1 The Effect of Cross-Border Operations in Neighbouring States Susan Breau If often feel like a sort of the ‘bad news’ person at this conference because I bring us back to the sad realities for the situation in south-east Turkey particularly because I’m an expert in the law of armed conflict and hopefully on this panel we’re going to move on from that. I need to pose some questions to you today, and some discussion topics that I hope will provoke further thought with respect to that situation. I was here last year, speaking about whether or not the situation in south-east Turkey had risen to the level of an armed conflict. Well that was in January 2008 and I think everyone in this room would agree that in March of 2008, with 100,000 Turkish troops entering another sovereign state, in the issue of whether there’s an armed conflict, the answer is certainly very clear. There is an armed conflict and the issue is whether or not it has become an international armed conflict from what I argued last year was an internal armed conflict. Now I wish the answer could say was clear to that, it is not, and I want to just discuss a couple of the issues. Further more in the past couple of weeks there is another sovereign state that has become involved in an armed conflict and that is Iran which has also been shelling targets in the Kurdish region of Iraq. What we have now are three sovereign states involved in the situation that we’re discussing today: Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and the group that you represent, the Kurdish peoples, a very complex situation, a very serious international situation. And I pose to you the question, why is it that this isn’t the first item on CNN? Why is it that it is extremely difficult to even find media reports on what is happening? Israel and Gaza was on the TV 24 hours a day for weeks, and yet in March of 2008, 100,000 troops entered a sovereign state, and I challenge you to have found very many press reports about it. That in itself is a very interesting question. Why is the armed conflict in this region such a secret? Secondly, a major issue that has arisen since 1995, when the first Turkish incursion took place into the territory of Iraq. Turkey argued that they had a right of self-defence and that their legal justification for the use of force was they were exercising their right of self-defence by pursuing Kurdish fighters into the territory of Iraq. Well, I’ve got news for Turkey. That is not an accepted justification for the use of force. If 115
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FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU TURKEY AND THE KURDS

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