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While catholic Pope renews appeal for peace in Syria However protestant UK and USA push for war

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pope for peace in Syria

pope for peace in Syria

Pope Francis called on world leaders on Sunday to renew efforts to bring peace to Syria, saying he was deeply troubled by their failure to agree on a joint plan to end the bloodshed, Reuters reports.

“I appeal again to all the political leaders, so that justice and peace prevail,” he said in his weekly address to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

“I am deeply disturbed by the current world situation, in which, despite the tools available to the international community, it is difficult to agree on a common action in favor of peace in Syria and other regions of the world,” he said.

Last Sunday, the pope denounced a reported gas attack in Syria as an unjustifiable use of “instruments of extermination”.

The United States, France and Britain fired dozens of missiles early Saturday to strike at Syria’s chemical weapons program — the biggest intervention yet by Western countries against Syria, which is backed by Russia and Iran.

Unwilling to reach negotiated peace, Azerbaijan intentionally escalates tension on frontline – Artsakh Foreign Ministry

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Official press release by the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Today marks exactly one year since the end of military aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh with a view to resolving the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict by force. On the night of 1 to 2 April 2016, in flagrant violation of the ceasefire, the Azerbaijani armed forces launched a large-scale offensive along the entire border using heavy equipment, artillery and aviation. Only after suffering heavy losses in manpower and military equipment, on 5 April 2016, Azerbaijan was forced to ask for a cessation of hostilities with the mediation of Russia.

The April aggression of Azerbaijan against Artsakh, which was accompanied by numerous violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes, has become a serious challenge to regional peace and security and has caused great damage to the negotiation process for the settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the mediation efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.
During the year that has passed since the end of the hostilities on 5 April 2016, the Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have been making efforts to ensure conditions for a full restoration of the negotiation process.
The Republic of Artsakh has been consistently supporting the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on the need for the full implementation of the ceasefire agreement of 12 May 1994, practical application of the provisions of the agreement of 6 February 1995 on strengthening the ceasefire regime, as well as implementation of the agreements reached in Vienna (16 May 2016) and in St. Petersburg (20 June, 2016) on introduction of a mechanism for investigating incidents and increasing the capacity of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.
Azerbaijan not only rejects these proposals, but also disrupts any initiative aimed at excluding the possibility of resumption of hostilities. Moreover, throughout this time Azerbaijan has been sparing no effort to transfer the logic of confrontation to the spheres of economy, culture and even human contacts.
While demonstrating complete unwillingness to reach a negotiated peace settlement, the Azerbaijani authorities threaten to unleash another war. By consistently increasing the tension on the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan and continuing the policy of confrontation and hostility. Baku deliberately deepens the mistrust between the parties and tries to make the process of peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict a hostage of its destructive policy and maximalist demands.

No alternative to diplomacy in Karabakh peace – Thomas de Waal

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Thomas De Waal, a senior fellow with Carnegie Europe (specializing in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region), on Wednesday warned of imminent escalations over Nagorno-Karabakh, calling for strong efforts towards using diplomatic and political resources in reaching a breakthrough in the long-lasting land dispute.

“Last year was really very dangerous, and we really see the prospect of another escalation this year. And this year could be even more dangerous as we could see more fighting,” the expert said through a video conference as he joined a debate hosted by the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (Yerevan office).
As a key effort towards reaching peace, he stressed the importance of implementing the May 16 Vienna agreement.
“And the basis of that agreement is basically two things: the strengthening of ceasefire mandate, which is the central Armenian demand, and also the central Azerbaijani demand, which is a resumption of serious comprehensive political negotiations. So I think this is the basis for an agreement or at least for a preventive diplomacy,” he said, citing the lack of international engagement as a key reason behind the failure to reach peace.

 

Mr De Waal stressed the importance of re-energizing the Minsk Group format to make the process effective. “We need to get the American and French [co-chairs] fruitfully engaged in the process and to try to restart or remake the agreement in Vienna last year. I think it’s essential if we do not want a slow descent into a new conflict,” he added.

