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MEP Luisa Morgantini (Vice-President of the European Parliament), MEP Vittorio Agnoletto (Coordinator of the Friendship Group EP-Kurds) and Marco Polo System invite you to a press conference to present PLANET KURDISTAN, an official side event organised in the framework of the “53rd Biennale di Venezia – International Art Exhibition “Fare mondi – Making Worlds”. The press conference will take place on:

WEDNESDAY 1st April, at 16h00 / 4pm
European Parliament Press Room – BRUSSELS
(IT – FR – EN interpretation)

For the first time, Kurdistan will feature at the “Biennale di Venezia” (7th June – 22nd November, 2009), the well-known international art event, as a cultural entity. This is an historic occasion for the Kurdish people, who live in the four different countries (Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria) between which their land has been divided, as well as the Kurdish diaspora (in Western Europe alone, there are some 1.5 million Kurds). The event attempts not just to present the works of participating artists but also to build a working environment in which the artists will have the opportunity to make a clear statement on the complexities of the Kurdish context and to reflect on elaborating a cultural identity for Kurdistan. The event is being organised under the patronage of the Venice City Council and Province of Venice. Planet Kurdistan is the result of continuous exchanges between different realities, Kurdish and non-Kurdish, and has been jointly produced thanks to, among others, the efforts of former Kurdish MP, Leyla Zana.

Speakers:
Bahman GHOBADI, Kurdish film director
Pietrangelo PETTENÒ, Marco Polo System, President
Ilter REZAN, Kurdish artist
Burhan JAF, Kurdistan Regional Government’s representative
Press contacts:
Gianfranco Battistini, +32.475.646628 (European Parliament, GUE/NGL)
or planetkurdistan@gmail.com or www.planetk.org (from 1st April, 2009)

