One million-signature campaign against Kurds' exclusion from Syria peace talks

Syrian Kurds and Arabs announce federal region in Syrian Kurdistan. Photo: AFP

Dr.Amir Sharifi | Ekurd.net

The One Million Signature campaign has been organized for all conscientious individuals, human rights organizations and activists, and concerned citizens in different countries of the world.

As we approach the arrival of our New Year, the struggle of our people like spring is surprising the world ; the struggle for the right to self-determination is at its peak against the tyrants of the Middle East; our Peshmergas and freedom fighters bear an unmistakable resemblance to Kawa, our legendary blacksmith whose resistance has now gone into the annals of world history. We must reecho the legacy of his struggle in solidarity.

The campaign through extensive networking at local, national, and international levels will gather 1 million signatures to oppose the exclusion of Kurds , civil sector, and other ethnic and religious minorities from the third Geneva Conference. As such the campaign defends a fair and lasting peace with the inclusion and equal representations of Kurds and other Syrian minorities in the Geneva 3 Conference .

We need to mobilize everyone everywhere to sign the petition so that we send a strong and clear message to the world that Geneva 3 has no legitimacy as far as we are concerned because of its deliberate exclusion of Kurds and other ethnic and religious minorities.

Procedure : A Multilingual Petition

Your can sign the letter and let others know that the letter is available in several languages including:

Kurdish-Sorani
Kurdish-Kurmanji
Turkish
Persian
French
German
Chinese

The one million signature campaign files the protest on March 20, 2016; we hope to submit the collected signatures by October 6, 2016 to the United Nation’s authorities and representatives of the major powers..

Here are the links:

Below please see the link to the Avaaz platform where you will find the English version of the petition and the link to the website of the campaign where readers of other languages can read the petition in the language of their choice and then go to Avaaz link to sign the petition.

https://community.avaaz.org/petitions/one-million-signature-against-the-exclusion-of-kurds-from-geneva-3-conference-1/manage

Below is the link to the Website set up for this purpose where the petition is available in multiple languages http://kurdishhrag.com/index.html

The Petition in English

One Million Signature against the Exclusion of Kurds from the Geneva 3 Conference

We concerned individuals and human rights groups are launching a global signature campaign against the exclusion of Kurds in the third UN Geneva Conference. While we defend the cause of peace in Syria, we find the conference a blatant affront to the spirit of democracy and humanity that the United Nations fosters and supports.

Although the third Geneva Peace Conference has been organized to negotiate peace and political settlements between the Syrian government and opposition, it is clearly biased and imbalanced in its representation of the Syrian people and opposition. It is disappointing that an internationally distinguished and recognized group, Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) representing 15% of the Syrian population is deliberately excluded from attendance because of the hostility of the Turkish government. We find such an exclusion a violation of the rights of Kurds and an open attack on the UN core values and principles. This injustice delegitimizes the conference, which is bound to fail as previous ones in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

While the Conference has denied Kurdish representation, it is hosting the Supreme Negotiating Committee representatives, Saudi and Turkey Salafist supported groups, consisting of Jaish Al Islam (The Army of Islam) and Ahrar al_Shams (Islamic Movement of the Free Men of Levant), both of which are notorious for their acts of terrorism and intolerance. The exclusion of Kurdish representatives delegitimizes the peace conference as it ignores their legendary battles against ISIS.

Kurds were also the first to rise against Assad’s autocracy in sparking the pro-democracy movement, a movement that unfortunately degenerated and eventually descended into a vicious civil war between conflicting and competing regional and international actors all of whom are represented in this conference; yet Kurds who have succeeded in establishing a secular, pluralistic, and civil society in self-defense against both Assad’s regime and the Islamic State terrorism are denied neither recognition nor representation in this global conference .

One wonders how the United Nations and major powers can support such an exclusionary policy against the Kurdish people and their representatives contrary to all international laws embodied in the Universal Charter of Human Rights.

If the third Geneva conference were to achieve peace and political settlement, it should have ensured and promoted an inclusive opportunity for Kurdish representatives, members of the civil sector, and delegates of other ethnic and religious minorities to participate in negotiations that would determine their lives. Given the blatant bias and the intentional nature of this exclusion, we, the signatories of this petition denounce Geneva 3 Conference and urge the United Nations and major powers to include Kurdish representatives in this much needed peacemaking effort to ensure and advance security, democracy, and justice for all Syrians.

Dr. Amir Sharifi, President of the Kurdish American Education Society Los Angeles.