Women of Artsakh: Dreaming independence and peace

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karabakh womanItalian photographer Karl Mancini has created a project about the women of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), titled Dreaming Independence and Peace and first published on Maptia.

“From the simple family mother to the minister of culture and youth affairs, from the common employee in a beauty salon to the head of the supreme court of justice, women are the soul of Karabakh, the strength of this country; in some ministries they account for 80% of the personnel. They dream of independence and peace to build a different future for their children. They love intensely, fight tenaciously, often suffer in silence, and believe in their traditions. They are brave and fragile,” the story says on Maptia.

In a conversation with PanARMENIAN.Net Mancini – who works for Echo Photojournalism and has together with Gianmarco Maraviglia implemented another project in Karabakh, titled Blooming in the Black Garden – said that he has dedicated a major part of his work to female stories, also seeking to prepare a project in a country he loves. And Artsakh seemed to be a natural choice.

His previous project, Blooming was published on Newsweek (USA), Internazionale (Italy) and La Croix (France).

“I believe the women of Artsakh have a lot to say. They support the men on the frontline, suffering in silence and sustaining families alone,” he added.

“One day, I spent several hours with a female friend of mine in a wonderful place in Artsakh in the middle of nature just telling each other stories. I’ll never forget that moment, those simple emotions that should serve as a basis for every kind of relationship,” Mancini added.

“Of course, I do see beauty in women but making a portrait is not just about taking a photo. It’s like a gift that I receive and give back with my story. Everything becomes an exchange of emotions.”

Stalemate broken in Nagorno-Karabakh peace process – Vladimir Karapetyan

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f574735e5a60ff_574735e5a6136.thumbArmenian must insist that an Armenian-Azerbaijani presidential meeting on Nagorno-Karabakh will not take place in June unless the Vienna agreements are properly observed, Vladimir Karapetyan, a Board member, Armenian National Congress (ANC) party, told Tert.am.

The OSCE co-chairs’ statement on an OSCE investigative mechanism and on the expansion of the existing Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office must be put into practice.

“At least we must consider the fact that in the negotiations Armenia is represented by two persons – President Serzh Sargsyan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian. I am sure that no information on new details of the document to be negotiated at the top-level meeting is available at a lower level,” Mr Karapetyan said.

Hopes should be placed on the Armenian leaders’ confidence and their not making steps that would pose a threat to Armenia’s interests.

“We have given our enemy some territories of Nagorno-Karabakh. I would like not only Yerevan, but also Stepanakert to understand well that they should stop calling the territories in question ‘of no strategic or tactical importance’ or ‘empty.’ It is not to our credit to justify our losses by making such assessments,” Mr Karapetyan said.

The more active negotiations are the higher are the chances to settle the conflict.

“The negotiations were stalemated. But we can now say this stalemate has been broken because an agreement on a meeting in June has been reached,” Mr Karapetyan said.

Greece and Russia: cooperation for peace and prosperity

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Putin greeceCOMMENT

(ekathimerini) Ahead of my visit to Athens, I would like to share with the readers of Kathimerini, one of the most popular and respected Greek newspapers, some ideas regarding the further development of the partnership between Greece and Russia, as well as about the situation on the European continent in general.

We value the centuries-old traditions of friendship between our peoples. Our cooperation rests on a rock-solid base of common civilizational values, the Orthodox culture and a genuine mutual affection. A vivid example of how closely our people’s lives are intertwined is the story of Ioannis Kapodistrias, who was a Russian minister of foreign affairs in the 19th century and later became a head of the Greek state.

The celebrations of the Millennium of Russian Monasticism on the Holy Mount Athos will be a landmark event this year. Throughout completely different periods of history, their moral courage, faith and patriotism helped our peoples to overcome severe ordeals and preserve their identity.

Hundreds of thousands of Russian tourists visit your country every year. They relax on the beautiful beaches, get acquainted with the rich heritage of ancient Hellas and its legendary architectural monuments. Tourism makes a significant contribution to the economic development of Greece, as well as to broader direct people-to-people contacts and greater trust and friendship between our citizens.

