March for peace Perugia Assisi 1999

A DOCUMENT THAT WILL MAKE HISTORY: THE "DIYARBAKIR CHARTER"

"PEACE AND DEMOCRACY" PLATFORM

signed by 224 mayors and representatives of the civil society from nineteen Turkish provinces with Kurdish population. It was presented on September 14, 1999 by the Vice-President of the Turkish Association for Human Rights, Mr Osman Baydemir, and the mayor of Diyarbakir Yenisehir, Mr Ahmet Remzi Azizoglu, during a conference attended by more that one thousand people at the Municipality of Diyarbakir.

1. We intend to pursue our efforts to create a peaceful and democratic atmosphere, by excluding the use of violence and finding new ways of discussion, dialogue and understanding for the solution of inter-community problems, and by avoiding stances and evaluations that can lead to violence.

2. Obstacles to an open discussion of the Kurdish issue and any limitation on freedom of thought, opinion, speech and association should be removed.

3. The state of emergency and the militias called "village guards" should be suspended, in view of their consequences in terms of the two law standards that have been established, and the devastation inflicted to the people's way of life, dignity and psychology.

4. The safe return of refugees to their villages should be granted, together with a refund of the damage suffered and the re-implementation of abandoned production activities and destroyed cultivations and pastures.

5. We deem it indispensable to implement a general and undiscriminating amnesty: without an amnesty concerning crime of opinion and political crime it is impossible to attain social reconcilement.

6. Capital punishment must be repealed, through the ratification by Turkey of the sixth Additional Protocol to the European Convention of Human Rights and the repeal of the 41 passages contained in four laws that provide for death penalty.

7. We support the proposals of the First President of the Court of Appeal, Mr Sami Selcuk, to revise the Constitution: a new democratic Constitution should be drafted in accordance with international law concerning the protection of minorities and the cohabitation of different cultures and community identities.