Speech held by Peter Curman at the 13th Quadrennial and Statutory Conference of the 50th National Commissions for UNESCO of the Europe region, Montreal July 4-8, 2001.

INCD – International Network for Cultural Diversity – a new force safeguarding culture in a globalised world

Dear participants,

During the last few years there has been an intense debate on globalisation: what measures must be undertaken to safeguard the less diffused languages and cultures in the whole world so they are not swallowed up or marginalized by mighty economic powers. In the age of multinational media and television, local cultures are constantly confronted by the impact of messages spread world-wide. The power of the media today is not only a question for the countries from where the messages are spread; in fact globalisation represents a new form of warfare or colonisation of minds the world over. A major contribution in this debate to protect culture was the UNESCO report "Our Creative Diversity" delivered by the World Commission on Culture and Development headed by the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar.

In spring 1998 the Swedish Minister of Culture, Ms Marita Ulvskog, called for a world conference in Stockholm within the framework of UNESCO - "The Power of Culture" - to discuss and implement this report. She managed to gather some two hundred Culture Ministers from all over the world and - which was the real success - to initiate the "Stockholm Action Plan".

The swedish delegates at the Montreal conference: Nils-Gunnar Nilsson (president), Anders Falk (secretary general) and Eva Hermansson, the Swedish National Comission for UNESCO.

Following this plan a growing number of Ministers of Culture from all over the world have now formed their own network - the International Network on Cultural Policy (INCP) - which meets yearly to discuss and take joint measures to protect the cultural diversity which today is threatened not only by media but also by free trade negotiations in which cultural issues run the risk of being reduced to simple commodities. These negotiations started rather secretly inside OECD but, after the refusal of France, were transferred to the WTO. Now alarm bells are ringing to prevent the commercial powers from forming their own cultural policy which would be a deadly threat to cultural diversity. The outcome of Seattle shows that public opinion is aware of this threat.

In addition to the intergovernmental conference "The Power of Culture" the Swedish Joint Committee for Literary and Artistic Professionals - KLYS - which is the umbrella organization of 18 unions representing the cultural scene of Sweden, called for a parallel conference with cultural NGO’s from all over the world. Our task was to discuss the world report from an artistic point of view and especially to stress the important bridge that culture can build in areas of conflict. Also on our agenda was the impact and challenges of the new technologies. We were furthermore eager to interact with the Ministers’ conference and established a video link to their conference hall so that we could follow what was being said there. We were of course inspired and encouraged by the fact that the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Federico Mayor, showed his solidarity with us by spending several hours in our meeting. Finally, we concluded our encounter by publishing an instant print-on-demand report, "Towards an Agenda 21", where we argued the need for a cultural agenda parallel to the environmental agenda 21 adopted by the Rio conference some years earlier.

After "The Power of Culture", the cultural NGO’s that met in Stockholm developed a network of international cultural NGO’s that is interacting with the network of the Culture Ministers. Shortly after the Stockholm Conference, the Minister of Canadian Heritage Sheila Copps invited a number of her colleagues to a follow-up conference in Ottawa. On the same occasion the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) invited KLYS and other international NGO’s once again to take part in a parallel meeting.

An urgent topic for discussion was the organized threat against our cultural diversity that the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) then represented. This round of free trade treaties was due for discussion and decisions were to be taken by the rich countries inside OECD. But shortly after our meeting, the MAI collapsed due to firm resistance from France.

KLYS and the CCA, however, decided to continue their cooperation in the international field. After another meeting in Mexico in 1999, the two organizations called for an international gathering of NGO’s on the Greek island of Santorini in September 2000 in conjunction with the Ministers’ yearly encounter taking place on the same island. Thanks to generous support from our Greek colleagues we managed to establish a worldwide network and a steering committee with a growing number of cultural NGO’s as members, namely the INCD - the International Network for Cultural Diversity - (http://www.incd.net). This again is a parallel to the Ministers’ INCP.

In September of this year the two networks will convene in Lucerne in Switzerland and will also have a joint meeting where a new international instrument to safeguard cultural diversity will be discussed. This instrument can be a very vital tool to safeguard cultural values when the free trade negotiations inside WTO continue in Qatar this autumn.

KLYS is a national umbrella group representing 18 cultural organizations with some 25,000 members, among them the unions of writers, painters, dancers, musicians and artists. Our main task is to voice our opinions on questions of mutual interest concerning Swedish cultural policy. But as Sweden today is a member of the European Union, many decisions are now being prepared and taken in Brussels. Therefore, to be an NGO of real influence in the cultural field, it is necessary to operate also on an international scale. For this reason, KLYS has developed its international relations and also is taking part in lobbying activities in Brussels. To be updated about what is going on in the Parliament and other EU bodies, KLYS has become a member of the European Forum for Arts and Heritage (EFAH), a European lobby organisation based in Brussels.

