FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU TURKEY AND THE KURDS

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FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS only a human rights problem, it is a fundamentally political issue and the right to self-determination is one of the fundamental principles of international law. Unless Turkey finds political ways to address the current situation of Kurds, the unsolved situation will continue to create instability in Turkey. This conference is sponsored by the EUTCC founding organisations; and for the fifth time we express our sincere gratitude to the Confederal Group of the European United Left and the Nordic Green Left in the European Parliament. But the one person who has worked tireless for month to for this conference is our dear friend Stefano Squarcina. I doubt that we would have been sitting here today without you. Thank you for support and solidarity. I also take the opportunity to thank the speakers, moderators, EUTCC Advisors - and - participants for making this conference possible. The patrons of the 5th International Conference are; Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu; Shirin Ebadi, both Nobel Peace Prize Laureates; Goodwill Ambassador to the Council of Europe and Chair of the World Future Council Bianca Jagger; the worldknown scholar and writer Noam Chomsky; the Kurdish Author Yasar Kemal and the former MP and Kurdish politician Leyla Zana. I thank you all. Professor Noam Chomsky and Mr. Yasar Kemal send their best wishes for a good conference and regret that they are not able to attend. I also have the pleasure to read to you the greetings that has been sent to the conference: From Dr. Shirin Ebadi Human Rights Defenders regardless of which country they live in or what nationalities they belong to, are like an international family because they all have the same goals. The success of one of them is the success of all of them. The defeat or suffering of one of them is defeat or suffering of all of them. My wish is that the Turkish State will show respect for human rights and that the difficulties that have plagued my dear sister will soon come to an end. I wish you good luck with the conference, sincerely yours. From Professor Kader Asmal I regret very much that I will not be able to attend the EU conference on the 28th and 29th January because of my commitments in South Africa. It is nearly over two decades since my involvement in the rights of Kurdish people, self-determination and free association. As a Minister in Mr Mandela’s government from 1994 onwards, 24
FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS the South African government by word and deed has supported a peaceful settlement of what has wrongly been seen as an intractable issue. It really is a simple matter. Turkey must recognise the cultural, religious and linguistic rights of the Kurdish people, and their right to decide their future within the framework of independent Turkey. I very much hope that the conference in Brussels will further focus urgent attention on the rights of the Kurdish people and avert a humanitarian crisis that has regrettably occurred arising out of legitimate struggle for their rights. The conference should, of course, insist that all parties should attempt to arrive at a settlement by peaceful means. The EU and other parties should do their upmost to ensure that Turkey responds to the minimum requirement of international law by recognising the legitimate rights of the Kurdish people. I wish you all the best. From Ms. Bianca Jagger I am talking to you as a campaigner and advocate committed - like so many thousands of others - to raising awareness of the human rights violations taking place against a large portion of people in the Middle East and elsewhere. Since I last spoke at this conference in 2007, conditions have not improved for the majority of Kurds in south-east Turkey. However, recent news that the German, Austrian and Swiss firms funding the Turkish Government’s $1.7 billion Ilısu dam project on the River Tigris have halted operations – at least until June 2009 - has surely brought a smile to the faces of the 65,000 people (from 185 settlements), that would have been forcefully evicted from their homes, and to the environmental campaigners that have fought so hard to stop this disastrous project from going ahead. The fight is certainly not over, but some progress has been made. The Turkish Government failed to meet 150 World Bank conditions concerning the environment, neighbouring states and human relocation. The Turkish government has now been given 180 days to meet such standards, or else the project will subside. A continued effort must urgently be made to ensure that the Ilısu project does not go ahead, because in addition to the human rights implications, this project is a crime against our common cultural heritage: the Ilısu Dam would bury under its reservoir the magnificent ancient city of Hasankeyf, not to mention hundreds of other unexplored archaeological sites and by disrupting the flow of the Tigris to neighbouring countries Iraq and Syria, this ill-conceived project will exacerbate the threat of a future ‘water war’ in an already volatile region. I urgently call upon all Members of the European Parliament and the international community to do all they can to prevent Turkey from building the Ilısu Dam project. We cannot stand by as one of the world’s most precious archaeological treasures is 25
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FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EU TURKEY AND THE KURDS

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