A group of artists, intellectuals, writers and leaders of DISK, Petrol-İş, Deri-İş, ÖDP, Halkevi and Alewi Cultural Association have established an Initiative for Social and Democratic Peace.

The components of the Initiative announced the establishment at a press conference in Istanbul.

Speaking here on behalf of the Initiative, Secretary General of Istanbul Medical Chamber, Ali Çerkezoğlu, said that they came together with an aim to take responsibility for the democratic unity and brotherhood of all peoples in Turkey.

Çerkezoğlu promised struggle in order to pave the way for social peace across the country, underlining that they will not allow any Turkish or Kurdish child to die in a conflict environment and that they will stand against all kinds of racist, nationalist, chauvinist, discriminative and insulting words and acts on any side.

“We see it as a basic duty of ours to strengthen the unity of Turkish, Kurdish and all other peoples in Turkey on a democratic ground”, Çerkezoğlu said and added that they will not allow the AKP government to exploit the people's longings for peace and brotherhood for its own political objectives.

Source: ANF, Istanbul

Chairpersons of the Confederation of Public Workers' Unions (KESK) and unions affiliated to it held a press conference in Ankara to share their opinions about the process of talks aimed at a democratic and peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.

Speaking here, KESK President Lami Özgen said the silence of arms has been achieved thanks to the struggle made so far by the Kurdish people and movements for peace, labor and democracy. Özgen pointed out that the process could succeed thanks to the struggle by labor and democracy powers.

Özgen criticized the AKP government for being in search of a civil dictatorship aimed at supporting its neoliberal, religiously conservative and repressive regime in line with the new tendencies of imperialism. Özgen pointed out that AKP has yet taken no step in terms of democracy, rights and freedoms intended to be achieved in the ongoing process of talks, thus making it more difficult to come up with a solution to the Kurdish question.

Özgen said it was the responsibility of everyone fighting for peace to strengthen the ground for dialogue aimed at the silence of arms, ending of the bloodshed and establishment of a dignified and lasting peace. “The democratic and peaceful solution of the Kurdish question is not independent from the fight for Turkey's democratization”, he underlined and said that it was time to strengthen the calls for peace in order to enhance the joint struggle of peoples and to achieve freedom for all identities and groups in the country.

Maintaining its stance against the repressive and authoritarian practices of the AKP government, KESK will continue fighting for the silence of arms and demanding  peace and freedom, Özgen said and listed the following major steps which -he said- urgently needed to be taken in the ongoing process;

* AKP should start using a peaceful language.

* Talks [with Öcalan] should continue and each of its phases should be shared with the public.

* All circles of the society should ensure democratic participation in the process.

* Political prisoners should be released.

* Necessary steps should be taken to face the past and truths and to ensure the disclosure of violations of human rights, no matter whom they were committed by, to be able to heal the trauma the war in the country has caused.

* The Turkish Parliament should take part in the process to make necessary legal arrangements.

* The law on political parties and elections should undergo a democratic change, the election threshold should be removed, justice and equality should be ensured in the representation of peoples in the parliament.

* The demand for mother-tongue language should be fulfilled, freedoms of thought and expression should be guaranteed, political bans should be removed all together.

* Each citizen in Turkey, regardless of which ethnic origin, language, religion, gender identity and tendency they are, should be enabled to have equal rights on the basis of constitutional citizenship and to keep their cultures alive.

* Legal arrangements should be reviewed to make sure that people who were forced to migrate from their villages can turn back to their territory or lead a life in proper conditions in the territories they migrated to.

* The village guard system should be abolished.

* Principles of administration should be improved on the basis of direct democracy in order to serve for not only the solution of the Kurdish question but also for Turkey's democratization. Administrative and political arrangements should be made with an aim to give local councils of people administrative authorities in the scope of the assignation of central authority to local administrations.

* Public funding should be transferred to the Kurdish region to remove the economic inequality, poverty and unemployment here and a land reform should take place.