From Bianet
Erol Onderoglu
16 march 2009

In 2008, 82 people were tried under Article 301, 44 under the Anti-Terrorist Law, 23 under Article 216, 47 for “insulting” and 15 for “alienating the public from military service”. Freedoms of press and expression have been damaged by political polarisation, the lack of a solution to the Kurdish issue and the intolerance of criticism.
In 2008, the political landscape in Turkey became more polarised and the Kurdish question was not resolved. Both government and army displayed intolerance towards criticism of their performance and questioning of rights violations. Freedom of expression and of the press both took a considerable step backwards.
In the last year, 82 people were tried under the controversial Article 301, concerned with the “denigration” of the state and state organs; 5 people were convicted.
“Insult” cases on the rise
23 people stood accused of “inciting hatred and hostility among people. 74 people, among them 4 caricaturists and 47 journalists, were tried for “insulting” others. In total, the compensation claims in these insult cases amount to 1 million 885 thousand 500 TL (around 855,711 Euros).
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has become a claimant for such compensation. He has targeted the Doğan Media Group, saying in public, “Do not buy these newspapers”. Claims by him and his family have resulted in the convictions of Perihan Mağden (Radikal newspaper), Cemal Subaşı (Tempo magazine), Mehmet Çağçağ (Leman satirical magazine); he is also claiming compensation from Melih Kaşkar (Milas Önder newspaper).
It is thus not surprising that Turkey is ranked 102nd out of 173 countries by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in terms of Freedom of the Press.
BİA Media Monitoring Report
The annual media monitoring report of BİA (Independent Communication Network) provides information on 506 court cases, in which a total of 854 people from 305 newspapers have been affected. This number shows that social tensions are rising. A total of 435 journalists, writers, publishers, human rights activists, politicians and children were taken to court in 2008 because of their opinions. In 2007, this number stood at 254.
The 113-page BİA Media Monitoring Report reports on the state of the freedoms of press and expression in chronological orders, under the following headings: “Attacks and threats”, “Detentions and arrests”, “Press freedom and the freedom of expression in court”, “Adjustments and seeking justice”, “European Court of Human Rights”, “Reactions to censorship” and “RTÜK practices”.
Taraf faces 70, Doğan Media Group 200 trials
The sudden increase in prosecutions is due to many media organs being taken to court for “violating secrecy”, “revealing classified information” and “attempting to influence the judiciary” when reporting on the events of Dağlıca, Aktütün and Ergenekon.
In Dağlıca, in the southeastern province of Hakkari, 12 soldiers were killed and 8 kidnapped by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in October 2007. In Aktütün, in the same province, 17 soldiers were killed in October 2008. The Ergenekon investigation is looking into the formation of a clandestine ultra-nationalist organisation aiming at overthrowing the government.
The Taraf newspaper, which has followed a line of aggressive questioning of army policies, has been taken to court 70 times. Newspapers of the Doğan Group have faced over 200 court cases since June 2007 for similar publications.
“Influencing the judiciary”
Court cases concerned with “attempts at influencing the judiciary” rose by 100 percent compared to 2007. Alper Turgut, journalist of the Cumhuriyet newspaper was sentenced to a 20,000 TL (around 9,000 Euros) for announcing in an article that a torture case was barred because too much time had lapsed. Two human rights activists and five journalists were acquitted after reporting on the death of 11-year-old Mizgin Özbek in Batman.
Article 301
82 people were taken to court under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. In 23 cases the Ministry of Justice withheld permission for a court case, so they were dropped. However, the Ministry did grant permission in a case against writer Temel Demirer and one against 10 activists in Eskişehir, with up to 2 years imprisonment looming. 23 files are still awaiting Ministry decisions. In 2008, publishers Ragıp Zarakolu and Fatih Taş, lawyer Eren Keskin, magazine owner Aziz Özer and work inspector Niyazi Uslay were convicted under the article. In 2007, 55 people were tried under Article 301.
Article 216
Of the 23 people tried under Article 216 for “inciting hatred and hostility” , academics Prof. Dr. Baskın Oran and Prof. Dr. İbrahim Kaboğlu, Barış Pehlivan from CNN Türk, politicians Nurettin Yılmaz and Sertaç Bucak, radio journalist Cemal Doğan and publisher Songül Özkan were acquitted. However, publisher Erol Karaaslan is facing a second trial over the Turkish translation of Richard Dawkin’s “God Delusion”. In 2007, 23 people were tried under Article 216.
“Alienating the public from military service”
In the last year, 15 people, 9 of them journalists, were on trial for “alienating the public from military service”. Bülent Ersoy, Yıldırım Türker, Perhian Mağden, Cezmi Ersöz, Gökhan Gençay and İbrahim Çeşmioğlu were acquitted, but publisher Ragıp Zarakolu and eight other people are still on trial.
Detentions
A total of 37 people, 28 of them journalists have spent al lor part of 2008 in prison, mostly in relation to Ergenekon, PKK and Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) accusations. Within the year, 15 of them were released.
The Ergenekon investigation has led to the imprisonment of Vedat Yenerer, Adnan Akfırat and Serhat Bolluk; in the MLKP case, radio journalist Füsun Erdoğan, İbrahim Çiçek and Sedat Şenoğlu are in prison; accusations of PKK connections have resulted in detention for Ali Buluş of the DİHA news agency, as well as for Faysal Tunç and Behdin Tunç. The court cases are continuing and it is currently not clear whether the detentions are due to journalistic or other activities.
Politician Mahmut Alınak, who was tried for his opinions, went to prison twice after refusing to pay a fine. Journalist Hacı Boğatekin, who had levelled accusations at a prosecutor, was released from prison after 109 days.
In 2008, 34 people were taken into custody, among them 13 journalists (for instance İlhan Selçuk, Mustafa Balbay, Ufuk Büyükçelebi and Soner Arıkanoğlu). Barış Keskin and Burak Özgün from Olay TV were detained for hosting Serpil Aslan, representative of the Socialist Platform for the Oppressed (ESP). They stand accused of spreading illegal propaganda.
Threats and attacks
Two years after the murder of journalist Hrant Dink, the role that public officers palyed in his murder is still not clear. Prof. Dr. Baskın Oran and the Agos newspaper continue to receive threats. The police violence against reporters in Istanbul on 1 May and in Hakkari on “Newroz” has gone unpunished.
In 2008, 7 media institutions, 23 people (20 of them journalists) were attacked; 2 institutions and 7 journalists were threatened.
In 2007, 34 journalists and 12 media institutions were attacked; 22 people and 6 media institutions were threatened; 3 Internet websites were sabotaged.
European Court of Human Rights
In 2008, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) sentenced Turkey to pay a total of 183,810 TL (93,680 Euros) compensation and legal costs to 27 people who had appealed for the court because of violations of the freedom of expression. This is a decrease compared to the sum of 218,080 TL of the previous year. However, the second half of 2008 saw a rise in ECHR convictions.
The ECHR decrees concerned Hıdır Ateş, Hünkar Demirel, Ahmet Gemici, Sacit Kayasu,Bülent Falakaoğlu, İsak Tepe, Kadriye Kanat, Gülşen Bozan, Sevim Salihoğlu, Mehmet Zeynettin Unay, Sakine Aktan, Abdullah Yılmaz, Erdem Kılıç, Hasan Buran, Mehmet Kutlular, Yalçın Küçük, Ecevit Piroğlu, Mihriban Karakaya, Zeynel Abidin Kızılyaprak, Mehmet Mustafa Yalçıner, Mehmet Emin Albayrak, Şanar Yurdatapan, Fevzi Saygılı, Nizamettin Taylan Bilgiç, Serpil Kurtay ve Fevzi Saygılı.

