"The period of armed struggle is over," said Sertac Bucak, the founder and former head of the International Kurdish Human Rights Center. "Democratic negotiations is the answer to the problem. Insisting on armed struggle would only help the forces of the status quo. The developments of the last couple of days prove how grave the situation is."

The meeting on "Turkey's Kurdish Question: The Quest for Democratic and Civilian Solutions (I)" by the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly and the Empathy Group, was held at the Dolapdere campus of the Istanbul Bilgi University last weekend.

Strict security measures by the police

The meeting brought together academicians, journalists, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and politicians, who reject violence as a solution to the problem, who believe the need to come up with new and urgent proposals for solution. The meeting attracted the interest of local and foreign media.

Participation was high in all sessions which began at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday and lasted until evening.

The police took high security measures around the campus. The speakers, participants and journalists were admitted after being searched in two security checkpoints.

"Patriotic Movement" and painter Baykam on stage again

The group, which calls itself the "Patriotic Movement" gathered in front of the campus and protested against the meeting. Artist Bedri Baykam is the spokesperson of the group.

The group help banners which read: "No imperialist trap will separate our Kurdish brothers from us," "Each centimeter square of this country belongs to all of us," "the Turkish Republic is a whole, it cannot be divided." "Such saddening initiatives, which aim to test the waters to spread the opinion of separating us from our Kurdish brothers, should know that each centimeter square of this country belongs to all of us and all citizens from all origins of the Turkish Republic are equal and brothers," said Baykam, who made a statement on behalf of the group.

Only 12 of the 58 speakers were women

There were a total of 58 speakers in the nine sessions of the meeting that lasted for two days. On the first day of the meeting, many issues, from the historic background of the Kurdish issue to its organization experiences, from immigration to nationality with their psychological and sociological dimensions, to the effects of the developments in Iraq, were discussed.On the second day of the meeting, the speakers discussed identity rights, the notion of minority, state policies about the Kurdish problem and the media's viewpoint.

Although the men-women proportion of participants was balanced, only 12 of the 58 speakers were women.

The intensive two-day conference ended with a nice surprise.

Singer Nilufer Akbal, who was the speaker of the panel on "Identity Rights, Social and Cultural Dimension," sang a Kurdish song at the end of the conference.

The organizers of the conference, who were all men, were: Ali Bayramoglu, Murat Belge, Oral Calislar, Cengiz Candar, Ali Degermenci, Yilmaz Ensaroglu, Umit Firat, Hasim Hasimi, Sinasi Haznedar, Mustafa Karaalioglu, Ercan Karakas, Selahattin Kaya ve Sezgin Tanrikulu. (KO/GS/EA/YE)