Source: ANF, Ankara

The final hearing of the trial against 15 Kurdish politicians in Iğdır was held at Erzurum 4th High Criminal Court on Monday. The politicians, including members of BDP (Peace and Democracy) party and municipal councils, had been taken into custody in the scope of KCK (Kurdish Communities Union) operation in Iğdır on 26 November 2012.

BDP Iğdır Party Council members Orhan Artuç and Ferzende Abay, who were being tried without arrest, have been sentenced to six years and three months in prison each for allegedly being “members of an illegal organization”. Thirteen other Kurdish politicians were released by the court.

Speaking after the hearing, Kurdish politicians' lawyer Mehmet Emin Adıyaman said that they would appeal to the Court of Appeals against the prison sentence given to Artuç and Abay.

Source: ANF, Iğdır

Associations and organizations from Kurdistan and Turkey and representatives of political parties in Europe gathered in the Belgium capital Brussels to debate the conference which will take place in Europe. The conference is part of the series of meetings Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan proposed in the context of the ongoing process for peace and democratic politics.

The meeting in Brussels was attended by the representatives of more than 60 associations and organizations as well as KONGRA-GEL President Remzi Kartal, KCK (Kurdish Communities Union) Executive Council member Zübeyir Aydar who agreed on the organization of Democracy and Peace Conference in Brussels on 29-30 June.

A committee was formed at the meeting, consisting of 14 representatives of various associations and organizations. It will take care of the preparations for the conference and hold talks with all relevant circles in Europe and calling for their participation in the conference.

According to the decision made at the meeting, 250 people will attend the conference, to include the representatives of all belief, labor, women and youth organizations in Kurdistan and Turkey. A delegation of at least two people will attend the Democracy and Peace Conference to take place in Ankara on 26-27 May.

Making the opening speech at the meeting, KONGRA-GEL President Remzi Kartal stated that Kurdish people's leader Öcalan initiated a new phase with the call he made on 21 March in Amed. Kartal said the ongoing historic process will pave the way for the replacement of the conflict environment with democratic politics as well as a radical change to arise in Turkey and to spread into the entire Middle East region.

Kartal remarked that the talks between Öcalan and the Turkish state started after the Kurdish guerrilla movement and Kurdish people defeated Turkey's plans against Kurds and after Turkey faced a deadlock in its Syrian policy.

Kartal stated that a general agreement has been reached in the talks in search of a solution to the Kurdish question. “Besides the assessment of the general situation, a constitutional assurance concerning the treatment of all identities on equal terms and the practice of decentralization are projected to be put into practice in the coming phase. This is what is meant to be achieved by means of constitutional-legal amendments”.

Kartal continued by explaining the three phases of this project, saying, “The first phase includes the withdrawal of guerrillas across Turkish borders and it will be followed by the second, which will witness the preparation of the substructure for a new constitution by means of legal amendments. The third phase will be the process of normalization and the matter of disarmament will be brought to the agenda once the security and freedom problems in the country are resolved and conditions are ensured for the legalization of the Kurdish movement”.

He added that separation rather than unity could be considered in the event of the failure of the process for democratic and peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.

Speaking after, KCK  Executive Council member Zübeyir Aydar said that, “We defend the unity of democratic powers rather than the imperial alliance in the region. We want peace not only with Turkey but also with Arabs, Persians and all other peoples and beliefs. We are a movement for humanity. We do not side by nationalism but stand against it”.

The participators of the meeting all put emphasis on the importance of unity and struggle by all circles that are otherized by the state and the system, including all peoples in Kurdistan and Turkey, different belief groups, workers and women.

