Turkey Found Guilty of ‘War Crimes’: Where do we go from here? is the title of the Public Fourm organised in London on Tuesday.

The event is hosted by Lord Hylton and promoted by Peace in Kurdistan, Kurdish People’s Assembly in Britain, Roj Women Assembly, Freedom for Ocalan Campaign, UK, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC).

The special discussion has been organised following release of the verdict dated 24 May 2018

The event will be chaired by: Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley lecturer of political sociology at the University of Cambridge.

Speakers include: Gianni Tognoli Secretary General of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal; Dr Radha D’Souza Reader in law at Westminster University; Julie Ward MEP; Professor Bill Bowring, Director LLM/MA Human Rights, Birkbeck, University of London; Margaret Owen O.B.E, barrister; Tony Simpson, Bertrand Russel Foundation, Editor of Spokesman; Dr Les Levidow, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC); Simon Dubbins UNITE international director; Steve Sweeney, journalist.

Tuesday, 17 July, 6.30 - 8.30pm at Committee Room 1, Houses of Parliament, via St Stephens Entrance.

Background

One month before the presidential election in Turkey, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal   (PPT), on 24 May 2018, issued a stinging condemnation   of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. President Erdogan was found guilty   of committing war crimes against Kurds in Turkey by the PPT which said he had been “tormenting” the Kurdish people in Southeast Turkey, causing them “incalculable suffering”.

A panel of experts and activists – including a Judge from the PPT itself - will be discussing where the movement for peace and justice in Kurdistan goes on from here.

The Tribunal issued a report that called on President Erdogan to enter into immediate negotiations with the Kurds and withdraw completely from the largely-Kurdish enclave of Afrin in Syria.

The Tribunal’s report was released at the European Parliament in Brussels, where UK MEP Julie Ward said it showed Erdogan waging a war “against every aspect of Kurdish culture.” Phillip Texier, Tribunal president, honorary judge at the Court of Cassation of France, who has also served on the UNHCR, said that the “key cause” of the conflict between Turkey and the Kurds is “the denial to let the Kurdish people have their self-determination right exercised.”

In the verdict and recommendations released Thursday, May 24, the Tribunal found that the Turkish state was responsible for “denying the right to self-determination of the Kurdish people’s identity and presence, and the repression of its participation in the political, economic and cultural life of the country.”

 Very significantly, it declared that the Kurdish struggle for human rights is not a “terrorist” issue as Erdogan claims, but rather a “non-international armed conflict ruled by international humanitarian law” and thus should not be subject to anti-terrorism legislation.