President. Ladies and gentlemen, today is a special day for our Parliament. We are all delighted that we can finally hear the voice of Leyla Zana. President Klaus Hänsch, in his speech to this House when you were awarded the Sakharov Prize, was waiting impatiently for the day when you could speak to us in person. On that day, your husband, Mehdi Zana, received the prize on your behalf and today I would like to welcome him as well, a free man, after years in jail – and we are talking about no less than 16 years in jail – and years of suffering over recent decades.
(Applause)
Mrs Leyla Zana, before you take the floor, I would like to remind the House why this Parliament awarded you the Sakharov Prize, the freedom of conscience prize, and I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Mrs Roth and Mrs Lalumière, who are with us today and who, as leaders of their respective groups, were amongst those who proposed that you receive this prize, almost ten years ago.
Four years earlier, during the worst period of conflict in the South East of Turkey, you were the first Kurdish woman to be elected to the Turkish Grand National Assembly. When you took your seat in Parliament you promised – in Kurdish – to fight to ensure that Kurds and Turks could live together within a democratic framework. And it was because of that and your subsequent speeches and writings that you were sentenced to 15 years in prison by the National Security Court in Ankara together with your three colleagues, Turkish Members of Parliament Dicle, Sadak and Dogan.
You were fully aware of the impact of your words on the occasion of your oath-taking and of the language you spoke them in. You have paid dearly for them, in terms of years and of health. But despite that, you remained firm in your democratic fight for the rights of your people, rejecting the offer of a pardon you were made for health reasons. You refused to remain silent, even when that meant prolonging your sentence. And you had to carry this burden alone. But many people in the international community supported you.
This Parliament – the European Parliament – condemned the accusations against you and your conviction, as a violation of democratic principles. This Parliament called for your release in many resolutions.
You can take great satisfaction, however, from the fact that your suffering has not been in vain and that your personal fight has made a significant contribution to the changes that have taken place in Turkey since you were elected as a Member of Parliament. For example, it is no longer illegal to speak Kurdish, radio broadcasts and education in Kurdish are beginning to be allowed, there is no longer martial law and a state of emergency in the South East, following the unilateral truce by the PKK, and the long armed conflict which has lasted 15 years has practically come to an end.
There is undoubtedly a long way to go – and you have explained this to us over recent days – and many improvements still to be made in the practical situation in terms of respect for the freedoms and rights of the Turkish people. But, when the Turkish Court of Appeal finally decided to release you on 9 June of this year – we are not talking, ladies and gentlemen, about events that happened a long time ago, but on 9 June of this year Mrs Leyla Zana was still in prison – you justified our faith in you by calling on your compatriots to fight for peace and recognition in the South East and demanding that the Kongra-Gel, the successor to the PKK, maintain the ceasefire.
Mrs Zana, over and over again you have demonstrated the truth of what you said when you were tried again: ‘I am first and foremost a woman, then a mother, and finally a politician. In my capacity as a woman, a mother and a politician, I swear that I will fight for brotherhood between the Turkish and Kurdish people’
Please allow me, Mrs Zana, to use your own words and welcome you in your own language, in Kurdish:
‘Sti Leyla Zana, hatenava we yave parlemento e ji bo me serblindi ye’
Mrs Zana, it is a great honour to have you in our Parliament.
Speech by Mrs Leyla Zana, Sakharov Prize Laureate 1995
Leyla Zana,Sakharov Prize Laureate. (Speech delivered in Turkish and Kurdish)(FR) Mr President, by speaking in Turkish and Kurdish, you have made a highly significant gesture and, before starting my speech, I would like to thank you in Catalan.
(Applause)
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, I spoke in Kurdish for the first time in 1991 from the parliamentary chamber during my oath-taking ceremony in the Turkish National Assembly. When I spoke the words, ‘I take this oath for the brotherhood of the Kurdish and Turkish people’, I wanted to draw attention to the fact that peoples, languages and cultures can co-exist in a brotherly fashion. The years I spent behind cold bars, surrounded by deaf and mute walls, will remain in our consciousness as suffering that went unacknowledged at the time. In any event, the fight for freedom, justice and equality could not have been fought without suffering. Those years I spent in prison have not left me with a broken heart, nor wanting to blame anybody, nor feeling anger. I had to live through those years for my love of democracy, and I did. I have begun my speech today in our brother language, Turkish, and I would like to end in my mother tongue, Kurdish. My aim is once again to emphasise the brotherhood between peoples, languages and cultures. I greet you all in this spirit and in friendship.
