Join the Friends of Adem Uzun!

A new initiative by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC) UK unites members of parliament, lawyers, journalists, political commentators and activists in a common cause, to demonstrate support for detained Kurdish politician Adem Uzun and demand his release from prison.

We have already collected dozens of signatures but we need more! To add your name to the growing list, please email ‘I would like to join the Friends of Adem Uzun’ to estella24@tiscali.co.uk with your name, profession and organisation as appropriate and we will add you.

 

FREE ADEM UZUN

The Kurdish politician Adem Uzun was arrested in France on 6 October 2012. Having been denied bail, Adem remains in detention awaiting a trial which could be months away.

Adem Uzun is a prominent activist working to achieve peace through the resumption of negotiations between Turkey and the Kurds. A leading politician with the Kurdistan National Congress, KNK, Adem is well-known to anyone involved in the Kurdish issue, especially in the European Parliament, and has been one of the main Kurdish negotiators in the so-called “Oslo Process” with high-level Turkish Government’s representatives.

EUTCC: In memory of our friends

Issued: 10 January, 2013

For immediate release

IN MEMORY OF OUR FRIENDS:

SAKINE CANZIZ, FIDAN DOGAN, AND LEYLA SÖYLEMEZ

It was with shock and grief we received the horrible news about the deaths of our dear friends who were massacred in Paris today in the most grotesque way. Sakine Canziz, the co-founder of the PKK in 1978 holds a crucial role in the party. Fidan Dogan (Rojbin), a Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) member from Paris, has also been working closely alongside the EUTCC for many years and her work has been very important to our international work for the Kurds.

Bayık: talks are the last chance for AKP

While the talks with the Kurdish Leader Abdullah Öcalan in Imrali are being debated, member of the KCK Executive Council, Cemil Bayık, evaluated the subject in his column published at the Yeni Özgür Politika and Azadiya Welat newspapers.

Bayık, in his article written in Kurdish, entitled ‘the last chance for AKP’, stated that as a result of the resistance of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan against one and a half year of threats and blackmailing, the AKP had to restart the talks. Stating “resistance of the Guerrilla and the People also forced the AKP to talk with the Kurdish People’s Leader”, Bayık’s article is as follows:

EUTCC resolution calls for restart of direct negotiations

The EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC) held its 9th International Conference last week In Brussels, with politicians, academics, NGO workers and political activists from Kurdistan, Europe and across the world gathering for two days of discussion. The final resolution, which is reproduced below in full, reflected the main focus of the conference this year by calling for direct negotiations to resume between the Turkish government and the PKK. This echoes the call made made Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Despond Tutu at the recent launch of the International Peace Initiative (IPI). A special resolution was also passed calling for the release of Kurdish politician Adem Uzun from French custody, which is also below.

Prominent MP and Rafto Prize Laureate Ms Leyla Zana opened the conference, and a copy of her speech in English is opening speech (pdf). Also available is Dutch academic Joost Jongerden’s conference paper entitled Rethinking Politics and Democracy in the Middle East (pdf).

FINAL RESOLUTION OF THE 9TH INTERNATIONAL EUTCC CONFERENCE, BRUSSELSTHE KURDISH QUESTION IN TURKEY: TIME TO RENEW THE DIALOGUE AND RESUME DIRECT NEGOTIATIONS

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.”

EUTCC reacts to Adem Uzun arrest in Paris

 

19 October, 2012
Press Release: For immediate release

EUTCC CALLS FOR THE RELEASE OF ADEM UZUN TO FURTHER PEACE

 

The EUTCC calls upon the French authorities for the immediate release of Adem Uzun, a leading official of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) headquartered in Brussels. His arrest is clearly a political attempt to curry favor with the Turkish authorities who had just complained that France and Germany were not supporting Turkey’s campaign against the PKK and its so-called terrorism in Europe. Far from being a terrorist, Adem Uzun was arrested in Paris where he was preparing to attend a peaceful conference on the Kurdish situation in Syria.

Leading Kurdish Activist Arrested in Paris

Translated from Turkish original, London

ANF 12:41 / 10 Ekim 2012 Paris

KNK (Kurdistan National Congress) member, Adem Uzun, has been remanded in custody in France after appearing court following his arrest in Paris.

The KNK condemned the action against Mr Uzun and explained in a statement that Uzun was in Paris to take part in the preparations for a conference on West Kurdistan (Syrian Kurdistan), which was scheduled to take place on 13 October.

Seminar on Turkey, the Kurdish Struggle and the New Middle East

The significance of the continuing Kurdish struggle for the future of Turkey and the Middle East as well as its implications for politics in Britain were issues on the agenda at the Marxism 2012 conference and festival which took place in central London on 5-9 July.

A seminar, organised by the Peace in Kurdistan Campaign as part of the Marxism 2012 programme on 7th July, brought into focus the plight of Kurdish activists within Turkey and drew attention to the key democratic demands of the Kurdish movement.

Turkey, recognised as a key ally of the West in the reshaping of the Middle East in the aftermath of the “Arab Spring”, was currently stepping up its repression of Kurdish organisations; arrests of political and civil society activists were increasing and draconian legal manoeuvres were being taken against the main pro-Kurdish political party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in an orchestrated attempt to render it incapable of operating effectively. The resilience of the Kurdish people in the face of decades of savage repression was widely seen as inspirational by participants in the seminar.

Write to President Obama! Sign the petition!

Since the massacre at Uludere on 28 December 2011 which killed 35 civilians, the US government has said it will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Turkey, and rather than condemning the Turkish government for its actions, the US is promising further supply of technologically advanced missiles.

We can take this matter into our own hands, by writing directly to President Obama and demanding he stands up for the rights and freedoms of the Kurds. Join the KNK letter-writing campaign!

KNK Press Release: Massacre by Turkish state continues!

Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) Press Release
29.12.11

Massacre by Turkish state continues!
 
Turkish war planes bomb Kurdish village and massacre 40 children and youth in Sirnak, South East Turkey.

Turkish war planes bombed Roboski village, a Kurdish village in the South East province of Sirnak, Turkey, killing at least 40 civilians, many of them children and youth, late last night. 24 of those killed belonged to the same family.