I know that Greece remembers its achievement of independence was due in no small measure to Russia’s efforts. Russia’s support for the Greek national liberation struggle largely determined the further development of bilateral relations.

These days, Greece is Russia’s important partner in Europe. We are conducting a dynamic political dialogue, including at the top level. During a meeting with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos in January, we announced the opening of the cross years of Greece and Russia. The programs cover activities in the scientific, educational and humanitarian spheres, as well as tourism. I am confident they will help our peoples to get even more closely acquainted with each other’s history, traditions and customs.

Last year, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made two visits to our country. We had informative and very useful discussions. Contacts between ministries and agencies, parliaments and civil society organizations are growing stronger.

Unfortunately, the decline in relations between Russia and the European Union stands in the way of a further strengthening of our cooperation, with an adverse effect on the dynamics of bilateral trade that fell by a third to $2.75 billion as compared to last year. Particularly affected were Greek agricultural producers.

Russia proceeds from the need to establish dialogue with the EU in the spirit of equality and genuine partnership on a variety of issues ranging from visa liberalization to the formation of an energy alliance. However, we do not yet see our European colleagues’ willingness to follow such a mutually beneficial and promising path.

Nevertheless, we believe that our relations with the EU do not face any problems that we cannot solve. To get back to a multifaceted partnership, the deficient approach of one-sided relationships should be abandoned. There should be true respect for each other’s opinions and interests.

Today, Russia and the EU have come to a crossroads where we need to answer the following question: How do we see the future of our relations and which way are we going to head? I am convinced we should draw appropriate conclusions from the events in Ukraine and proceed to establishing, in the vast space stretching between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a zone of economic and humanitarian cooperation based on the architecture of equal and indivisible security. Harmonizing European and Eurasian integration processes would be an important step in this direction.

This work is all the more relevant, insofar as today Europe is facing increased competition from other power centers of the contemporary world. For instance, at the recent ASEAN-Russia Commemorative Summit in Sochi we had meaningful discussions with our partners on pressing international issues, the prospects for integration projects and enhanced cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. Apparently, a rightful position of the Old Continent in the new international realities can only be secured by combining capacities of all European countries, including Russia.

Multidimensional contacts between Greece and Russia are an important element of this system. I would like to single out the energy sector. We have been consistently advocating the diversification of energy transportation modes that would improve the reliability of supplies and, therefore, European energy security as a whole.

Russia has ensured regular and reliable natural gas supplies to Greece for two decades. The existing contract with Greece was extended up to 2026 on favorable terms for your country. Being aware of Greek leaders’ intention to make the country a powerful energy hub in the Balkans, we have always included Greece in our plans to enhance hydrocarbons supply to Central and Western Europe.

Since 2006, Gazprom has been actively promoting the South Stream project. However, at a certain point, its implementation became impossible due to the unconstructive stance adopted by the European Commission. Despite the fact that we had to suspend the project, issues relating to southern routes of energy shipment to the EU states are still on the agenda. In February, the heads of Gazprom, Edison (Italy) and DEPA (Greece) signed in Rome a memorandum of understanding on the supply of Russian natural gas to Greece and Italy along the bottom of the Black Sea through third countries.

Russia could also help to streamline the Greek transport infrastructure. We are referring to the participation of Russian business entities in the forthcoming Greek tenders for the purchase of assets of railway companies and the Thessaloniki port facilities. Also on the agenda are a number of other projects that can considerably enhance the potential of bilateral cooperation.

I am confident that friendly relations between Greece and Russia are our common heritage and a solid foundation for a promising and future-oriented partnership. I hope that we will further intensify our dialogue in various fields and jointly implement our plans.

How the American Neoconservatives Destroyed Mankind’s Hopes for Peace

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1014298828By Paul Craig Roberts
Former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury in the Reagan administration

When Ronald Reagan turned his back on the neoconservatives, fired them, and had some of them prosecuted, his administration was free of their evil influence, and President Reagan negotiated the end of the Cold War with Soviet President Gorbachev.