Source: ANF, Brussels

THE VIOLENCE OF PROSCRIPTION: THE UK’S BAN ON THE PKK AND ITS EFFECT ON THE PEACE PROCESS

By Dr. Vicki Sentas, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC)

Again, it is hoped that a political settlement of the Kurdish question might be possible. The PKK’s 9^th unilateral ceasefire of March 2013 revisits complex questions about where the barriers lie to the lasting transformation of the conflict into a political negotiation. The PKK anticipates withdrawal from Turkish territory in order to facilitate resolution of substantive claims.  In the past this has faltered on legitimate grounds that Turkey first enacts good faith reforms recognising Kurdish rights. Now, it is reported that the PKK anticipate withdrawal so long as parliament enacts a commission to enforce conditions of security for the PKK and to guarantee future negotiations.  The PKK’s 1999 withdrawal ended in the ambush and killing of its retreating fighters by the Turkish military and a return to hostilities. The PKK have made major concessions and in turn rightly seek a political and legal basis to govern Turkey’s reciprocity to enable negotiations in accordance with the Oslo Process.

But it is precisely the PKK’s call for political status which clashes with another ‘legal’ and political formation which structures the Kurdish conflict– global counter-terrorism. The lack of political will by the Turkish state to date in taking steps required to transform the conflict represent complex, multifaceted obstacles. The interplay of factors sabotaging Turkey’s gestures of a ‘democratic opening’ is not considered here. But underlying the obstacles presented by deep state and other ‘hawkish’ forces remains the construction of the PKK as a terrorist organisation, without recognisable claims or recourse to any form of legitimate political violence against military targets (as understood in international law). The international community has had an integral role in preserving Turkey’s counter-terrorism strategies to militarily annihilate the PKK. The proscription of the PKK as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia remains an obstacle to the peace process. I briefly consider how proscription has undermined the PKKs political status by designating it as a terrorist entity, with specific focus on the United Kingdom.

The British state has been banning ‘terrorist’ organisations since the 1998 listing of the IRA.   As well as the PKK, there are 41 militant non-state actors banned in the UK. Many of these organisations are engaged in armed struggle in self-defence against repressive regimes and are engaged in political claims for statehood, regional autonomy or basic ethno-cultural rights; for example, the Baluch, Palestinians, Tamils, Basque, amongst other peoples. Proscription is not simply a domestic harm which inflicts criminalisation on Kurdish residents and citizens of the UK.  Banning organisations is a tool of British foreign policy which functions as a systemic state violence in three additional key ways: firstly by denying the application of international law and principles of self-determination; secondly, by foreclosing opportunities for peaceful settlement of conflict; and thirdly by legitimating and facilitating Turkish state terror against the Kurds.

In so far as proscription makes no distinction between armed conflicts and terrorism, it denies those targeted fundamental legal rights and protections relating to self-determination. In armed conflict, breaches of the laws of war such as killing civilians are regulated by international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions.  Proscription criminalises an organisation and any individuals associated with that organisation.  Proscription does not, and cannot regulate the horrors of war and the atrocities that are committed by both sides to a conflict.  Instead, by transforming non-state actors into apriori terrorists, proscription by the UK functions to valorise the state terror of others as ‘counter-terrorism’ and deny the right to resist state violence and exercise self-determination. This effect has been described by international law theorist Antonio Cassese (1991), as institutionalised violence.  Mark Muller QC discusses in detail the ways in which this institutionalised violence functions. Proscription has completely undermined the principle which prohibits the use of military force by oppressive states to suppress lawful self determination.  Proscription has also delegitimated the license to use military force as a last resort as defence against oppressive regimes by peoples seeking self determination.  Lastly, proscription has fundamentally reversed the principle that prohibits third states from supporting oppressive states in denying their right to self determination (Muller 2008).

Britain undermines the principle of self-determination by criminalising diverse forms of solidarity for armed resistance against oppressive regimes. The UK Terrorism Act 2000 makes it an offence to ‘belong’ to, or fundraise for, a listed organisation.  The Act also makes it illegal to wear or carry any item that would give rise to a reasonable suspicion that you support the organisation. Inviting any sort of support for an organisation (including non-material support) is criminalised.  Helping to manage or arrange a meeting of three or more people which supports the organisation, or helps further its activities, or is addressed by a member of the organisation is also an offence.

