The Lobby for the Minorities of Turkey- Hrant Dink Day in Parliament

Dear Friends,
On the 2nd anniversary of Hrant Dink's death in Istanbul,( next monday 19th january), The Lobby for the Minorities of Turkey warmly invites you to a meeting in Committee Room 6 of the House of Commons at 6 p.m.
The sponsor and Chair is Andrew Dismore MP

1 Elif Kalaycioglu will talk about what his loss has meant for Armenians within Turkey and his Turkish friends and what common and separate efforts have been undertaken to continue his work in his absence

Between September 2006 and 2008, Elif worked as a project assistant at TESEV, a reputable think-tank in Istanbul focusing on democratization, and therefore on the Kurdish question, non-Muslim minorities in Turkey as well as civil-military relations in Turkey. . Additionally, she has worked as a translator and freelance reporter for Agos,(Hrant Dink's newspaper) producing news articles and feature stories/portaits on minorities in Turkey.
. .She is a family friend of Hrant Dink, niece of historian Halil Berktay, articulate, has thought deeply, witnessed the funeral from close up in the Church and has interesting observations about his legacy, attitudes to him in Turkey today

2 Mr John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need will give an overview of the climate for Christians in Turkey today

3 Eminent Assyrian and Kurdish speakers will describe the problems posed to their Communities by the Turkish State


A discussion will follow The threats by the Turkish State against writer Haydar Isik, who has written about Kurdish involvement in the Genocide, and against the organisers of the on-line petition apologising for the "Great Catastrophy of 1915" will be assessed as well as the long jail-sentence against Human Rights activist Leyla Zana. Also the cultural rights of minorities in Iraq and Turkey will be compared
RSVP if possible,

Regards
Eilian Williams
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