Final Resolution of the International Conference on Kurds in Brussels
The Conference organized by the “European Union – Turkey Civic Commission”
(EUTCC) and the “European United Left – Nordic Green Left Group of the
European Parliament” (GUE/NGL) on December 5-6, 2012, in the European
Parliament has adopted the following final resolution on “European Union,
Turkey and the Kurds”:
The 9th Annual EUTCC International Conference met on 5-6 December 2012 at
the European Parliament in Brussels. All of the presentations elaborated on
the findings of the European Commission’s most recent (2012) Progress
Report on Turkey’s EU accession process that unfortunately: “The Kurdish
issue and . . . the 2009 democratic opening aimed at addressing amongst
others the Kurdish issue were not followed through. . . . Overall, there
was no progress towards a solution as regards the Kurdish issue.”
What is going on in Turkey today appears to be an attempt to stifle Kurdish
voices and impose on the Kurds a unilateral solution to fundamental issues
of security and the future of the country. The KCK arrests and trials have
been intensified. There has been a recent escalation in violence, arrests,
oppression of the political sphere and media, violations of freedom of
thought and the overall lack of progress in the EU accession process. The
current threat to lift the parliamentary immunities of BDP MPs and the
failure to implicate those responsible for the Roboski massacre of 34
civilians on 28 December 2011 are specific examples of this situation.
The current Turkish debate over whether to institute a presidential system
of government or maintain a parliamentary system ignores the basic issue,
namely writing a new democratic and civilian constitution to replace the
authoritarian statist one imposed by the military in the eighties. The 9th
EUTCC Conference notes that the Constitutional Reconciliation Committee in
Turkey should have successfully finished its work in drawing up such a
democratic and civilian constitution by the end of 2012.
Furthermore, the Conference notes that the Turkish government’s approach to
the civil war in Syria seeks to reduce the recent achievements of its local
Kurdish population and is thus shaped around an anti-Kurdish axis. Instead,
Turkey and all other involved should encourage a non-violent dialogue among
all the political, religious, ethnic, and other groups in Syria with the
view of helping to create a democratic and pluralist state that is
inclusive of all its many different peoples.
Most importantly, however, the 9th EUTCC Conference notes that still
lacking is the willingness to negotiate genuinely with the Kurds and
continue the credible talks with Mr. Abdullah Öcalan. In other words, until
the Turkish government truly accepts the PKK as a negotiating partner–along
the lines of what Britain successfully did with Sinn Fein and the Irish
Republican Army (IRA), the African National Congress and South Africa, and
recently FARC and Colombia–it is doubtful whether a political solution to
this continuing crisis can be reached.
Mr. Öcalan’s recent 16 months of solitary confinement and the illegal
arrest of his attorneys are a clear violation of international law. This
solitary confinement is self-defeating for Turkey because it prevents Mr.
Öcalan from being able to prepare the basis for peace and reconciliation
with the Turkish state. The EUTCC Conference further takes note that the
recent hunger strike by more than 684 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
Mr. Abdullah Öcalan.
The EUTCC calls for the immediate resumption, without preconditions, 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. The Conference warmly endorses the recent call by
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu for the
Resumption of Dialogue between the Turkish Government and the PKK leader
Mr. Abdullah Öcalan.
Specifically we call for civic rather than ethnic Turkish citizenship,
mother-tongue education in the schools and defense in the courts, and
meaningful decentralization, among other necessary reforms, that as already
noted, can be best implemented by writing and ratifying a new civilian and
democratic constitution.
Pursuant to the presentations of the Conference attendants and
contributions made by its delegates, the EUTCC resolves to adopt the
following declarations and calls for action to be undertaken by all the
relevant parties to the conflict:
1.) The Conference notes positively Turkey’s recent reforms, but finds
that more reform is needed to meet Turkey’s requirements for EU accession.
2.) Specifically, the Conference calls on the EC Committee for the
Prevention of Torture (CPT) and the EU to urgently alleviate Mr. Abdullah
Öcalan’s current conditions of solitary confinement. In contravention of
the ECHR, Öcalan’s attorneys have had no visits allowed during this time.
All core conditions must be met in order that Mr. Abdullah Öcalan can play
a full part in the negotiation process and also freely communicate with his
organization.