There have been two prosecutions of Kurds in the UK in relation to the proscription of the PKK, both of which failed. On 16 March 2002, four Kurds travelling to France to participate in a peaceful Kurdish convey to the Turkish border, were arrested at Dover.  They were carrying $20 000 in contribution to the costs of the convoy, collected from the UK Kurdish communities.  The men were detained at Belmarsh Prison for 9 months, and prosecuted under the Terrorism Act 2000 for providing support and funding to the PKK. The Court acquitted the defendants in November 2002. In March 2003 Gultekin Onur and Soner Koyuncu from the Halkevi Centre were detained in Preston for 2 months on charges that funds they raised for Kurdish TV were for terrorist purposes. The judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence.

Proscription however largely polices Kurds in the UK informally and without prosecution. The UK positions itself ‘at the forefront of EU member States’ action against the PKK’ and that it is ‘very active’ in targeting PKK supporters (FCO 2011 para 25). The Home Office identifies disruption, rather than prosecution, as the key object of the proscription regime. Kurdish activists are routinely harassed by police and intelligence agencies in the UK without charge, often as part of coordinated operations targeting Kurds across Europe. For example in a coordination harassment of at least 16 Kurds in the space of a month in 2011, Kurds were sent the message that their fundraising for charities, campaign work and their organising in community centres should stop, or face deportation or charges. In the absence of any evidence that any one had broken the law, state threats seek to silence politics. Rather than recognise the importance of the diaspora in creating the political conditions which will help transform the conflict, proscription laws criminalise activists because such work is  understood to ‘legitimate’ the PKK and therefore such work can only logically support violence. Despite the sustained efforts of the Kurdish movement towards peace, terrorist bans impose a dystopian militarised end.

The horrific events in Sri Lanka in May 2009 where tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed by Sri Lankan troops in the annihilation of the LTTE were aided by the international communities banning of the LTTE as terrorist. The Permanent People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka found that in listing the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, the EU engaged in conduct which undermined the 2002 ceasefire agreement, ‘in spite of being aware of the detrimental consequences to a peace process in the making’ (Permanent People’s Tribunal, 2010: 12).  After the listing of the LTTE by the EU, and then the UK, Sri Lanka increased its military offensive against the LTTE.  While the causes for the breakdown of the ceasefire are complex and multifaceted, proscription of the LTTE by the international community played a key role in the return to war.

The UK denies that its proscription of the PKK escalates military conflict.  In a response to submissions made by the KNK to de-list the PKK in 2009, Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson stated that the banning of the PKK has had absolutely no impact on its inclusion in negotiations for peace.  A key factor in this escalation has been the refusal by Turkey to enter into talks with the PKK for peaceful resolution on the grounds that they are a terrorist organisation. Instead, in the name of ‘counter-terrorism’ Kurdish parliamentary parties have been banned, and thousands of Kurdish politicians, activists, journalists and lawyers arrested and imprisoned since the announcement of the democratic initiative.  Thousands of Kurdish children have been arrested and imprisoned in adult prisons for ‘supporting’ terrorism, by either throwing stones or simply being in the vicinity of a pro-Kurdish demonstration. The nature and extent of repressions and violent assimilations cannot be detailed here. There remains however, either little or no public recognition in reports by either the UK and EU of the escalated repression of the Kurds. Finding all avenues for political dialogue closed off, the PKK called off its unilateral ceasefire in June 2010.