Art is the product of human creativity; it is known to be a necessary need of living. With the inner feelings and desires, the artist can build a world of fine beauty. This art was an integral part of the ancient human beings’ life 30 thousand years ago, which is apparent from the pictures on the mountain stones and walls of caves such as “Shaneder Cave, Bestun Mountain and Cermo village around Wan province and many other places in Kurdistan and the rest of the world. These were the early foundations of the artistic history in this region, especially the Mesopotamian civilization which has taken the art in the right path to today’s world. Art was a necessity for communities, as with its beauty and fineness was reaching ones inner thoughts and feelings, taking them to hidden life to reach the truth of things and enjoy it. Art with all its forms like “Music, melodies, plays, stories and pictures…etc” has introduced human’s history to us, of which the European renaissance is an evidence, and work of Michelagniolo and Ludovico di Lionardo bear witness to this. The Western art history has also been enriched with the work of Goya, Rambrant, Picasso, Vankogh, cizanne and Kandnsky …etc…which has shown us the beauty and love of life and nature.

If we look back at the art history of the Kurdish people we will see that at the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the creative art heritage such as Sherefxane Bitlisi and Abdalxani and the classic literature of Feqe Teyran, Ahmedi Xani and Mele Ciziri ..etc… were early stages of our arts but remain as resources. This on top of the fact that the nature of Kurdistan itself is one tableau of beauty enabling one to be creative to produce pieces of beautiful art and present them to humanity.

Today tens of Kurdish Artists find refuge in the west as a result of the destruction and war against their land and population. Many of those creative artists have been dispersed all over the world who are now finding their work as part of the universal art and work within that framework. Tens of exhibitions that have opened in the world have included the works of Kurdish artists too as art is a universal language. Art being a universal language, is necessary to exist in all stages of life, in order to build bridges to communicate with other cultures.

Colours are very important in this type of art as well as lines and emptiness especially in the contemporary art. Colour resembles the music to be seen when you look at a tableau and feel it. It resembles a lively music, a melody which is to be seen as Paul Klee says “we have to see the tableau when we look at it”, which happens through the lines and colours of the tableau,

Any creative work which has an impact on ones inner feelings is an art work. There have been many definitions for art as well as many views and different expressions, but all have one objective; “creativity and artistic” that has managed to impact others. If we compare art and nature; can a tableau be a resemblance of nature? or does it include changes? As an answer we can see that this very much depends on the way the artist see things with whatever creativity and modernity reflected in his/her reality and desires. That is why life, human being and art form a massive world providing happiness.

Nature is the main sources for the beauty of art; it is the source for intellect and different civilizations. In the different historical stages human’s instincts have driven them to reach beauty and fineness through art.

Our fundamental aim from the artistic tableau is to present beauty and pleasantness to all, being able to move feelings and sensations, forming a world without sensors, limits and borders, thus enabling all colours and views to be included to provide peace and freedom to all humanity.

Fahmi Balay

Berlin 01.03.2009

PLANET KURDISTAN

VENICE 7 JUNE – 22 NOVEMBER 2009

SALA SAN LEONARDO (CANNAREGIO, VENICE)

Malva, Mire Hekan, Norrem Issan Hamdi, Bahar Maleki, Monireh Maleki, Hasan Huseyin Deveci (Malmime), Huseyin Isik, Ilter Rezan, Fehmi Balay, Azad Nanakeli, Baldin Ahmad, Walid SitiPLANET Kurdistan is a laboratory of ideas and projects that has the aim to contribute to the discussion on the Kurdish cultural identity. It is a collective imagination process able to represent all of the complexities and diversities of this people and to encourage a shared future.

PLANET K is a virtual platform, through its web site www.planetk.org, and a physical place within the 53° International Art Exposition – Venice Biennale, staged in San Leonardo in Venice.
With the contribution of the collective of architects, designers and graphics of Rebiennale, San Leonardo will be turned into a laboratory in which Kurdish artists – and thanks to an Open Call, all the people who would want to give their contribution – will meet, share opinions, and collectively build the necessary premises for the definition of a Kurdish cultural identity.

