[Peace-discuss] US fake "war on terrorism": an alternative

[C. G. Estabrook]

Irish republicans to hold peace summit with Kurdish and Basque separatists
Sinn Féin activists to meet members of Sortu and Kurdish BDP in Venice to 
discuss negotiation tactics and dialogue with state
Owen Bowcott
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday 10 February 2011 15.57 GMT

Irish republicans will meet Kurdish and Basque separatists at a summit designed 
to encourage armed movements to adopt political dialogue and put an end to two 
conflicts that have cost thousands of lives.

The two-day gathering in Venice, which starts on Friday, will bring together 
activists from Sinn Féin, Sortu – the successor to Herri Batasuna, Eta's former 
banned political wing – and the Kurdish BDP (Peace and Democracy party).

In decades gone by the IRA, Eta, Corsican nationalist and other armed groups 
closely co-ordinated bomb-making technologies and military expertise. But now 
activists say they are comparing notes on negotiation tactics and dialogue with 
the state.

Despite attacks by dissident republicans, the success of the Northern Ireland 
peace process has established a template that many armed groups are eager to 
adapt to their "national struggles".

The meeting comes barely a month after Eta, the paramilitary wing of the Basque 
separatist movement, announced a "permanent ceasefire" ending more than 50 years 
of fighting – a declaration as yet unrecognised by the Spanish government.

In Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) has extended its temporary 
ceasefire until the summer's general election amid rumours of behind-the-scenes 
contacts and allegations that "show trials" of Kurdish civic leaders are 
undermining hopes of reconciliation.

One prominent participant is Alex Maskey, a member of the Northern Ireland 
assembly who was interned as an IRA suspect during the Troubles and later served 
as the first Sinn Féin lord mayor of Belfast. He has travelled widely to promote 
Belfast's peace process; in 2008 he accompanied the Sinn Féin's Martin 
McGuinness to Iraq.

Maskey stopped off in the Basque country on the way to Venice to advise the 
nationalist movement on how it might engage in a dialogue with the Spanish 
government and to attend the launch of Sortu on Wednesday, at which the new 
party emphasised its rejection of violence and unveiled plans to field 
candidates at the next election. Maskey said: "Nobody will ever agree on the 
past, but you can agree on the future."

Several Basque mayors from radical Basque groups will be in Venice to discuss 
the prospects for advancing their cause by political rather than paramilitary means.

But it is the Kurds – whose conflict in south-east Turkey has cost most lives – 
who have most to gain from the experience of more advanced peace processes. The 
BDP succeeded the Democratic Society party – Turkey's main Kurdish party – which 
was banned in 2009 over alleged links to the PKK. The PKK has been designated a 
terrorist organisation by the US and the European Union.

Fayik Yagizay, the BDP's representative in Brussels, said: "The conference will 
exchange notes and compare examples. You can't apply exactly one example to 
another country but there are common themes.

"We believe the Irish example is a good one for the Kurdish conflict. Turkey 
says the PKK is a terrorist organisation and that they won't talk to it – but 
they said that in the UK even when the government was talking [to the IRA] in 
secret.

"Everyone knows there's a dialogue between the Turkish state and Abdullah Öcalan 
[the imprisoned leader of the PKK] but we don't know its content and it seems it 
may be for stopping the fighting and not a solution. Without dialogue it's 
impossible to solve these questions."

Andy Carl, executive director of the London-based Conciliation Resources 
charity, has been involved in conflict resolution around the world. "There are a 
lot of these conferences happening now," he said. "The Basque process is in a 
very dynamic state. They believe what they are going through is very relevant 
for the Kurds.

"Many of these meetings have had to take place in Switzerland or Norway because 
some of these groups are on EU lists of banned terrorist organisations. That has 
been one of the unintended consequences of keeping anti-terrorist lists."

The Venice conference, supported by the playwright Dario Fo, has been 
co-ordinated by Orsola Casagrande, an Italian journalist and activist who first 
brought the three national groups together at the Venice Art Biennale in 2009. 
On that occasion the Basque Independent Left party endorsed the Mitchell 
Principles – established for the Northern Ireland peace process as a means of 
renouncing violence – and subsequently accepted by Eta.

"There have always been strong links between the Basques and the Irish," she 
said, "but there have never been such close relations with the Kurds. We are 
hoping to build bridges and improve relations."

The Kurdish BDP will be presenting the conference a paper on its "democratic 
autonomy" project, she said, proposing the principle of regional devolution for 
south-east Turkey and stressing the need for peaceful co-existence between Turks 
and Kurds.


The conflicts

Northern Ireland conflict: 1968-1998

The Provisional IRA has decommissioned its weapons and disbanded. Sinn Féin, its 
onetime political wing, now forms part of the power-sharing executive in the 
devolved Northern Ireland assembly at Stormont. Dissident splinter groups with 
little political support, such as the Real IRA, continue the "armed struggle".

Deaths: 3,500

Basque conflict: 1959-2011

"Permanent ceasefire" declared by Eta on 10 January this year. A new political 
party, Sortu, formed to contest elections. Renouncing violence, it hopes to open 
up a dialogue with the Spanish government to advance its ultimate aim: an 
independent Basque homeland.

Deaths: about 1,200

Kurdish conflict: 1984-present day

The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' party) has extended its temporary ceasefire until 
after the Turkish election in June. The Kurdish BDP has 20 deputies in the 
Turkish parliament; members have been accused of supporting the PKK and several 
are currently on trial in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

Deaths: approaching 40,000.