‘The Peace Process in Turkey: What Future for a Plural Society in Turkey’
CEFTUS Westminster Debate
‘The Peace Process in Turkey: What Future for a Plural Society in Turkey’
The Centre for Turkey Studies (CEFTUS) is pleased to invite you to a Westminster Debate on ‘The Peace Process in Turkey: What Future for a Plural Society in Turkey’. CEFTUS is delighted to welcome our guest speakers Mr Abdurrahman Kurt, former AK Party MP for Diyarbakir and a member of Wise people commission set up by the Prime Minister Erdogan, and Mr Hayko Bagdat, a well known journalist and human rights activist in Turkey. Please find short biographies for each speaker below.
This CEFTUS Westminster Debate is kindly hosted by Anas Sarwar, MP for Glasgow.
The event will take place on Tuesday 10th of September, between 7PM and 8.30PM in Grimond Room, Portcullis House.
We look forward to welcoming you at this CEFTUS Westminster Debate.
Booking is required for this event to ensure adequate seating availability.
Please register on here
or RSVP to [email protected]
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Ibrahim Dogus
Director
Speaker Biographies
Abdurrahman Kurt is a former AKP MP for Diyarbakir and member of the Wise People Commission on the Kurdish peace process. Kurt is a founding member of Diyarbakir History Culture and Tourism Organisation and Diyarbakir Tourism Organisation. Kurt completed Civil Engineering BA at YildizTeknikUniversity and Economy-Politics MA at BeykentUniversity. He worked as an engineer in various positions and levels in different municipaities of Istanbul. He volunteered in various NGOs such as Mazlumder. He was the founding chair of the Gonul Koprusu which produced projects to assist children and families in poverty. Kurt was AKP Provincial Chair for Diyarbakir (2004-2007) and AKP MP for Diyarbakir (2007-2011). Also, he was spokesperson for the Parliament’s Human Rights Commission, chair of Interparliamentary Turkey-Lebanon Friendship Group and member of the Gender Equality Commission.
Hayko Bagdat is a columnist for daily Taraf and presents “Azı Karar Çoğu Zarar” TV programme with Roni Margullies on IMC TV. Bagdat is an activist and one of the founders of the “Hrant’s Friends” initiative following the assassination of Hrant Dink. Bagdat has a BA in History of Turkish Language and Literature from Istanbul University. He was conscripted in Tunceli where the war was intense between 1996 and 1998 before his graduation. In 2002, he worked as a columnist at Nor Marmara which is the oldest Armenian newspaper. Bagdat produced and presented “Sözde Kalanlar” which focused on minority problems in Turkey on Yasam Radio in 2003. He took part in a project of establishing a radio station to broadcast in Armenian language in Turkey. Bagdat was nominated to be a BDP (Democracy and Peace Party) MP for Istanbul 2nd Region in the 2010 general elections. Bagdat frequently comments on human rights, minority rights, the Kurdish issue and recently on the Gezi events on written and visual media.