Today, 31 October at 18:00, the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurds RKR) will host an open meeting on the current military crisis between Turkey and Iraq. In addition to Vidar Birkeland, chairman of RKR´s board, representatives of both North and East Kurdistan, and also the political environment in Norway, will come to contribute to the discussion. (31-OCT-07)
Based on RKR´s invitation, this article has been translated and prepared for publication by HRH F / Niels Jacob Harbitz.
The meeting will take place in the conference room, 1st floor, of the Norwegian Human Rights House downtown Oslo.
The aim of the meeting is to discuss and analyse the political and humanitarian implications of the last weeks´ development. The meeting will be conducted in Norwegian. The speakers will be Vidar Birkeland, chairman of the board of RKR, Abdollah Hejab, Kurdish intellectual from East Kurdistan, Can Zeki, Kurdish intellectual from North Kurdistan, and Erling Folkvord, representing the politicial environment in Norway. Below, Turkish troops on the border with Iraq.
The Norwegian tv news channel TV 2 Nyhetskanalen recently hosted a discussion between RKR´s leader Vidar Birkeland and Norwegian People Aid´s Trude Falck, also an expert on Kurdish issues, on the currently very strained relationship between the Kurdish political party PKK and Turkey. The debate asked how big the risk of a Turkish military attack on the stable and autonomous Kurdish region of Northern Iraq might be. RKR taped the debate, also conducted in Norwegian, and has placed it on its website www.kurdistan.no.
