Noon Conference: Is Erdogan's Turkey heading into Authoritarianism?

Report back from an International Peace Delegation on Turkey and the Kurds

Speaker: Dimitri Roussopoulos is a publisher with Black Rose Books and President of the Institute of Policy Alternatives Montreal (IPAM).

When: Wednesday, April 5, 12:15 – 1:30 p.m.

Location: Saint Paul University, room G102

Cost: Free. Open to the public

Contact Person: Sophie Cloutier (scloutier@ustpaul.ca)

Délégation

In Turkey, the government of President Erdogan is in a frenzy of repression of civil society and the Kurdish movement. It is violating human rights, suspending civil liberties, overturning the basic norms of parliamentary democracy and effectively waging a war on the Kurds. It has detained over 43,000 people, including journalists, academics, artists, teachers, unionists, activists and even politicians. What should be the response of Canada and Canadians?

In February of this year, the EU Turkey Civic Commission organized an international peace delegation in Turkey involving European politicians, journalists and academics. This delegation urged a renewal of the peace process with the Kurdish people and also met with Kurdish and Turkish lawyers, journalists, academics, religious groups and politicians. It also sought to meet with the leader of the Kurdish freedom movement, Abdullah Öcalan, considered the new Nelson Mandela, as well as to urge his release from prison after 18 years on the prison fortress of Imrali Island.

The only North American member of this delegation was author and publisher Dimitri Roussopoulos. He will make a presentation with a photographic slideshow about the situation and the delegation. He will also explain the crucial link between the Kurdish ambition for more autonomy and the parallel democratic revolution in northeastern Syria (Rojava).