The military/security complex, the CIA, and the neocons were very much against ending the Cold War as their budgets, power, and ideology were threatened by the prospect of peace between the two nuclear superpowers.

I know about this, because I was part of it.  I helped Reagan create the economic base for bringing the threat of a new arms race to a failing Soviet economy in order to pressure the Soviets into agreement to end the Cold War, and I was appointed to a secret presidential committee with subpeona power over the CIA. The secret committee was authorized by President Reagan to evaluate the CIA’s claim that the Soviets would prevail in an arms race. The secret committee concluded that this was the CIA’s way of perpetuting the Cold War and the CIA’s importance.

The George H. W. Bush administration and its Secretary of State James Baker kept Reagan’s promises to Gorbachev and achieved the reunification of Germany with promises that NATO would not move one inch to the East.

The corrupt Clintons, for whom the accumulation of riches seems to be their main purpose in life, violated the assurances given by the United States that had ended the Cold War. The two puppet presidents-George W. Bush and Obama-who followed the Clintons lost control of the US government to the neocons, who promptly restarted the Cold War, believing in their hubris and arrogance that History has chosen the US to exercise hegemony over the world.

Thus was mankind’s chance for peace lost along with America’s leadership of the world.  Under neocon influence, the United States government threw away its soft power and its ability to lead the world into a harmonious existance over which American influence would have prevailed.

Instead the neocons threatened the world with coercion and violence, attacking eight countries and fomenting “color revolutions” in former Soviet republics. 

The consequence of this crazed insanity was to create an economic and military strategic alliance between Russia and China. Without the neocons’ arrogant policy, this alliance would not exist.  It was a decade ago that I began writing about the strategic alliance between Russia and China that is a response to the neocon claim of US world hegemony.  

The strategic alliance between Russia and China is militarily and economically too strong for Washington. China controls the production of the products of many of America’s leading corporations, such as Apple.  China has the largest foreign exchange reserves in the world. China can, if the government wishes, cause a massive increase in the American money supply by dumping its trillions of dollars of US financial assets.

To prevent a collapse of US Treasury prices, the Federal Reserve would have to create trillions of new dollars in order to purchase the dumped financial instruments. The rest of the world would see another expansion of dollars without an expansion of real US output and become skepical of the US dollar. If the world abandoned the US dollar, the US government could no longer pay its bills.

Europe is dependent on Russian energy. Russia can cut off this energy. There are no alternatives in the short-run, and perhaps not in the long run. If Russia shuts off the energy, Germany industry shuts down. Europeans freeze to death in the winter. Despite these facts, the neocons have forced Europe to impose economic sanctions on Russia.

What if Russia responded in kind?

NATO, as US military authorities admit, has no chance of invading Russia or withstanding a Russian attack on NATO.  NATO is a cover for Washington’s war crimes.  It can provide no other service.

Thanks to the greed of US corporations that boosted their profits by offshoring their production to China, China is moderinized many decades before the neocons thought possible. China’s military forces are moderized with Russian weapons technology. New Chinese missiles make the vaunted US Navy and its aircraft carriers obsolete.

The neocons boast how they have surrounded Russia, but it is America that is surrounded by Russia and China, thanks to the incompetent leadership that the US has had beginning with the Clintons. Judging from Killary’s support in the current presidential primaries, many voters seem determined to perpetuate incompetent leadership.

Despite being surrounded, the neocons are pressing for war with Russia which means also with China. If Killary Clinton makes it to the White House, we could get the neocon’s war.

The neocons have flocked to the support of Killary. She is their person. Watch the feminized women of America put Killary in office.  Keep in mind that Congress gave its power to start wars to the president.

The United States does not have a highly intelligent or well informed population. The US owes its 20th century dominance to World War I and World War II which destroyed more capable countries and peoples. America became a superpower because of the self-destruction of other countries.

Despite neocon denials that their hubris has created a powerful alliance against the US, a professor at the US Navy War College stresses the reality of the Russian-Chinese strategic alliance#mce_temp_url#.

