The EUTCC strongly deplores the Turkish Constitutional Court’s decision to ban the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). So far 37 members of the DTP have been banned from official politics. DTP was the first pro-Kurdish party to enter the Turkish parliament in 14 years. The closure of the DTP creates an unfortunate political climate and confirms that Turkey’s peace initiative so far has not been reliable.

Mesopotamia is a historically important region. In this region mankind experienced one of its earliest civilizations. During the course of history in Mesopotamia was built sites and irrigation channels around the rivers Euphrates and Tigris which some of even has made it to today.

In Mesopotamia, for the first time, humans began to leave their caves, and instead built their homes to live in. They built this historical heritage of the ancient peoples such as Armenians, Kurds, Jews, Assyrians, etc. This is an important demonstration for our multicultural region.

Today these historic buildings are ruins. They are living proof of human history and culture. They are the world's cultural heritage, and are so important to protect.

In recent time, many of these historical buildings and ruins in Southern Kurdistan (Iraq) was to a extent destroyed and looted by ordinary people, but to a bigger extent destroyed by the authorities that were responsible of these areas

The former member of the board of the Swedish Green Party Jabar Amin is a well-known politician in Sweden. He was one of the election observers in South Kurdistan (Iraq), and followed the election and the results in many days. We interviewed Amin about the election and the outcome, and the situation of the human rights in Southern Kurdistan.

On Wednesday, October 14th presenting the European Commission's annual assessment of Turkey's steps to become EU candidate country. The report focuses primarily on the situation in Turkey regarding the so-called fundamental Copenhagen criteria for EU membership, ie. the political, economic and democratic demands of a country is to become an EU member. The report will also provide an overview of the progress Turkey has made in adapting its national legislation with EU regulations.

In view of this is organizing the commission's offices in Stockholm, a workshop to discuss Turkey's alignment with the EU, with special focus on democracy, transparency and freedom of expression.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, has initiated a dialogue with Turkish authorities on minority rights and on the rights of asylum seekers and refugees. He published today reports on these two issues based on a mission from 28 June to 3 July during which he visited Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara. With the reports and their recommendations he also made public the written comments by the Turkish government.

The Women Writers Committee of International PEN, the largest worldwide association of writers, is very concerned about the situation of the human rights worker Yuksel Mutlu, of IHD, the largest humanitarian organization in Turkey. On May 28, 2009 she was taken into custody as a result of a report she and others had written about the May 5 massacre at a wedding in Bilge, Mardin/Mazidag.