KÚRDAR FÁI ÁHEYRNARSÆTI HJÁ SÞ – OBSERVER SEAT AT UN FOR KURDS

Kúrdar frá ríkjum þar sem þeir eru fjölmennastir, Tyrklandi, Íran, Írak og Sýrlandi en einnig Kúrdar sem hafa flust til annarra landa - iðulega af illri nauðsyn - hafa sameinast um þá kröfu að fá áheyrnarsæti hjá Sameinuðu þjóðunum. Kúrdar eru á bilinu 50 – 60 milljónir talsins og er saga þeirra þyrnum stráð. Valdaöfl heimsins hafa neitað þeim um að stofna eigið ríki en samkvæmt grunnsáttmála Sameinuðu þjóðanna eiga þeir rétt á því að tala röddu þjóðar á vettvangi heimssamtakanna.

(Formenn KNK setja ráðstefnunna, þeim á visntri hönd fundarstjórar  - alltaf karl og kona!)

Það voru heildarregnhlífarsamtök Kúrda - KNK – Kurdish National Kongress sem skipulögðu ráðstefnu í Brussel síðastliðinn laugardag þar sem þessi krafa var sett fram og munu samtökin í kjölfarið beita sér fyrir átaki á heimsvísu um að afla henni fylgi.

Á ráðstefnunni fjölluðu sérfræðingar um ástandið í Mið-Austurlöndum með sérstöku tilliti til stöðu Kúrda og kom þar margt fram sem vakti ugg með mér til dæmis hverning Bandaríkjamenn og Tyrkir virðast vera að ná enn betur saman um það sem hina fyrrnefndu skiptir öllu máli, yfirráðum yfir olíuauðnum á svæðum Kúrda í norðanverðu Sýrlandi.

Krafa Kúrda um að fá stöðu áheyrnarfulltrúa hjá Sameinuðu þjóðunun er réttmæt og væri óskandi að íslensk stjórnvöld veittu henni stuðning.

Að loknu pallborðsumræðu sérfræðinga fluttu gestir ávörp og var ég þeirra á meðal en síðan hófust umræður um ályktunartillögu ráðstefnunnar. Ég mun síðar gera nánari grein fyrir henni.

Hér eru slóðir á fréttaflutning af ráðstefnunni auk svipmynnda:

ANF | KNK Conference in Brussels: Kurdish international representation must be strengthened

ANF | Zübeyir Aydar at KNK Conference: Kurds must have a presence on international platforms

Eftirfarandi eru ávarpsorð mín sem ég hafði skrifað niður til þess að auðvelda túlkun orða minna.
Að loknum almennum ávarpsorðum og vísan í umræður sérfræðinga í pallborði lýsti ég stuðningi við kröfu ráðstefnunnar

My words at the opening of the congress after referring to the what had been said in the opening panel by experts:

Earlier in the week I was asked to take part in an opinion survey by Gallup.
They started by asking how my health was and whether I was content and happy. I scored high on the happiness scale.
But then they wanted to know how I felt about certain states, how I was inclined towards the United States, China, Russia and the European Union. Then this positive man turned critical -and indeed pessimistic when asked about the future.
The reason of course was the framing of the question. If I had been asked how I felt towards Americans in general, the Chinese, Russians and people belonging to the European Union I would have been on the positive side.
It is the states that are problematic not the people – well some people of course – but not the public in general.
The well-being of people is to a large extend decided by states and here states of course differ. The Kurds have been denied the right to a state and all the millions of Kurds are also denied the right to air their grievances in the forum of state power – the United Nations, which itself is under attack. The law-based structure of the world is being systematically undermined and is on an increasing scale dominated by the military industrial complex Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against when leaving his presidential post in the United States in 1961.

And here I come to the Kurds and why I think it is essential that they get a voice in the United Nations.

I have before referred to a meeting I attended in Amed – Diyarbakir – some years ago. I was part of a delegation and we were having a meeting with representatives of the community. There was this young man - and take note this was after the terrible atrocities committed by the Turkish army in 2016 – and he said - and this has stuck in my mind ever since – don´t worry about us – we will survive – we will persist and not be broken – but worry about yourselves, worry about the outside world – save it from the humiliation of silence.

Ever since I have listened to the Kurdish voice. In a message from Imrali prison in May 2019 after a long enforced silence, Adbullah Öcalan stated:

“ There is an urgent need for a method of democratic negotiations, away from all kinds of polarization and the culture of conflict in the solution of problems. We can solve the problems in Turkey, and even in the region—first and foremost the war—with soft power; that is with intelligence, political and cultural power instead of tools of physical violence.“

Everybody attending this conference knows what has happened since – you know it better than I do, the outreached hand laying down arms. Wherever I go these words of Öcalan cling in my ears. But the humiliating silence is still louder.

Internationally there is so far non-response to the outreached hand. Here there must be a change and the responsibility rests with the world at large.

And this is why I say it is not only that the Kurds have a right to be heard in the international forum to voice their grievances.
The world needs to hear their voice! The voice of democracy, gender equality and social justice replacing those forces which are at play threatening our planet.

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