Press Release: For immediate release
4 December, 2014
11th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EU, TURKEY MIDDLE EAST AND THE KURDS
“CHAOS AND CRISIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: NEW REGIONAL ORDER AND THE KURDS”
To be held at the European Parliament, Brussels, 10 -11 December 2014. The full programme can be downloaded here.
Please note that all Conference’s sessions will be webstreamed in internet, these are the links which you can use to follow the Conference:
(Wednesday 10th December 2014, 15.00-18.30)
http://eventstream.streamovations.be/european-union-turkey-middle-east-kurds-10-dec.php
(Languages available: Turkish, English, French and German)
(Thursday 11th December 2014, 09.30-13.00 and 15.00-18.30)
http://eventstream.streamovations.be/european-union-turkey-middle-east-kurds-11-dec.php
(Languages available: Turkish, English, French and German)
Since 2004 the EUTCC has held an annual conference in the European Parliament. One of its most important tasks is to monitor Turkish compliance with the EU accession criteria. EUTCC wishes to contribute to the progress of Turkish membership of the EU by spreading accurate, objective information both in Turkey and Europe about the progress made by Turkey, but also about any shortcomings which may still persist.
By these conferences the EUTCC also wishes to contribute to a democratic, peaceful and lasting solution of the Kurdish problem. It believes that this can only be achieved through a dialogue between the parties concerned, in which also the EU must play its part. This will require not only further changes in legislation, but a change in the ideology and mentality at all levels of Turkish society. From a state seeing the expression of Kurdish culture and language as a threat to its own existence, Turkey must become a state that recognizes differences and sees cultural diversity and freedom as positive and necessary elements of a true democracy.
In these ten years there have been only minor reform changes in Turkey regarding the situation of the Kurds. This year’s conference brings together internationally recognized speakers from various disciplines and fields together with the EUTCC patrons, Shirin Ebadi, Noam Chomsky, Bianca Jagger, Yasar Kemal, Leyla Zana and Vedat Turkali.
At the 11th International EUTCC conference we are honored and pleased to welcome Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, Nobel Peace Laureate and Honorary Elder (founding member and chair of the Elders 2007-13); a veteran anti-apartheid activist and peace campaigner widely regarded as ‘South Africa’s moral conscience’.
Some of what Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu always reminds us of is that “People like the Elders are not here to lead change, or end war. They are here to remind you that wars can be ended.”
| Kariane Westrheim | Michael Gunter |
| Chair of EUTCC | Secretary General |