Peace Gathering: War Is Not the Answer

Finkelstein, Elsworthy, Curman, Myrdal, Hipkin, Amundson, Savic, Simmons, Komarcevic, Bjelic, Prof. Schumm-Garling, Bötte, Wecker, Simpson, Claussen, Rotem and Tramonti expected in Istanbul to join weekend peace activities.

İstanbul

Peace activists from Britain, Greece, Germany, Israel, Sweden, USA, and Yugoslavia, and are meeting in Istanbul to voice their opposition to the war plans on Iraq.

In a Thursday public statement International Peace Forum in Turkey says:

* Turkey holds the key to the northern front in this war. The International Peace Forum will voice the call of the international community to turn this key into a key for peace.

The Turkish government has not yet given permission to the United States of America (USA)for the use of its bases, and deployment of U.S forces on Turkish soil. A 'NO' from Turkey would throw a wrench into the war machine. The Forum will voice the cries of the rapidly growing global anti-war coalition and ask the Turkish government to play an active role in preventing this war.

* Invited to Turkey by a broad coalition of peace and human rights groups, the international peace activists will participate in a major domestic peace forum, Assembly of the 100s, on January 25, organize an international peace forum on January 26, and will visit officials in Ankara on January 27.

* The Assembly of the 100s, organized by the Peace Initiative of Turkey, will consist of 100 representatives each from 20 occupational groups (including academics, writers, students, workers, doctors, lawyers, business people, and the "unemployed"). Statements from each occupational group will be followed by a joint statement against the proposed war on Iraq: Peace Declaration of the 100s. About 2000 people are expected to meet in the Lutfi Kirdar Congress Hall in Istanbul for this event.

* On January 26, a three-hour long International Peace Forum will be held at Bogazici University. In two consecutive panels, the speakers will talk about their diverse experiences in wars and share their views on the current conflicts. There will be simultaneous translation.

* In the evening, there will be a major music event, a Peace Night, at Babylon, Istanbul. Local and international musicians will take stage and an anti-war song composed by local groups will be performed for the first time during this event.

* On January 27, the international delegation will visit members of the government and opposition party and urge them to vote against the US demands on the deployment of soldiers and the use of bases.

International participants:

1) Norman Finkelstein (Political Scientist, DePaul University, Chicago, USA) - writer of The Holocaust Industry Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (Verso, 2000), A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth (Henry Holt,1998, with Ruth Bettina Birn), Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict (Verso, 1995), and The Rise and Fall of Palestine (University of Minnesota, 1996).

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com

2) Scilla Elsworthy (Director, Oxford Research Group, Britain)

http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/

3) Peter Curman (Poet, Sweden) http://www.petercurman.com

4) Jan Myrdal (Writer, Sweden) - writer of Confessions of a Disloyal European (Lake View Press, 1990)

5) John Hipkin (Cambridge City Councillor, spokesperson for CAMPEACE-Cambridge Campaign for Peace, Britain) www.campeace.org

6) Ryan Amundson (Midwest Coordinator, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, USA) http://www.peacefultomorrows.org/

7) Obrad Savic (Philosopher, Writer, Editor, Belgrad Circle journal, Yugoslavia) - editor of Balkan As Metaphor: Between Globalization and Fragmentation (2002, MIT Press, with Dusan Bjelic) The Politics of Human Rights (1999, Verso), and The European Discourse of War (1995)

8) Michael Simmons (Director for European Programs, American Friends Service Committee, USA)

9) Marijana Komarcevic (Woman in Black, Belgrade, Yugoslavia)

10) Dusan I. Bjelic (Professor of Criminology, University of Southern Maine, USA; participant in the US group of academics who visited Iraq last month)

11) Prof. Ursula Schumm-Garling ((Professor of Sociology, University of Dortmund, Spokesperson for the Peace Movement, Germany)

12) Suzanna Bötte (Peace Movement, Germany)

13) Konstantin Wecker (Musician, Germany)

14) Anthony Simpson (Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Britain)

http://www.russfound.org/

15) Angelika Claussen (President, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War /IPPNW - Germany)

http://www.ippnw.de

16) Raya Rotem (representative of Bat Shalom, founder of the War Widows' Movement, member Women in Black, Israel)

www.batshalom.org

17) Daniele Tramonti (Peace activist, l'Associazione Papa Giovanni XXIII, Italy) (NM)