I would like to express my gratitude and my warmest wishes to Parliament for having considered me worthy of the Sakharov Prize. I would also like to thank you for the unfailing solidarity you have shown me and my friends throughout my years in prison. In fact, you are not awarding this prize just to me, but to the Kurdish people, to the Turkish people, who are our brothers; you have in fact awarded it to Turkey and to the defenders of peace, equality, freedom and fraternity. You have awarded it to the children who have lost their parents in the wars, to the women who have lost their children, to people who are oppressed, whatever their colour, language, religion or race. In short, you have awarded this prize to a bright future and to hope. You have given democratic public opinion a voice and have encouraged it to speak. The fact that the values represented by Sakharov are sacred and inviolable values has increased my moral and humanitarian responsibilities, and I am speaking to you now fully aware of this fact. It breaks my heart to see that our children are being lost, in whatever part of the world it may be happening, but first and foremost in my own country of course. It is a pain that sears through me. I beg you to hear my voice and to regard it as the voice of the mothers whose hearts are full of pain, as the voice of the children, of the young people, of the women, of the thousands, of the tens of thousands and millions of people, of human beings. Wars have caused great suffering, they have inflicted deep wounds; there has been much suffering, nature has suffered, the flowers, the birds and the butterflies have wept. The wars in Iraq, in Palestine, in Halabja, in the Balkans, in Beirut, in Chechnya, in Ireland, in Spain and all kinds of other wars that do not come to mind at the moment, have taught us many things and continue to do so. Bitter experience has taught us that violence leads to more violence, without providing a solution. We have also seen how policies based upon repression, denial, extermination and deceit, have led to more injustice, poverty and suffering. We must, therefore, reject violence and war, whatever the cause of it or the justification for it may be. We should be in a position to reject it. Violence must be consigned to the past. The language and method for resolving conflict today is dialogue, compromise and peace. It is not ‘Kill and be killed’, but ‘Live and let live’.
As Members of the European Parliament, you are sitting here together today in peace despite divisions and wars that have lasted for centuries and generations. Is the unity you have created while preserving your national characteristics not one of the most striking symbols of peaceful coexistence?
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as a person seeking justice, the first appeal I would like to make here today is addressed to myself: I give you my word that I will meet the expectations of my country and of democratic public opinion, even if it costs me my life. I make this commitment without expecting anything in return.
I address my second appeal to my country, Turkey. The Turkish Government must include the democratic resolution of the Kurdish problem on its agenda by giving it an appropriate name. All living beings on earth have a name: flowers, trees, birds. They all have their names. Only the Kurds have no name. There is no reason not to define this problem and not to give it an appropriate name. There is no reason to fear dialogue and peace. The Kurds want a peaceful solution within Turkish sovereign territory. These are the building blocks and raw materials of the Republic of Turkey. They respect all the values symbolising the Republic of Turkey, but the government appears to be inflexible, and unwilling to appreciate the sincere initiative of the Kurds, which is based on openness to dialogue. If a peaceful solution is not on the agenda, whatever political party may be in power, that dialogue is doomed to disappear. Significant steps have certainly been taken towards democracy, but the implementation of these steps appears to have been purely cosmetic. The Copenhagen criteria must be implemented in practice, and not just in words.
(Applause)
The most urgent need is to remove the basis for armed conflict and violence. A legal system that would bring about disarmament will be an important initial step towards peace. Yet there is another urgent need, which is that political prisoners, the intelligentsia, writers and politicians must be included in democratic life. We would also like to see democratic areas opened up with no barriers to freedom of thought or association. Social and economic measures aimed at eradicating differences between regions are of vital importance. Obstacles to the use of our mother tongue in the media must be eliminated and it should be possible to learn this language in primary schools. A new democratic constitution that is in line with universal law must be drawn up and, within that constitution, as the Turkish President, Mr Sezer, has said, the Kurds must be recognised as majority elements and they must be protected. Nobody should be in any doubt that the Kurds will support any measures taken for the sake of democratisation.