It may seem a bit paradoxical that in order to have an impact upon Swedish cultural policy it is necessary to extend one’s activities outside of Swedish borders. National states are losing power all over the world. Instead the regions are becoming the new centres of power and decisions. Therefore the strategies of the NGO’s must change accordingly.

But globalisation is not the only threat against cultural diversity that we are now facing. Another threat comes from the development of the European Union itself. From the very beginning it was clearly stated that the Union should only deal with commercial relations between member states and that culture should remain solely national business.

But today we are witnessing a more profound construction of a united Europe where culture, defence and other national institutions are also involved. As well, a discussion has started inside many cultural bodies in Europe about the framework of a new "European cultural policy". The Commission urges that cultural activities express what they call "European values" and even added "European values" in the programme "Culture 2000". This is a worrying signal. The programme itself has been heavily criticized by a number of cultural organizations, including EFAH, for being bureaucratic and for steering in a negative way.

The Swedish parliament has signed a bill declaring that cultural creation in Swedish society should be a free and independent force. But in the EU it is supposed that culture should serve as a tool in a wider European context. According to this view, culture has no value in itself but is merely a tool for achieving something else. This is considered important in all cultural projects where the Commission is invoked. Cultural collaboration is regarded exclusively as an internal European affair - as a means to bond Europe together - and must strictly follow EU rules and regulations to the letter. Only countries approved by the EU are acceptable as partners for collaboration.

From having been a free and independent force, culture in the EU has been hobbled and reduced to a building block in the European fortress. Culture is no longer a window on the world but must, rather, serve as a blackout curtain. While experience tells us that creative and innovative work arises from the meeting of different cultures, the new power lords recommend cultural incest. Project applications which, in the spirit of UNESCO, try to bridge gaps between various cultures and regions are rejected. Nor does the fact that the application forms which must be filled in run to more than 50 pages, and are wholly incomprehensible to many creative workers, seem to worry those in power, for a new cadre of project managers are now offering their services - at juicy prices, naturally. They also find appropriate collaboration partners to meet the special requirements demanded by the EU programmes. And all of a sudden we have a new cultural infrastructure that is literally made to fit the EU forms.

The applications are then considered by a "covert panel" consisting of cultural representatives from the various member countries. The decision to withhold the names of the members of this panel was based on the fear that they might be exposed to threats and bribes from their respective countrymen. This reasoning tells us more, of course, about the EU bureaucracy's own customs and craving than about the cultural welfare of the Europe it professes to serve.

From the very start, the EU agreed that the principle of subsidiarity - the right of each individual nation to arrive at its own decisions - should to a large extent apply specifically to cultural policy. European diversity is often displayed in the EU’s rhetoric, as in UNESCO’s, as exemplary. And yet Brussels’ pretensions of cultural clout have grown. More than anything, the bureaucrats have interfered in cultural collaboration projects and introduced a whole series of conditions, frequently with devastating results.

An example of the upheaval of the principle of subsidiarity is the proposal, up to now strangely enough supported by the Swedish Minister of Commerce, that applications to the European Patent Bureau may not be written in the Swedish language but only in German, French or English due to the costs of translations.

Of course this is an unacceptable marginalization of the Swedish language. To forbid Swedish entrepreneurs to apply for patent rights in their own tongue is not only an infringement upon freedom of speech but will also limit their chances to compete on the free and open market. Applications of this kind are often very precious. Why should Swedish applicants be punished for writing in Swedish when French, German or English applicants will be automatically accepted?

Apart from the economic aspect there is also a cultural reason to protest against this violation of the Swedish language. The area of patents may look like a special sector of little cultural interest. But this is a false impression. On the contrary, a language needs to be sharpened and developed all the time in all fields of human activity. There cannot be any linguistic exception.

There are also other consequences. If this new legislation comes into practice the Swedish language will not be accepted in Swedish courts in upcoming trials on controversies about Swedish patents. They will also have to be conducted in English, French or German. This is of course an absurd situation.

In Sweden we are many who have been fighting for the Kurdish people´s right to speak their own language in Turkey. We have claimed that if the Turkish government does not respect the human right for the Kurdish minority to speak their own language, Turkey will have no place in the European Union. But what signals does Sweden send to the world if we accept this ignorance of the Swedish language? The proposal has consequently provoked several Swedish organizations, among them the Swedish Academy which has in its charter dating from 1786 the responsibility to supervise the development of the Swedish language, to react and together with KLYS make the Swedish Government change its intentions.

It seems that cultural diversity today is not only threatened by "globalisation" but also by "europeisation".

