Thursday 11th December, 14h00, EP press room, BXL
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond TUTU, Nobel Peace Prize 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’, South Africa
Gaby ZIMMER, Chairwoman of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left Group (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament, Germany
Judge Essa MOOSA, IPRI fact-finding mission member, International Peace and Reconciliation Initiative (IPRI), South Africa
Mr. Francis WURTZ, IPRI fact-finding mission member, Former Chairman of GUE/NGL Group in European Parliament, France
Mr. Osman KAVALA, IPRI fact-finding mission member, civil society activist, Turkey
Prof. Kariane WESTRHEIM, University of Bergen, Chairwoman of the EU-Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC), Norway
The International Peace and Reconciliation Initiative (IPRI) has recently dispatched a Fact-Finding Mission to Turkey in order to determine the status of the peace process in Turkey, with the participation of Judge Essa Moosa (South Africa), Francis Wurtz (France) and Osman Kavala (Turkey), assisted on the ground by Ms Berivan Alatas.
The results and the report of the fact-finding mission of the International Peace and Reconciliation Initiative (IPRI) on the peace process relating to the Kurdish Question in Turkey will be presented and distributed during the press conference.
IPRI was launched in December 2012 in response to an international call made by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu for the resumption of talks between the Turkish government and the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, for the peaceful resolution of the Kurdish Question in Turkey. The call was supported by a number of leading world leaders and Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including:
His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Jimmy Carter (former President of the United States of America), Jose Ramos-Horta (former President of East Timor), Gerry Adams (President of Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland), Kjell Magne Bondevik (former Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway and currently Director of the Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights), Ingvar Carlsson (former Prime Minister of Sweden), Paavo Lipponen (former Prime Minister of Finland), Anker Jorgensen (former Prime Minister of Denmark) and Kjeld Olesen (former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark).
GUE/NGL press officer:
Gianfranco Battistini + 32 475 646628
