GfbV urges German Foreign Minister not to forget victims of expulsion
07.01.2010 17:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) issued an
open letter to Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle at present in Turkey
through the German Embassy in Ankara and the German General Consulate
in Istanbul, Tilman Zülch, Chair of the German section of the STP
reported in his statement to PanARMENIAN.Net.
The letter runs as follows:
‘Our country has a responsibility to victims of expulsion – in Turkey
as well, Mr Westerwelle! You are today in Turkey accompanied by many
managers and you will be visiting the Gulf states.
On your visits to Istanbul and Ankara you will also be confronted with
expulsion and crimes of expulsion. With all your thoughts on matters
of commercial interest you should not forget these victims, two
million citizens of Kurdish ethnicity.
During the unhappy Turkish-Kurdish war of 1984-1999 the Turkish army
and allied militia destroyed 3,876 villages and hamlets in Turkish
Kurdistan/East Anatolia. Some 3 million people were driven out. Among
the expelled there were also Christian Assyrian Aramaeans from Tur
Abdin. The suffering caused by expulsion and the crimes of expulsion
is something which we Germans can very well appreciate. Not everyone
is in this position. But in our country millions of people expect that
the new Foreign Minister lays priority not only on matters of commerce
and strategic concern.
So we beg of you to speak up for a program of reconstruction in East
Anatolia, to promise German assistance and to work for the allocation
of funds from the EU.
To this end we also beg of you to speak out clearly to the Turkish
media and to those who are trying to block the most welcome new
Kurdish policy of the Erdogan government, which is aiming at peace.
Please do all you can to encourage measures to lift the ban on the
pro-Kurdish party DTP. Its members of Parliament had made very great
efforts to foster Turkish-Kurdish inter-ethnic social relationships
which are peaceful and respect the equality of rights’
The Society for Threatened Peoples is an international human rights
organization based in Gottingen, Germany. It attempts to create
awareness of and protect minority peoples around the world who are
threatened by oppressive governments. The group states on its website
that it "campaigns against all forms of genocide and ethnocide". It
has advisory status at the United Nations, participatory status with
the Council of Europe and has sections and offices in Germany,
Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile
and Iraqi Kurdistan.