Within a short time, the member states of WTO will meet again in Qatar to discuss conditions for free trade across borders. At the same time they should also agree to safeguard the rights of participating states to carry out their national cultural policy, even if this policy might be in conflict with the interests of free trade. But this is not likely to happen. Therefore it is a first priority that UNESCO and other international bodies do their utmost to create international agreements to ensure that cultural diversity will be taken into account in all kinds of international operations.

In this work the cultural NGO’s might also play a role which we hope to show when the INCD - our International Network for Cultural Diversity - convenes in Lucerne in September 2001 to formulate a new cultural instrument. With confidence we look for support from UNESCO.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Peter Curman
President for the Swedish Joint Committee for Literary 
and Artistic Professionals (KLYS)

Montreal, 5 July, 2001

"Mr Curman stated the following: "In Sweden we are many who have been fighting for the Kurdish people's right to speak their own language in Turkey. We have claimed that if the Turkish government does not respect the human right for the Kurdish minority to speak their own language Turkey will have no place in the European Union".

This statement of Mr.Curman is not reflecting the truth. The Kurds are not prohibited to speak their own language in Turkey. In Turkey, anybody who wishes may speak or publish freely one of the Kurdish dialects or languages - namely Kirmandji, Zaza, Sorani or Gorani. There are many newspapers which are freely published in one of the Kurdish dialects in Turkey. Anybody who visits a major bookstore in Turkey may buy books published in one of the Kurdish dialects. There are private institutions or foundations where it exist the possibility to learn the Kurdish language. On the other hand, the teaching or learning of one of the Kurdish dialects as well as TV broadcasting in Kurdish requires the amendment of certain Turkish laws including the Turkish Constitution.

Secretary general Pulat Yuksel Tacar and professor Arsin Aydinuraz in conversation with Dr. John Francis, United Kingdom.

The Kurds in Turkey are not considered as a minority but as equal citizens. It must be understood that diversity and minority are different concepts; the first one is considered the enrichment of a society; the second one requires positive discrimination. The Turkish constitution - like the legislation of some other countries - underlines the unity of the nation and does not allow positive or negative discrimination between her citizens.

On the other hand reforms concerning the freedoms and the human rights are on their way and the Turkish Grand National Assembly will very soon discuss the draft legislations on the matter.

Thanking you in advance, I remain,
Yours sincerely,

Pulat Tacar

Answer to Mr. Pulat Tacar from Mehmed Uzun, Kurdish writer living in Sweden:

TURKEY MUST GET RID OF THIS SHAME!

The Kurdish question has two sides in Turkey. Only to see one side and not the other will not reveal the truth. The Kurdish language is forbidden in the official life in Turkey: in radio/TV and in the schools. But on the other hand you may publish books, newspapers and magazines in Kurdish. Most of this publicity, however, will not reach the readers since they are silently forbidden for advocating separatist propaganda, according to the Turkish authorities.
     A language can only live and develop by its acceptance by the official cultural life of a country. This precondition does not exist for the Kurdish language in Turkey due to a number of paragraphs in the penal law; the constitution contains extreme hard paragraphs such as paragraph 26, 28...
     The now pronounced ambition to abolish these obstacles is indeed very promising and possibly also a sign of an attempt to adopt oneself to the civilized world. But unfortunately not one single law has up to now been changed. It is the duty of all of us to try to help Turkey to get rid of this shame.

Mehmet Uzun
Kurdish writer living in Sweden

The Torgny Segerstedt Award for 2001 Citation

Mehmed Uzun

In the barren landscape of exile, Mehmed Uzun has succeeded in making a new language and a new literature grow. His courage and his moral fearlessness in standing up for free speech and the Kurdish language in Turkey make him a significant symbolic David against a Government Goliath.

The Torgny Segerstedt Award for 2001 has been bestowed on Mehmed Uzun for his pioneering work in a narrative tradition at once new and old, and for his moral life adventure and his undaunted belief in the power of the word.

The Torgny Segerstedt Award for 2001

Mehmed Uzun - An Introduction

Ulla Berglindh
November 2001

Mehmed Uzun is a Kurd, a Swede and an internationalist. He was born in 1953 in Anatolia, near the city of Diyarbakir, and by now he has lived in Sweden almost as long as in Turkey.

Mehmed Uzun set out on the road to "welate xeribiye", to his new country, to exile, in the summer of 1977. In darkness he walked out of his country, across the border, leaving the country that had refused him permission to write and speak in his own language. Eventually, by way of Syria, he arrived in Sweden, bringing with him the Kurdish oral narrative tradition, his maternal grandmother's colourful bedtime stories, the songs, legends and narratives of the Dengbejs, the Kurdish troubadours.