My third appeal is addressed to the world, and first and foremost to Europe. Peace in Turkey will mean peace in the Middle East, peace in Europe and peace in the world. Today, peace is in your hands, in our hands. We will achieve it by extending our hands to each other and in order to do so we must begin by knowing what is right. If you know what is right, you also know what is wrong, but if you do not know what is wrong, you will never achieve what is right. The right thing to do is to begin by giving the problem a name, and then to acknowledge it and define it. An entity that does not have a name and has not been defined has no identity, and as such that entity is considered non-existent. It is time for the world to recognise the political, social and cultural rights of the Kurds, who make up a population of more than 40 million human beings. The Kurds have openly expressed their will to achieve their full recognition and integrate themselves into today’s world. What we expect from the world is that our will should be respected and that this should not to be used as a negotiating tool, or as a bargaining chip in international relations. If this problem is not dealt with from the point of view of conscience and humanitarian spirit, regional and world peace will continue to face a potential threat. Nations have been left alone because they have built walls rather than bridges. Europe has experienced that suffering over the years and humanity has demolished those walls, one after the other. Europe and the world should be able to demolish the invisible walls that have been built between them and the Kurds, and furthermore act as a bridge in order to find a solution to this problem. We must bear in mind that a Turkey that is a Member of the European Union, which has resolved the Kurdish problem, will allow western civilisation to meet the great cultural wealth of Mesopotamia. Not until that happens will western civilisation become a contemporary democratic civilisation.
My fourth appeal is addressed to democratic public opinion and advocates of peace. It is not enough to be an advocate of peace and to be peaceful oneself that alone will not bring peace. Unless men wage war against war itself, there will be no way to put an end to wars. Wherever there are wars, therefore, we must be warriors for peace and we must organise ourselves.
I address my final appeal to the Kurds, to those who have fought for democracy in all the geographical regions they live in; they must first of all live in peace amongst each other. They must promote democracy, authorise freedoms and demonstrate cohesion. There will be no solidarity without mutual respect for values, no cohesion without solidarity, no strength without cohesion and no peace without strength. They must be aware that any attempt to fashion their own variety of Kurd amongst the Kurds will lead to a ‘feast of wolves’. The only way to prevent that is through internal unity and cohesion, peace amongst ourselves, and our own solidarity and our own policies.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, why can the Turks, the Kurds, the Germans, the French, the Laz, the Circassians, the Spanish, the Georgians, the Assyrians, the Americans, the Czechs, the Arabs, the Yazidi, the Bretons, the Catalans, the Persians, the Chechens, the Aborigines, the American Indians, the Alawites, the Africans, the Palestinians, the Jews, the Catholics, the Protestants, the Muslims, the Christians, the whites, the blacks and all the peoples of the world not live together in peace and harmony?
We all gaze at the same stars and we are all fellow travellers on the same planet and live under the same sky. As Victor Hugo said, because ‘peace is the happiness that absorbs everything’, we must forget everything relating to war, pain, revenge and hate. We must absorb all of it. Otherwise, we will not be able to travel together and be happy.
I dedicate this speech to brotherhood and happiness amongst the Turkish and Kurdish people. My best wishes to all of you in love and friendship.
(Applause)
President. Mrs Leyla Zana, in your speech you talked of Turkey as your country and called for recognition of the identity of the Kurdish people within Turkish sovereign territory. So, Mrs Zana, just as earlier I welcomed you in your language, Kurdish, please allow me now to also thank you in your other language, Turkish:
‘Konuşmanız için içten teşekkürler’
Which means, ‘thank you very much for your speech’.
Mrs Zana has spoken to us, and spoken very well, about identity, about the process of overcoming antagonistic differences, the antagonistic identities which have been mutually destroying each other throughout history. This is a good example of creating a common identity, which is more complex than our own individual native identities, since it encompasses a richer reality. Leyla Zana offers an example of precisely this search for a multiple identity which is compatible with everybody’s own individual identity. So once again Mrs Zana, ‘Konuşmanız için içten teşekkürler’.
Formal sitting
