UN EVENT ON TURKEY AND ITS UNRECOGNIZED ARAMEAN PEOPLE

We have the pleasure of inviting you to yet another significant side event at the UN Office in Geneva this Monday, 26 January 2015, one day before Turkey’s Universal Periodic Review by the United Nations:

Turkey’s Native Aramean People: The Case of an Unrecognised Minority
Monday 26 January 2015
12:00 – 14:00 hours 
Room XXII, Palais des Nations 
United Nations Office in Geneva

The event, which has attracted the attention of a number of UN Missions, NGOs and media, will highlight why the recognition of the Aramean people is of critical importance for their survival in Turkey (and the broader Middle East). Thus, the WCA and our prominent guest speakers will offer recommendations to the UN regarding the recognition of the Aramean people. This ancient Semitic people is native to Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, where their presence is currently endangered.

For further information, you can contact Sarah Bakir, the WCA’s Main Delegate to the UN Office Geneva (UNOG), at sarah.bakir [at] wca-ngo.org.

see below for the program

PROGRAM
12:00 – 12:10 Opening by Moderator Johny Messo, President World Council of Arameans (Syriacs)

12:10 – 12:15 Video clip: 3,000-year-old Aramean Cultural Heritage

12:15 – 12:45 Guest speakers

• Ms. Susanne Güsten, Foreign correspondent in Turkey & Mercator-IPC Fellow at Istanbul Policy Center
• Mr. Gregor Puppinck, General Director of European Centre for Law and Justice
• Ms. Nurcan Kaya, Turkey coordinator of Minority Rights Group

12:45 – 13:00 Interventions by UN Member States

13:00 – 13:45 Q & A

13:45 – 14:00 Closing remarks Moderator Johny Messo, President World Council of Arameans (Syriacs)