WKI DECRIES TURKISH GOVT. ATTEMPT TO STIFLE DISCUSSION OF KURDISH PROBLEM AT CONFERENCE
May 5, 1997 –Washington, D.C.
The Ankara Security Director today informed organizers of the “Conference for a Peaceful Settlement of the Kurdish Problem in Turkey” that the May 8-9 meeting was banned. Citing press reports, authorities ruled the conference would damage the “Indivisible Integrity of the State,” and “cause trouble because of its provocative character and its contempt for the population.”
The Ankara Peace Conference, funded by the Olaf Palme Institute and France-Libertes Foundation, was organized by eight prominent Turkish non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and a sponsoring committee of more than two dozen international NGOs. Parliamentarians, academics, human rights activists, Western ambassadors and hundreds of Turks and Kurds planned to attend. All major political parties in Turkey had been invited.
The Turkish Government’s decision underscores a long-standing policy to suppress any effort aimed at resolving a conflict which has claimed almost 25,000 lives since 1984. Last week, five Danish parliamentarians were declared persona non grata by the Turkish Government so that they could not attend the conference. The government’s actions in this and other instances, demonstrates a serious disregard of basic freedoms of speech and association and contravenes stated international human rights commitments.
WKI President Najmaldin Karim stated, “The Turkish Government should view such a conference as an opportunity, not a threat. The longer the government refuses to consider non-military approaches, the harder it will be to end the violence which is destabilizing Turkey and undermining its attempts to democratize.”