Thursday 29 January 2009

The Kurds, a Nation with no borders

A forgotten people

A persecution 'as flagrant in its implications as the situation in Gaza' is happening in Europe and being ignored by the international community, according to a Welsh representative who addressed an International Conference on EU, Turkey and the Kurds today in Brussels .

Former MEP Eurig Wyn, who is also a Plaid Cymru candidate for this year's European elections, said from the European Parliament:

"There are 40 million Kurds in Europe, 20 million of who reside in Turkey and they are being persecuted by the Turkish government.

“Kurdish-medium schools are banned, their language persecuted - parents aren't allowed to give children Kurdish names - and in the Eastern Kurdish community there is a designed economic deprivation and poverty."

A spokesperson for Amnesty International ( Wales ), Mr Wyn added that the EU should not allow membership for the Turkish state until they respected Kurdish political and linguistic rights.

He added:
"All the international directives are in place - the UN Charter, the Geneva Convention, and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights - but they don't seem to be applied in relation to the Kurds. The incursions by the Turkish military into the Kurdish enclave in n orthern Iraq continue."


diwedd / ends


The two day conference is entitled:

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EU, TURKEY AND THE KURDS:
Time for Change in Turkey

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Britain's a nation, and predates England and Wales by hundreds of years. Ask the Romans.

Unknown said...

I have looked for a Roman to ask but cannot find any left

Anonymous said...

Someone who cannot use historical sources to answer such a simple challenge didn't ought to post on matters of history.

Again: Britain has been recognised as a nation for far longer than Wales. If longevity legitimises a nation, Britain would have every right to do all it can to stamp out Welshness.

Unknown said...

Longevity is not a criteria, sorry

Anonymous said...

What is, then?

Unknown said...

I haven't the time to give a history lesson but Britain is not a nation but a grouping of nation under one state.
Wales was invaded and incorporated into England, but it remained a nation quite remarkably with its own language and culture. The same is true of Brittany.

Anonymous said...

The English-descendants of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes-do not count as Britons.