The Venice Art Biennale is one of the most prestigious international arenas for contemporary art, a place in which relations between art and national representation meet in a complex and articulated way. Every country chooses which artists can best interpret its artistic progress, its open-mindedness and its aspirations. In this context, representing the art of a stateless nation is the presupposition of a self-determination process. Art not seen as spectacle, but as an inspiration towards an identification process.

PLANET K aims to be above all a space for debate, comparison and production among the Kurdish artists, coming from all of the four countries in which the Kurdish people have been divided – Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey -, but also from the ‘fifth’ part, that is represented by the exiles. The Kurdish Diaspora is indeed a reality of well over one million and three hundred thousand people only in Western Europe.

In the two weeks before the opening of the Biennale, artists, philosophers, designers, sociologists, journalists etc. interested in the definition of this collective imagination process will debate about three fundamental issues, synthesis of the future potentials of the Kurdish people: Identity, Borders, Language.

Identity
The effort of the Kurdish intellectuals goes in the direction of an identity which reflects the experience of war, exile, forced migration, but which is also able to see beyond. An effort which starts from the denied identity (in particular in Turkey were the state represses systematically the Kurdish identity) and from the intimate identity lived by thousands of exiled Kurds, towards the claim of a lively identity. Identity as memory, dialogue, exchange.

Borders
Kurdistan is a region divided by borders rather than enclosed by them. A region separated in four different national realities whose borders are crossed every day by thousands of people escaping war, persecution and poverty. Borders are barriers, linguistic, cultural but also individual barriers met in the ‘host’ countries, which are often inhospitable. Borders, as those that metaphorically are confining women into a position of second-class citizens.

Language
In the process of building Planet K we were actually communicating in seven languages: Sorani, Kurmanci, Turkish, Italian, English, French and German. Language is a form of resistance, especially in states like Turkey, where it is still a forbidden and persecuted language. Language is the vehicle of a new message for the future, it means being able to express its own ideas freely. It’s fundamental to manage to communicate your own past in order to being able to built a solid bases for your future, while making of diversities a richness rather than an unease legacy.

The 53° International Art Exposition with its title Fare Mondi/Making Worlds inspires this process of belonging. Not the belonging to an official culture, a state culture, but an inclusive belonging, in constant definition, open to influences and possibilities for future development. PLANET K is much more than a national art exhibit, it is a shared space where our imagination, our aspirations and our ideas can live. It is a new planet.

KURDISTAN
Kurdistan never existed as a national political entity, despite the fact that the Sevres Treaty (1920) was taking into consideration the possibility of an independent Kurdistan, in the case that the majority of the people living in that territory requested it. The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) cancelled this hope and established the division of Kurdistan (region rich of oil, water and other natural resources) among the states of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Over the years the Kurdish claim to a nation-state have been replaced by a search, often experimental, of new forms of autonomy. Over the last weeks the talks over a possible first peace conference to be held in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan are becoming more recurring. The aim would be to have around a table all of the parties involved in the conflict, which has its most violent expression in Turkey.

ISTANBUL, DECEMBER 2008

I have tried to explain the violence against me and a friend of me and after that custody event through media. I believe that this method isn’t consistent with any democratic application, is a reminding of coup condition as well as showing that AKP governance’s new police state phenomenon which is constructed on violence and intoralence. This mentality of state’s has critized as being of police state application from past to days. We can give example 1 May days events which rise from the police force behavior as a striking one.
At last days a group whom dressed like police dragged a woman by her hair among the many people and this has debated mostly. Security authorities explain that “civilians mustn’t believe anyone who claims himself as a police. Ask him for showing identity”. But the main subject must not be missed; the subject is the civilians’ fear of police. Namely people scare when they see police.

