TURKEY’S ‘PEACE ASSEMBLY’ TO GATHER IN ANKARA
Emine Kart

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Sept 1 2007

Efforts under the title of "The Peace Initiative," aimed at seeking
societal peace by helping to shape the public conscience toward the
bitter Kurdish issue, yielded its first fruit with the establishment
of the Turkey Peace Assembly, whose members will gather on Saturday
in the Turkish capital.

In January the initiative held a conference in Ankara titled "Turkey
Seeking Its Peace," with more than 50 prominent authors, journalists,
labor union representatives, human rights activists, academics and
politicians from various ideological traditions signing an open
statement in support of the meeting. Prominent author Yaþar Kemal
attended the event.

Assassinated journalist, then editor-in-chief of the bilingual
Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, Hrant Dink was among those who signed
the statement. Dink’s absence will cast a saddening shadow over the
first meeting of the Turkey Peace Assembly.

The establishment assembly was finalized through the efforts of
regional peace initiatives around the country, the initiative
announced in a written statement released yesterday, in which they
also outlined the goal of the assembly as reaching "a peaceful and
democratic solution of the Kurdish issue via rejecting all kinds of
violence and discrimination."

The basic motive behind the initiative’s stance is that the bitter
experiences of the peoples of Turkey relating to the Kurdish issue are
"common grievances." The statement read: "Societal peace cannot be
imagined as separate from societal justice. That’s why a consensus
needs to be sought."

Three-hundred members of the Turkey Peace Assembly were named by
regional peace initiatives in Adana, Aðrý, Amasya, Ankara, Antalya,
Balýkesir, Batman, Bingol, Bitlis, Denizli, Diyarbakýr, Giresun,
Hakkâri, Hatay, Ýstanbul, Ýzmir, Kocaeli, Mersin, Ordu, Samsun, Siirt,
Sinop, Trabzon, Tunceli, Van and Zonguldak.

At its first meeting, to be held at the Chamber of Civil Engineers
of the Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects’ Chambers (TMMOB),
on Saturday, the assembly will outline its working principles, its
plans for 2007 and 2008 as well as establishing a secretariat for
better-coordinated efforts.

New Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuðrul Gunay, Democratic Society
Party (DTP) leader Ahmet Turk, former head of the Ýstanbul Bar
Association Yucel Sayman, head of the Turkish Doctors Union (TTB)
Gencay Gursoy, former deputy and professor of psychiatry Cengiz Gulec,
assembly spokesman Seydi Fýrat and DTP deputy and human rights activist
Akýn Birdal are just a few of the names to participate in the assembly.

"We have a say for a decent, proud and brotherly life; we have a
decision to turn Turkey into a country of peace; we owe a life
to our young people who we left to death and we owe an apology
to their beloved ones who are still waiting for them; we have the
courage to face realities; and we have a hope for living together
in peace. This country belongs to all of us," reads the initiative’s
mission statement.

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