The Peoples’ Tribunal: Verdict on Turkey and the Kurds

By

On 15th and 16th March 2018, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Turkey and the Kurds convened in Paris for an intensive two-day meeting on the treatment of Kurdish people living in Turkey by President Erdogan’s government. The tribunal views the actions of the Turkish state as “Denying the Kurdish People its right to self-determination, by imposing Turkish identity, by denying the Kurdish peoples’ identity and presence, and by repressing its participation in the political, economic and cultural life of the country,” according to its vice-president, Philippe Texier.

The tribunal gave its verdict at the European Parliament in Brussels on 24th May 2018. Texier stated that: “From 1st January 2015 to the 1st June 2017, for which detailed evidence was submitted, war crimes were perpetrated by the Turkish state, during confrontations in the cities of south-east Anatolia, including assassinations, permanent displacements of Kurdish people and also attempted killings on part of the Kurdish people.”

Texier then proceeded to list State crimes including: “Targeted assassinations, extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, committed by different branches of the State’s security forces and secret services, in Turkey and abroad, particularly France, with the assassination of three Turkish activists in 2013.” Texier claimed “The Turkish state president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is directly responsible for the war crimes and the state crimes committed, in particularly in the cities of the south-east of Anatolia.”

Texier concluded that “The tragedy that has been tormenting the South East of Anatolia, causing incalculable suffering to the Kurdish people, and which affects the Turkish people, is avoidable. It results from the errors, burdened by time, of a nationalistic dogma which in the past provoked the Armenian genocide. The Turkish and Kurdish people can avoid a similar fate.” Finally, the tribunal offered some recommendations as to what steps can be taken to ensure that justice is carried out and peace is maintained between the Turkish government and the Kurds.

To learn more, click the following link to watch the verdict:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6M9Dimo-Po&feature=youtu.be

Video produced by Chris Den Hond

 

Image source: www.facebook.com

Text source: Chris Den Hond

 

  • Members CV
  • 9BRi Lobbying Forum
  • Expertise
  • Events & Calendar