Syrian Kurdish follow-up conference to convene in Brussels
5/15/2006 KurdishMedia.com
New York (KurdishMedia.com) 15 May 2005: Following the landmark Democracy in Syria and Kurdish Human and National Rights conference organized by the Kurdish American Committee for Democracy in Syria on 12-13 March at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, a follow-up conference is scheduled to convene in Brussels, Belgium at the end of this month. This conference will be sponsored by the Sponsored by Kurdish American Committee for Democracy in Syria and European Union parliamentarians.

As with the first conference, the event will begin with closed meetings involving the various Syrian Kurdish parties, with the aim of developing further consensus among the various Syrian Kurdish movements and establish a Kurdish assembly to represent all Syrian Kurds including political parties, NGO’s, civic leaders, independents and others.

The closed session will take place on 27 and 28 May. Following the closed session, a half-day event will take place at the EU Parliament which will include Kurdish and Arab figures as well as other Syrians and international experts. Numerous political parties and Syrian oppositionists are invited, including Rifat Asad, the uncle of Syrian president Bashar Asad, and former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam.

A number of Kurdish leaders from all parts of Kurdistan are invited to attend the conference, including lawyer and prominent Kurdish activist Serafettin Elci, HAK-PAR leader Adbulmelik Firat, Socialist Party of Kurdistan founder and former Secretary General Kemal Burkay, Kurdistan National Congress of North America founder and former President Prof. Asad Khailany, and lawyer Hasip Kaplan. Representatives of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Komala Party, Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) have also been invited, as have representatives of the US State Department.