The denial of political status for the PKK illustrates how proscription by Western states legitimates and extends Turkish state terror against the Kurdish people. Proscription of the PKK by the G8 states directly supports Turkey’s strategy of non-negotiation (or, highly restrictive and conditional negotiation) with the PKK.  Instead, the labelling of the PKK as terrorist by the international community allows Turkey to escalate repression against the Kurds as part of its ‘war on terror’.  More broadly, the proscription regime as it is constituted globally means that G8 states claiming democratic credentials give impetus to state violence by less powerful nations.  Proscription creates an international atmosphere in which some states are empowered to use more repressive tactics against movements for self-determination. The British state, among other states who proscribe armed conflict, deserves sustained attention for culpability in repressing Kurds in the diaspora and in legitimating and therefore extending state violence in Turkey.

References

Cassese, A. (1991), ‘Violence, War, and the Rule of Law in the International Community’ Held, D. (Ed) Political Theory Today, Polity Press, Cambridge.

Foreign Commonwealth Office (2011)

Muller M. (2008), ‘Terrorism, Proscription and the Right to Resist in the Age of Conflict’ KHRP Legal Review, 14, pp 47–64.

Permanent People’s Tribunal. (2010), Tribunal on Sri Lanka 14-16 January 2010.

This artical has written by Essa Moosa for  Kurdistan Report Magazine (Nr. 167 May- July 2013) which is published  every two months in Germany. 

THE PEACE PROCESS IN SOUTH AFRICA FROM APARTHEID TO DEMOCRACY AND A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE PEACE PROCESS UNFOLDING IN TURKEY BETWEEN THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT AND  KURDISH LEADER, ABDULLAH  OCALAN

Democratic Free Women's Movement (DÖKH) put up a "Democratic liberation and solution" tent at Seyit Rıza Square of Dersim to inform the public about the "resolution process" and to discuss the process of "withdrawal" of HPG (People's Defense Forces) guerrillas across Turkish borders as of 8 May.

Posters of Sakine Cansız, a co-founder of PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), Fidan Doğan, KNK (Kurdistan National Congress) Paris representative, and Leyla Şaylemez, member of the Kurdish youth movement, were also hanged in the area of the tent which is visited by hundreds of people every day.

Speaking here, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Batman deputy Ayla Akat stated that Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan's liberation was the primary demand of the Kurdish people in the ongoing process of talks aimed at a democratic solution to the Kurdish question. Akat stated that Kurds also demanded the recognition of all ethnic identities, religions and beliefs by an equalitarian constitution.

Members of Peace Mothers Initiative from Amed and Istanbul have also arrived in Dersim to join the vigil at the "Democratic liberation and solution" tent in Dersim.

Mothers visited the grave of Sakine Cansız who was buried in her hometown Dersim after being brought from Paris where she was executed on 9 January together with Doğan and Şaylemez. Mothers lamented for Cansız and lit candles near her grave.

Mothers also visited the graves of HPG (People's Defense Forces) guerrillas buried in the same cemetery.

Source: ANF, Dersim

The Mesopotamian Movement for Democratic Culture and Art in Europe (TEV-ÇAND) released the final resolution of its fourth conference which took place in the German city of Düsseldorf on 11-12 May and saw the participation of delegates and guests from various countries.

The final declaration pointed out that the conference had been organized in the process of the "democratic political struggle" Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan initiated on 21 March, in Newroz in Amed. “The conference handled the duties to be fulfilled in the areas of culture and art within the process of the construction of democratic liberation and free life. Deficiencies in these fields were determined and decisions were made as to what needs to be done in the coming period”, it said .

Underlining that “the cultural values of a society are sacred and are aimed to reach the truth”, the declaration said that the dominant system of today however aims to commodify these sacred values and offers instead a life without conscience, moral and sense of community. It said that the popular culture targeted the sacred values of societies and therefore meant a cultural massacre. “Tev-Çand activities are based on being organized against the consumption of cultural and moral values by the capitalist modernity that imposes policies of massacre on our culture and art”, it said.

The declaration remarked that laborers of Tev-Çand had a significant responsibility in building a democratic, ecologic and gender-equalitarian system, enlightening the society against negative effects of the dominant system as well as defending, protecting and improving the folk art.

