PUBLIC MEETING AT MARXISM 2012, 5-9 JULY 2012

Turkey, the Kurdish Struggle and the New Middle East

Saturday, 7 July, 5.15-6.45pm
Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT* How to find us.

Speakers: Akif Wan, Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) UK
Dr Felix Padel,  Social Anthropologist, Author and Political Activist

Chaired by: David Morgan, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign

Discussion organised by Peace in Kurdistan: campaign for a political solution to the Kurdish Question

The historic struggle of the Kurds in Turkey has reached a new intensity at a time when popular uprisings in the Middle East are overturning anti-democratic regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, in a social ferment that has left no state untouched. In pursuit of its own regional strategic interests, the West has opted to rely on Turkey as a model for the new democracies emerging in the region ignoring the savage clampdown on Kurdish organisations including sweeping detentions and legal prosecutions of elected members of the opposition Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

At the same time fierce fighting between the PKK and the Turkish Army has broken out once again. A glimmer of hope however has been offered by Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed Kurdish leader, who has intervened by issuing an ambitious new “Road Map” as a basis for restarting negotiations with its proposals for democratic autonomy that are significant for the entire region.

The left needs to step up its solidarity with the progressive movement of the Kurds who are leading the popular struggle for the renewal of democracy and people’s power as an alternative to the failed sectarianism, fundamentalism and dictatorship. Speakers will address these issues that are relevant for the future of the entire Middle East and attempt to show what can be done in the UK in terms of practical solidarity action.

 

 

For further information contact:

Peace in Kurdistan  Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question

Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk       www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com

Tel 020 7586 5892

 

* Gustave Tuck LT-UCL Campus Route Finder