AMED -Speaking at the Lausanne conference, writer Namık Kemal Dinç said: "Lausanne is the agreement that left the Kurds without an identity." Writer Faik Bulut said that Kurds should handle Lausanne as a non-partisan issue.

 

Democratic Society Congress (DTK), Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Greens and Left Future Party (Green Left Party), Partiya Azadî, Kurdistan Communist Party (KKP), Kurdistan Socialist Party (PSK) and People and Freedom Party (PIA) organized a conference titled "Kurds and Kurdistan on the centenary of the Treaty of Lausanne" in Amed. The conference, attended by DTK Co-Chairperson Berdan Öztürk, DBP Co-Chairperson Saliha Aydeniz, Green Left Party Co-Spokesperson Çiğdem Kılıçgün Uçar and the chairpeople and spokespeople of other parties, started with the "Kurds and Kurdistan in the Treaty of Lausanne" session. Authors Faik Bulut, Kerem Serhatlı and Namık Kemal Dinç attended the session moderated by Serra Bucak as speakers.

 

Opening the session, Bucak reminded that 100 years have passed since Lausanne and said that valuable discussions were held in many countries on the occasion of the 100th anniversary.

 

'KASR-I ŞİRİN TREATY

 

Speaking afterwards, Kerem Serhatlı showed the text of the Treaty of Lausanne in his hand and reminded the Treaty of Kasr-ı Şirin in his speech. He said that with this agreement, Kurdistan was divided into two parts, and after the war between Iran and Russia in 1904 and 1913, states such as Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia were established in the parts of Kurdistan. Kurdistan from Dîlok to Riha was transferred to Italy with the Treaty of Sevres; Akçakale to France; Stating that Mosul, Duhok and Suleymaniye were given to England, Serhatlı said: "The Vilayet-i Sitte from Birecek to Elih was left to the Kurds."

 

'THE SIGNED TEXT SHOULD BE APPLIED'

 

Noting that the Treaty of Lausanne was written in 10 languages, Sehatlı said: "There were no secret articles. Articles 37-38-39 of the treaty say that other peoples have the same right to read and write as the Turks do. We are partners in these lands. Whatever the partner's right must be given, we must discuss the Treaty of Lausanne among ourselves. Let the 10 states implement the text they signed. We want our rights. We do not want anything else. We will continue our struggle regarding this."

   

'KURDS ARE NOT GRANTED RIGHTS'

 

Namık Kemal Dinç, one of the speakers, said that the Kurds were divided into four parts with the Mudros treaties of October 1918 and the Treaties of Lausanne of July 1923. Stating that the imperialists did their best to prevent the Kurds, who remained on the Iranian side with the Treaty of Kasr-ı Şirin, from uniting, Dinç said: "The French, who dominated Syria since 1919, made great efforts to prevent the Kurds from having rights. The Kurds' home is everywhere. The whole thing is divided into two by the Ankara Agreement. The rights of the Turkmens who stayed on the French side in Syria and their right to education in their native language are defined with this agreement, while the Kurds are not granted any rights."

 

'IT IS AN ISSUE BEYOND PARTIES'

 

Lastly, writer Faik Bulut reminded that the full name of Lausanne was "Near East Relations and the Treaty of Lausanne" and said that the two great powers tore Kurdistan apart with the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Referring to the subsequent historical processes, Bulut continued as follows: "Just as the system parties say 'this is a supra-partisan issue' on issues that concern all of us, the Kurds need to approach this as a supra-partisan issue. It is necessary to re-look at Lausanne critically."

 

After the first session, the conference continued closed to the press.

 

The final declaration of the conference will be announced tomorrow at 11:00 at the Southeastern Journalists Association.