It noted that “in the conference, all artists have been called on to take place in the councils for culture and art and to refuse to stand by other artists who have no relation and connection with the public and fail to fulfill their responsibilities for the people”.

The final declaration of the conference pointed out that artists in the fields of culture and art are a part of the people's struggle, and that the Kurdish cultural and artistic associations have been established in line with the aims and needs of the Kurdish struggle. It said that “Artists are responsible for keeping our values alive in the face of the cultural massacre, and dressing the mentality and conscience of the society with social sacred values. This is the reason why the relationship between associations and artists is grounded on principles, organization and labor”.

It also noted that Kurdish artists should see it as a responsibility to perform works aimed at handing down the struggle given by the Kurdish leader, fighters and people to the next generations. “Our leader and our martyrs, thanks to whom the Kurdish people have come to these days, are what we need to put the primary emphasis on”, it underlined.

The declaration said the conference also laid stress on deficiencies in the Kurdish theater and cinema and ended with a decision to improve the present works and organizations in these fields.

Calling for participation in the process of the construction of a free life, the declaration said that “it was decided in the conference to ensure a stance siding with communal values of democratic modernity against the perspective of the capitalist modernity that Kurdish culture and art is facing today. The European Tev-Çand Council which has been formed in the conference, consisting of 21 members, will be representing the cultural-artistic councils and organizations across Europe. This is at the same time a step by our artists aimed at serving the construction of democratic liberation and a free life led by our leader and people who have been struggling for 40 years now”.

The declaration ended by calling on all workers of Kurdish culture and art to join the artists' movement for the construction of a free life.

Source: ANF, Düsseldorf

The third edition of Filmamed Documentary Film Festival opened on Saturday in Diyarbakır. The festival is dedicated to Sakine Cansız, a co-founder of PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), Fidan Doğan, KNK (Kurdistan National Congress) Paris representative, and Leyla Şaylemez, member of the Kurdish youth movement, who were killed in the French capital Paris on 9 January.

The festival begun on Saturday and will run until 25 May. It is organized by Kayapınar Municipality's Cegerxwin Youth and Cultural Center and the Association of Middle East Cinema Academy.

Speaking about the film festival, its coordinator Haşim Aydemir said that they would make a positive discrimination to women in this year's festival for it has been dedicated to women. “We are attaching a particular importance to the movies on women's struggle and to the movies by woman film makers, especially is countering the dominant male perspective in cinema across the world. The  positive discrimination for women will also be present in the debates: woman film makers will discuss the “women in cinema”.

Calling attention to the festival's importance for the people, Aydemir said that “The events of this year's festival are of importance for the institutionalization of the festival which we see as an alternative and independent event that aims to enable people to reach the movies that are not displayed in other festivals across the country. It is also of importance in terms of conveying cultural, artistic and social values to the people and creating a social memory for the people of Kurdistan and other peoples, paving the way for their production of their own movies”. Aydemir remarked that the festival also aimed to contribute to the Kurdish cinema by bringing Kurdish film makers from different countries together.

Aydemir said 17 movies and 25 documentary films will meet the audience in this year's festival, noting that the interest in the festival was growing every year.

He added that the movies will be displayed at  Cegerxwin Youth and Cultural Center and the European Cinema hall in Galeria.

Source: ANF, Amed/Diyarbakır

People's Defense Forces Press Office HPG-BIM said in a written statement that Turkish army carried out a bombardment with howitzer and mortars, targeting the areas of Oremar and Martyr Karker Hills in Hakkari's Yüksekova district on 17 May.

HPG-BİM remarked that the region of Gare in Hakkari was also bombed by Turkish warplanes in the same day.

According to HPG-BIM,Turkish reconnaissance airplanes have been flying over the areas of Küçük Cilo, Samuray and Büyük Gare for the last three days.

Source: ANF, Hakkari