3.) The EUTCC calls for the direct negotiations between Turkey and the
Kurds to be re-established immediately and without preconditions. It also
calls on the EU to play a role in these negotiations by providing political
and official support for the creation of a democratic platform for dialogue
between Turkey and the Kurdish representatives. The basis for a general
political amnesty must be prepared as part of a wider negotiated peace
process. In order to facilitate these negotiations, the Conference urges
all countries to remove the PKK from their terrorist lists
4.) The EUTCC Conference resolves to periodically make recommendations
regarding measures for the Turkish accession process, the protection of
human rights and the situation of the Kurds. Focusing on the unfair trials
and grave violations of human rights in the KCK cases and many others, the
Conference calls upon the EU Presidency and Commission to open new chapters
in the process of EU-Turkey accession, especially in the field of judiciary
and fundamental rights. In parallel with this requirement, the Conference
also calls upon the Turkish Government to speed up the legal and judicial
reform package by enlarging their contents so that thousands of Kurdish
political activists can be released from prisons.
5.) The Conference calls upon the Turkish authorities to seriously write
and ratify the promised new democratic and civil constitution along with
resuming a new approach of dialogue and negotiation in all fundamental
problematic issues.
Second and final day of the Conference
Democratic Union Party (PYD) co-chair Saleh Muslim, journalists Cengiz
Çandar and Serdar Akinan, Dutch academic Joost Jongerden, Israeli academic
Ofra Benngo and Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-chair Aysel Tuðluk
were among the speakers of the second day of the 9th international
conference on “The European Union, Turkey and Kurds”.
PYD co-chair Saleh Muslim said the followings in his speech on Thursday
morning; “We Kurds want to be the soldiers of ourselves, not others’. The
autonomy project consists of not only Kurds but also Arabs, Armenians,
Assyrians, Alewis and all other belief groups. Democratic autonomy is the
only model of solution for the West Kurdistan territory.”
Speaking after, Prof. Ofra Bengo of Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv
University said that; “I would like to make a comparison between the Arab
and Kurdish spring in consideration of the fact that Kurds have carried out
a silent revolution behind which the Arab spring has served as a driving
force. While the Middle East region was dominated by the mentality of
nation state so far, we now see that this policy has been leveled to the
ground.The developments in Arab countries have also paved the way for
Political Islam but the progress in the Kurdish territory didn’t progress
in the same way. The Arab Spring has also influenced the Kurds in Turkey in
many ways and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) has become much stronger.
It is now time for a new beginning as Kurds have gained a strategical role
and self-confidence in the region. The more the states in the region lose
their importance, the brighter future Kurds will have.”
Turkish journalist Cengiz Çavdar said that; “The recent developments
concerning Kurds is not something new in consideration of the time when
they first took to the stage in the history. The presence of a “semi
independent” Kurdish self-government will be a significant step in the
history of Kurds as we now witness that an irrepressible process has been
started under the leadership of the those in Syria.” (ANF, 6 December 2012)
EU: BDP deputies should not be ‘excluded’ from politics
During one of Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin’s rare visits to Brussels,
the European Union made it clear that pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party
(BDP) deputies should not be “excluded” from politics, referring to the
raging debate on whether or not the immunity of those deputies should be
lifted, leaving them open to prosecution.
Peter Stano, spokesman for Stefan Füle, the commissioner for enlargement
and neighborhood policy, a function of the EU’s executive European
Commission, said parliamentary immunity should apply to all deputies on a
non-discriminatory basis. Referring to the commissioner’s line that the
Kurdish issue and problems in Turkey’s Southeast could only be overcome
through the contribution of all democratic forces, Stano said the EU was
not in favor of exclusion of some deputies from Parliament or politics.
Stano’s remarks came on the heels of a heated debate in Turkey over whether
to deprive 10 BDP deputies, who are accused of maintaining ties to the
terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), of their parliamentary immunity.
The issue intensified after the release of a video showing BDP deputies and
terrorists from the PKK chatting and hugging one another along a highway in
Þemdinli, a district of the southeastern province of Hakkari.
An investigation was launched into the incident by prosecutors, who said
the meeting appeared to have been a prescheduled one, contrary to the BDP’s
claims that it happened spontaneously when the terrorists blocked a road
along their route. BDP deputies are the subject of frequent investigations
by prosecutors but are immune from prosecution while they are in office,
unless the assembly votes in favor of lifting their immunity. A motion was
prepared by the Prime Ministry to lift the immunity of the 10 BDP deputies
and was submitted to Parliament for discussion.
“The European Commission recalls that its consistent line has always been
that the solution to the Kurdish issue and to all the problems in the
Southeast can only be attained through the widest possible contribution of
all democratic forces, and not through their exclusion. The issue of
parliamentary immunity is currently being discussed in the Constitutional
Reconciliation Committee working on a new constitution. Clearly, immunities
must apply to all on a non-discriminatory basis,” read the full text of
Stano’s statement.
In the meantime, sources claimed that Ergin and Füle discussed a judicial
reform package under preparation in Turkey during their meeting on
Thursday. The commission has been insistent on advancing the fourth
package, which it thinks will help to bring progress to issues of freedom
of expression and press.(TODAY’S ZAMAN, Dec 6, 2012)