Last August a joint Russian-Chinese sea and air exercise took place in the Sea of Japan, making it clear to America’s Japanese vassal that it was defenceless if Russia and China so decided.

The Russian defense minister Sergey Shoigu said that the joint exercise illustrates the partnership between the two powers and its stabilizing effect on that part of the world.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Russian-Chinese relations are able to resist any international crises.

The only achievements of the American neoconservatives are to destroy in war crimes millions of peoples in eight countries and to send the remnant populations fleeing into Europe as refugees, thus undermining the American puppet governments there, and to set back the chances of world peace and American leadership by creating a powerful strategic alliance between Russia and China.

This boils down to extraordinary failure. It is time to hold the neoconservatives accountable, not elect another puppet for them to manipulate. 

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was professor of economics in several universities and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was a member of the US-USSR student exchange program in 1961, and addressed the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1989 and 1990. His first book, Alienation and the Soviet Economy, was published in 1971. His website is www.paulcraigroberts.org.

Source: sputniknews.com

Kurdish Exclusion From Peace Talks the Result of Turkey ‘Blackmailing’ West

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1033793661Despite being one of the most effective ground forces in the region, the Kurdish PYD has been barred from participating in Syrian peace. Elif Sarican of the Kurdish Student Union, tells Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear why the PYD has been left on the sidelines.

“They have been heroic, and they have been, I would say, the sole reason why, in Kobane, ISIS was defeated,” Sarican tells Loud & Clear. “It’s been shocking for all of us that they’re not being included in these Syrian peace talks in Geneva.”

Those talks begin Friday, seeking an end to Syria’s bloody conflict. According to Sarican, Western nations have refused to allow the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) to join the talks for fear of upsetting Turkey, especially considering Ankara’s role in slowing the flow of refugees in mainland Europe.

“Turkey has been very smart about blackmailing the EU about this situation. So, ‘You either give us what we want, or we send the refugees your way,'” she says.

“Turkey does not want Kurds to gain any power or strength in the region because this challenges their authority.”

Ankara is also a crucial ally of the United States.

“Their geopolitical position in the region is key for the US at the moment, and I think has been for some time now,” Sarican says. “[The US] cannot lose Turkey as an ally, so therefore, they cannot upset Turkey.”

A stronger Kurdish presence could also help provide stability in the region – something the US has an interest in preventing.

“It wouldn’t benefit the US for the PYD to gain any more strength or power in the region, and to implement their ideologies, which is democratic federalism, which is the inclusion of everyone in the region, which is…the only solution to the Middle East,” she says.

“But this will mean stability in the Middle East, which, of course, as we know, will never benefit the US because it feeds off…this instability.”

Sarican also points out that Washington’s intervention in Syria is more about a desperate attempt to hold onto its status as the sole world superpower.

“Especially after Russia got involved, and they were, of course, as everyone saw, a lot more effective than the US had been over the last few years,” she says.

“The solution isn’t for humanitarian reasons or because they [the US] want people to live peacefully…they want to be the people behind some sort of action in the world,” Sarican adds. “They want to be seen as the saviors of the world.”

While the PYD is one of the most effective fighting forces, it could also be the best hope of diplomacy.

“The real idea of democracy is what the PYD would want to implement and what their direction would be in Syria.”

Given the long history of Turkey’s mistreatment of Kurdish communities, the PYD is simply fighting for a chance to live free of repression.

“They want human rights, to start with, but then they want to be able to govern themselves. They want to be able to say they’re Kurdish, they want to be able to be educated in Kurdish, and they want to be able to live the way they want to live.”