I am living and witnessing this fear at many cities where i visit. Fear and assimilation policy is still living in Anatolian and specially in the cities where Alevi population massively accommodated. I joined an activity for Maraş massacre anniversary in Pazarcık on 12 December Friday and the extraordinary caution and obstructing measurements were really thought provoking. Government, who cause the dying of hundreds Alevi by not taking caution measurement, couldn’t tolerate the activity for decrying this. They want me to bring some documents to humiliate and to coactions. They create an atmosphere of descent and occupancy by bringing additional police forces from Maraş. People can entry salon after police investigation. Police didn’t let to post a pancarte of Pir Sultan Association because pancarte including the “massacre” word. I didn’t live this just in Pazarcık, it was the same in İmranlı, Arguvan and many other place.
State thinks that everyone who is against, especially Kurdish and Alevi himself is enemy. If this point of view doesn’t change, as a part of these group or as a person who is advocating this group’s democratic rights i think that intellectuals will continue to face with the violence if this point of view doesn’t change.
Police can ask, police can chastise, police can torture, police can kill…. Turkey have to change this mentality. Whenever we just think about our own life security when we see police or hear the police word. Then we can tell that Turkey is changed or at least start to change. The behave of police which claiming people as guilty or potentially guilty is creating a feeling as called live security anxiety. It is not normal that police is the reason of our fear and anxiety resource.
I want to comment of TRT starts to broadcast in Kurdish in this context. Kurdish and its language have been denied during the republic history. İf this is a discard of deny policy, this is a positive thing. But state doesn’t declare this obviously. And this is strange situation. State television is broadcasting in Kurdish but any other can not found a television which broadcasting in Kurdish. Park names are changing because of the yare in Kurdish also using Kurdish letters is stil forbidden. Many Kurdish politicians have law cases because of they spoke in Kurdish at their election campaign. I also am one of the victim of this kind of law cases. I sing a song in Kurdish at an election meeting in Mardin many years ago. My law court is stil continue. Also my friend Ahmet Kaya have been lynched since he declare that wanted to have a Kurdish clip and we didn’t forget it.
So this process couldn’t make me feel excited. I guess the only reason of this is distant approach and controversies in the process. State must break this monopolist and holist aprroach and must make free to broadcas in Kurdish. Kurdish broadcast subject couldn’t be seperated from the Kurdish policy of 85 yeared Turkish Republic. Historical process which is constructed on denial and assimilation of Kurdish people can be ended by not using guns and by giving a chance to peace which is being a social demand.
When we know all the negative situations and AKP governance’s approach to Kurd problem What is the main reason of this televison brodcast. What kind of broadcast will do the new kurdish television of TRT.It isn’t hard to gues. I don’t think so that their aim is to develop kurdish language, Kurdish literature or art. It is clear that the expansion, starting before the local election, is far away of sincerity. I have anxiety about converting bans and rights deviations to make more legal by doing ideological broadcast.It will serve to make more complex the Kurd problem. Namely they will do their own propaganda which they did in Turkish up to day, in Kurdish.
Telling usefulness thinks get become of the basis of AKP policy. They again try to diddle kurdish people and Alevi by using the similar method to win local election. Kurdish tv and alevi expansion is a part of this policy. So being a part of this policy will be served just to make our problems more unsolvable.
Freedom and democracy struggle can develop by implementing a principle and without compromising position in2009. the solidarity of Turkish, Kurdish and Alevi proleterian will Grant us more independent and clear future.
I wish in 2009 all of these demands can be met.

Nata a  Sannandaj, Kurdistan, Iran nel 1983

Studi:
BSc: Arte, Pittura, (2006-oggi). Facoltà di Arte, Università di Azahra, Tehran, Iran
Diploma; Arte, (2006). Facultà di Arte, Università di Ahvaz, Iran
Diploma: Matematica (2004). Sannandaj, Kurdistan, Iran

Premi e riconoscimenti:
1. Terza alla  National Competition in Painting , (2002).  Sannandaj, Iran
2.  Prima alla  Students Competition in Painting , (2005).  Ahvaz, Iran
3. Prima alla  Modern Art Exhibition , (2006).  Abadan, Iran
4. Prima  Art Symposium , (2007).  Oromieh, Iran
5. Prima of  Modern Art Assembly , (2007).  Hamedan, Iran
6. Selling some of my graphic and painting designs by Tehran Museum, (2007
7. Candidata alla selezione come membro del Caricature National Team for International Competitions , (2003)
8. Prima a  West Art Exhibition  , (2003).  Tehran, Iran
9. Candidata alla selezione come membro del Caricature National Team for International Competitions , (2003)
10. Terza alla National Competition in Graphics , (2007). Tehran, Iran
11. Prima alla  Modern Art Assembly , (2005).  Khozestan, Iran
12. Second-winner of  Modern Art Assembly , (2005).  Khozestan, Iran
13. Holing Painting Exhibition from 2001 (now) all around the country
14. Holing Graphical Design Exhibition from 2001 (now) all around the country
15. Holing Painting Exhibition from 2006 in Kurd House , Sannandaj Iran