Desmond-TutuThursday 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

[email protected]

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