Dear Guests, Friends and Members of the
Kurdish PEN Center,
I am happy to
welcome you at our Annual Congress, especially since many of you travelled a
long way to come here. You have rightfully decided to exhaust all the
possibilities to be with us since our Congress coincides with crucial
developments concerning us, Kurds.
Many of us
try to make a distinction between correct and false information about the stand
the US and Great Britain have taken against Iraq. It is not easy for us to
decide whether we should condemn or support the option of war.
Nobody should
doubt that we as the Kurds have been always displaying our opposition to
military solutions, although the sufferings that the bloody regime of Saddam
Hussein has inflicted upon our people can hardly be found anywhere else in the
world.
Hence comes
the belief of many our compatriots that nothing can overwhelm the evils of
Saddam Hussein against the Kurds and other Iraqis alike. That makes them hope
that a military option, if others are not to yield results, will mean the end of
the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Certainly, we
are aware that such a war would be disastrous for Iraq and its Kurdish citizens,
since it is again the Kurds who will become the main victims.
Another
factor puts fear in our hearts which is the intention of the Turkish State to
occupy the southern part of our homeland and to destroy the parliamentary system
set up in this part of Kurdistan.
Although the
Turkish Parliament has yet to decide whether the American troops can operate
from Turkey, it is obvious that the main aim of the Turkish state is not to
fight Saddam’s dictatorship, but to prevent the creation of any Kurdish
statehood. This is why I refer to the current situation as the historic but
dangerous one.
I believe
that our intellectuals are able to discuss these and other issues more
comprehensively as stipulated by the Point No 7 of our agenda.
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
Let me
therefore avoid a scrupulous description of the situation in our homeland and
everywhere where the Kurds live. On Your behalf I should like to express our
appreciation to Mrs. Lucina Kathmann, Deputy Secretary of the PEN International
and Mr. Terry Carlbom, Secretary-General of the PEN International for their
decision to cross long ways and to be with us today. I dare to expect that both
Lucina and Terry will address our Congress.
With Your
approval I should underline that Lucina has been a very reliable friend of our
PEN Center since its foundation under the presidency of Mr. Huseyn Erdem. Lucina
has been always willing to help us to make our way through international public.
ON Your behalf I express our gratitude and let us greet her again.
Also on the
behalf of the Kurdish PEN Center I should like to express my appreciation to Mr.
Terry Carlbom, who always stands with us and supports our activities. Let me
remind You that our 1999 Conference in the building of the European Parliament
has been primarily backed by Mr. Terry Carlbom. We say again: Welcome at our
Congress!
Dear Members of the Kurdish PEN Center,
Now I should
like to sum up the results of our last Congress which took place on 30th of
June, 2001, and the following activities which deserve to be mentioned here.
Apparently
You have learned that we have an Internet Home-Page which is “pen-kurd-org”.
It has been facilitated and is being run by Mr. Mustafa Rechid. Let me thank him
for his work, advices, help and writings.
It has to be
mentioned that many Kurdish writers, including those in homeland, consult our
home-page and are now able to contact us directly. We do report about the
activities of the Kurdish PEN Center, publish articles and other material of
Kurdish writers and exchange views with our readers. I invite you to be part of
our Internet opening to the world and to contact Mr. Mustafa Rechid.
Many members of our Center in Kurdistan and Turkey take an active part in our projects with some of them being amongst us today.
At the last
Congress of 30th of June, 2001, we have decided to open regional bodies in all
the four parts of Kurdistan. Out colleague Salihe Keviribiri did his utmost to
set up such a body in Turkey and then Mr. Berken Bereh succeeded to organise a
meeting with Kurdish writers in Amed (Diyarbakir). At that meeting it has been
decided that it is premature to set up a regional body of the Kurdish PEN Centre
in Turkey and North Kurdistan. Maybe Salihe Kevirbiri will tell us more about
that.
We tried to
encourage Mr. Kakshar Oremar and Mr. Hasan Irandost to facilitate the
establishment of another regional body in West (Iranian) Kurdistan.
Unfortunately, we are unable to report about getting a positive result here.
Later both Kakshar and Hasan would be asked to inform us about their attempts.
In addition,
we tried to organise a regional body of the Kurdish PEN Center in South (Iraqi)
Kurdistan and in doing so we involved first Mr. Pir Khidir Suleyman and then Mr.
Tengezare Marini, who had visited Iraqi Kurdistan, to accomplish this idea. They tried their best to bring three
Kurdish writers from South to our Congress.
As far as
South-West (Syrian) Kurdistan is concerned, Mr. Mustafa Rechid, while
accomplishing the decision of our last Congress, visited the region and
established personal ties with many of them in Chiyaye Kurmenc (Kurdish Mounts).
As a result, we have a warm brief from our Syrian Kurdish writers Kone Resh and
Rezoye Ose. I hope that Mr- Mustafa Rechid will introduce us to his trip and
conversations.
We expect
that our colleagues in homeland will work actively with the Kurdish PEN Center
and advance our cause on the international level.
Let me now
inform You about international meetings visited by us for the last two years.
At the
Congress of the PEN International in London in 2001 we were effectively
represented by Mr. Kemal Mirawdeli. The Kurdish PEN’s participants of the
Congress of 2002 in Macedonia were our sister Hevi Berwari and myself.
In addition,
in 2001 I visited Bled, Slovenia, for a one week-long meeting of the Peace
Committee, in which we have been active thanks to Mr. Huseyn Erdem and later
Mr. Musa Kaval.
We had other
meetings of purely literary nature such as literary readings in Bielefeld
(together with the German „Schriftstellerverband OWL“) and here I want to
thank our sister Nilgun Demirkaya for that occasion.
On 29 August
– 1 September, 2002, the Kurdish PEN Center organised a three-days-long
literary event in Germany in memoriam of the prominent Kurdish poet Qadri Can
which were also attended by our friends form North Kurdistan Dr. Felat Dilgesh
and Mir. Salihe Kevirbiri.
Our colleague
Yunis Berham succeeded to bring together Kurdish, German and Sorbian writers in
the city of Dresden on 23-24 November, 2002, and we express our gratitude to
him.
An
exclusively Kurdish writers’ gathering took place on 3-5 January in the German
city of Soest, where 20 writers from various parts of Kurdistan read their works
and discussed the modern Kurdish literature.
That meeting was co-organised by Mr. Kakshar Oremar and we appreciate his
effort.
Our meetings serve a noble purpose to talk about Kurdish literature and to increase our international contacts, chiefly with our German colleagues. Both Kurdish and regional German mass media reported on those events.
Dear Guests,
As Your know, we are going to elect a new governing body of our PEN Center and as a current President I should like to put Your attention to the fact that we should entrust the activities of the Kurdish PEN Center to those who have a full sense of responsibility towards other members of the Committee as well as towards the whole question of the Kurdish PEN and Kurdish literature. Let me especially highlight the contribution of the following members of the Kurdish PEN Center: Mustafa Rechid, Dr. Zorab Aloian, Yunis Behram, Hevi Berwari, Nilgün Demirkaya, Tengezare Marini and Kakshar Oremar.