Source: sputniknews.com

Washington DC advocacy days to support Nagorno Karabakh peace

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200409Grassroots supporters of Nagorno Karabakh’s search for peace will converge upon Washington, DC on December 8 and 9 for a two-day Capitol Hill advocacy campaign organized by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“We are pleased to offer this opportunity for friends of Artsakh across America to come to Washington and encourage our legislative leaders to both stand up to Azerbaijan’s escalating aggression and celebrate Nagorno Karabakh commitment to peace,” said Nora Hovsepian, Chairwoman of the ANCA-Western Region and Stephen Mesrobian, Chairman of the ANCA-Eastern Region. “With Ilham Aliyev recklessly inciting hatred and driving the region toward war, it’s more urgent than ever that voices for peace hold Azerbaijan accountable for its threats and acts of violence.”

The Congressional meetings will be topped off by the annual Capitol Hill celebration of Artsakh’s independence, during which participants will be joining Congressional Armenian Caucus leaders, Nagorno Karabakh Government officials and Armenian American community leaders for an evening celebrating Karabakh’s commitment to peace and progress.

This two-day advocacy campaign comes in the wake of a broad bipartisan Congressional letter spearheaded by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY) and cosigned by over 80 of their House, colleagues calling for three concrete pro-peace steps that would, “in the short-term, save lives and help to avert war.” The steps include an agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the line of contact; the placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact; the deployment of additional OSCE observers along the line of contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.

Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have both expressed support for these life-saving initiatives; Azerbaijan has not.

The ANCA’s December Artsakh advocacy campaign coincides with the 10th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s destruction of the historic Armenian cemetery located in the southern Nakhichevan region of Djulfa. The cemetery, once home to more than 10,000 intricately carved khatchkars, was subjected to sustained attacks throughout the 20th Century.

Related links:

Tert.am: ANCA-ն երկօրյա արշավ կանցկացնի` ի նպաստ ԼՂՀ-ում խաղաղության հաստատման

Turkey: Free Kurd Singer Nudem Durak: Stop This Cruel Mockery of the Peace Process

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Nudem Durak

Nudem DurakTurkey:

The case of Nudem Durak, the young Kurdish singer recently jailed by the Turkish authorities, places another huge question mark over the faltering peace process between the Turkish state and the country’s 15-million-plus Kurds. Nudem, a talented young woman who is not directly involved in politics, has been thrown into jail, according to her lawyer, for “promoting Kurdish propaganda by teaching Kurdish folk songs to youth music groups”. Her plight was highlighted last week in a short film produced/directed by Eylem Kaftan and published by Al Jazeera:

Daniel Song, who is based in California, met Nudem earlier this year while travelling in the region. He was shocked by the news of her arrest and is trying to instigate an international campaign for her release.

“I don’t know Nudem well”, Daniel told KT. “I met her at the apartment of a host’s flat in Cizre some months ago, as I was traveling with two friends through Kurdistan in Turkey and Iraq. We spent a nice evening with other new Kurdish friends singing and dancing to traditional Kurdish music, and conversed with Nudem via Google translate, and she also showed us some Youtube documentary films. She told us that the police wanted to arrest her for doing something like singing in Kurdish …

“Afterwards, I have kept in basic contact with Nudem over Facebook. My impression through our interactions is that she is a gentle, good-hearted woman who was following her passion, music and Kurdish culture. She seems to me an innocent victim of a greater conflict and politics.

“The following is the information we know about Nudem so far:

  • Nudem was arrested on April 22nd and taken to Mardin Type E prison.
  • She hasn’t been eating due to being too upset.
  • She has a ‘supreme court’ level hearing due in one year’s time.
  • According to her lawyer, she has been charged with “promoting Kurdish propaganda by teaching Kurdish folk songs to youth music groups”.
  • According to Nûdem’s lawyer, there is no change in her legal status. He reported that she is allowed 10 minutes of telephone access a week. The prison doesn’t allow CDs within its facility, but Nûdem’s brother will be bringing her a guitar, so she can continue to play”.

Nudem Durak faces ten and a half years imprisonment – for singing and promoting Kurdish culture. Her plight mirrors that of countless Kurds and others jailed in Turkey on spurious anti-terrorism and other pretexts, as the state veers towards authoritarianism. How can there be a meaningful peace proces while Nudem’s beautiful voice is silenced? Her case should be taken up by freedom-loving people everywhere.