With untiring determination and great efforts, banished from his country to "a separation, such grief", he has created a Kurdish literary language in the barren landscape of exile; he has recorded, collected, rewritten, recreated. He has published six novels in Kurdish. Two of his books have been published in Swedish: a collection of essays, Granatäppelblomning (Pomegranate Flowers), and the novel I skuggan av en förlorad kärlek (In the Shadow of a Lost Love). In collaboration with Madeleine Grive he has also published an international anthology, Världen i Sverige (The World in Sweden), a pioneering anthology of texts by writers who were not born in Sweden, but who are living and writing in this country.

He also plays an active part on the literary scene, participating in seminars and readings, in the Swedish Writers' Union, as a contributor to 00-tal Magazine, and he has been a frequent visiting lecturer at Göteborg University for several years.

Mehmed Uzun is firmly established in the tradition and the world of exiled writers, among those well-known to us, such as Ovid, Dante Alighieri, Witold Gombrowicz, James Joyce, Joseph Brodsky, Hermann Broch, William Saroyan, Nazim Hikmet, as well as new acquaintances such as Celadet Bedirhan, Kadri Can, Memduh Selim, Mevlana Halid, Erebe Semo. With them he shares the constant longing for their own country, their own language, their own setting, and their own values. However, in Mehmed Uzun this longing and regret is also combined with a limitless curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

His writings and his profound familiarity with matters Kurdish / Turkish / Oriental, as well as with the cultural tradition of the West, and not least Sweden, also makes Mehmed Uzun a unique builder of bridges between cultures. He gives us new words and new images - he furnishes his landscapes with Anatolian villages, high mountains, rainbows and swarming alleys, he plants peach trees and lets the pomegranate trees blossom, and all the time the words are there, the narratives, the songs of the troubadours, the stories of struggle and love, of heroes and Dengbejs.

The importance of words is also realized by the Turkish authorities, which, yet again, want to put Mehmed Uzun on trial - this time for a collection of essays written in Turkish, Bir dil yaratmak (To Create a Language). Last time he faced a trial was in the spring of 2001, when, despite the threat of a prison sentence, he courageously met his prosecutors face to face. That time he was acquitted and the case was dismissed, but now a new attempt has been made, ironically on the very same day that the Parliament of Turkey passed an amendment to a section of the Turkish Constitution that prohibits publication in the Kurdish language. Last spring, a large body of internationally acclaimed writers unanimously supported Mehmed Uzun by articles, petitions and their personal presence at the court proceedings, and he will have their support again and again, since Mehmed Uzun is immensely important as a writer, as a builder of bridges between cultures, as a creator of language, and as a symbol of the power of free speech.

Translation from Swedish: Maria Ekman

MEHMED UZUN TRAILED AGAIN!

Mehmed Uzun is trialed again in Turkey. On April 19 2002 he intends to defend himself at the Security Court in Diyarbakir. A group of writers, headed by the wellknow Swedish judge from the Haag tribunal Mr. Eric Österberg, will accompany him. Writers and intellectuals all over Europe has given Uzun their support. Here is a letter that Mehmed Uzun wrote to his collegues in The European Parliament of Writers, an organization started by Vaclav Havel:

October 27, 2002

Dear Russell Banks, Christian Salmon,

You have been following the developments in Turkey that affect me adversely. Court cases, banning my books, asking for heavy prison sentences. All these are very stupid and worthless things but they wear me out and hamper my writing. To be under constant threat and continually uncomfortable is a complete disaster for a writer! And especially for a writer who wants to create good literature in a language that has been banned. But the protection of the literary word, freedom of thought, the rights of minorities to language, religion and identity and the freedom of literature are important to the nth degree. Because of this I don't accept what is being done against me and protest it. 

As you know, all the writers in Scandinavia and all the writers, publishers and intellectual-cultural organizations are creating committees to support me. The committee in Denmark organized a support meeting over the weekend of March 16-17 and I attended it with our friend Arne Ruth.

At the same time the PEN Clubs among all the northern countries held a meeting. Our intelligent Danish friends had two meetings at one time. I also attended the PEN meetings. The meetings passed very well and there the topic of the asyl cities was spoken of. I provided them with information on the work Parliament is doing on this subject.

The joint wish of all the PEN Clubs at the meeting is this: close cooperation with the International Writers Parliament over such topics as the asyl cities and freedom of thought, the freeing of writers, etc. I am sure that this wish is everybody's wish. Close, productive and sound cooperation between International PEN-National PEN Clubs and the IWP will lessen our problems a lot and increase our strength to do things.

I wanted to let you know about this meeting and the joint wish expressed.

With my wishes for your happiness,

Mehmed Uzun