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
"The Nineteenth century saw a great Springtime of Nations as the revolutions of 1848 saw new countries created the length and breadth of Europe. In our world today we are now seeing our own Spring Awakening with people and cultures that have long been dormant and subdued asserting their right to exist, their right to dream." Adam Price MP
7 comments:
Britain's a nation, and predates England and Wales by hundreds of years. Ask the Romans.
I have looked for a Roman to ask but cannot find any left
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.
Longevity is not a criteria, sorry
What is, then?
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.
The English-descendants of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes-do not count as Britons.
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