Dear friends,
We am writing to let you know that an Early Day Motion (EDM) titled EDM 261: Arrest and Prosecution of Kurdish Politicians (see below) has been tabled in Parliament by Hywel Williams MP expressing concern over the arrest and detention of thousands of members of Turkey’s fourth largest political party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).
We urge you to contact your MP (find out who your MP is here: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/) to urge them to sign this motion condemning what constitutes a highly repressive and dangerous tactic by the Turkish government. The much vaunted ‘democratic opening’ established by Prime Minister Erdogan in 2009 has faded away. Instead, the AKP government has chosen to criminalise Kurdish politics and Kurdish politicians, thereby removing for most Kurdish people the option of participating in the democracy of the country and reinforcing their exclusion. We have to ask ourselves, would we allow this to happen in the UK?
We want plenty of MP’s to sign this motion to put a frank discussion of Turkey’s human rights violations on the table in Parliament.
A model letter is attached which gives you an example of what to write.
For background information on this EDM and other Parliamentary lobbying, the BDP, the ongoing KCK trials and other news and politics from Turkey, visit: www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com
Thank you,
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.wordpress.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Sirinathsingh – Tel: 020 7272 7890
Patrons: Lord Avebury, Lord Rea, Lord Dholakia, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Jill Evans MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Alyn Smith MEP, Bairbre de Brún MEP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Hywel Williams MP, Elfyn Llwyd MP, John Austin, Bruce Kent, Gareth Peirce, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, John Berger, Edward Albee, Margaret Owen OBE, Mark Thomas
26 June 2012
NEW EDM: PROSECUTION AND ARREST OF KURDISH POLITICIANS
Session: 2012-13
Date tabled: 26.6.12
Primary sponsor: Hywel Williams MP
Sponsors:
• Bottomley, Peter
• Corbyn, Jeremy
• Durkan, Mark
• Edwards, Jonathan
• George, Andrew
That this House notes with profound concern the escalating prosecutions of elected Kurdish politicians in Turkey, the recent heavy sentences of 10 and 14 years passed on Leyla Zana and Aysel Tugluk, as well as the latest wave of arrrests in Van District, which includes two mayors from the Peace and Democracy Party; expresses alarm that these arrests and detentions are part of the continuing Kurdistan Communities Union investigations which amount to an attempt by the Turkish government to eradicate the Kurds as an effective political force; is gravely concerned that the state detention facilities to which parliamentarians and other prisoners are sent are overcrowded, in poor condition and are the object of repeated allegations of human rights violations and prisoner abuse; and calls on the Government to make representations to Turkey to stop its persecution of Kurdish parliamentarians and move towards the restarting of negotiations to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict which is the real root of the problem.
