Kurds demonstrate on Lausanne treaty centenary
Kurds demonstrate on Lausanne treaty centenary
LAUSANNE: Around 6,000 Kurds rallied on Saturday to demonstrate against the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne which defined the borders of modern Turkiye but shattered aspirations for a Kurdish state.
The demonstrators marched through the Swiss city in opposition to the 1923 treaty, while organizers urged the international community to reconsider the agreement and its consequences for the Kurdish people.
The demonstrators, who came from across Europe, gathered by Lake Geneva before marching uphill to the Palais de Rumine where the treaty was signed.
Several carried flags representing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is outlawed in Turkiye and blacklisted as a terror organization in the European Union.
The Kurdistan Cultural Center in Lausanne said the treaty “enacted the separation of the Kurdish people between four states — Turkiye, Iraq, Iran and Syria — whose democratic record over the past century is largely negative.”
Berivan Firat, a spokeswoman for the Kurdish Democratic Council of France, told AFP: “The Kurdish people, like all the peoples of the world, claim a right to be able to live with their identity on their own lands.
“This treaty opened the door to all sorts of bullying, all sorts of massacres toward the Kurdish people,” she said.
“Our detractors are the worst dictators in the Middle East and it is time to decriminalize the Kurdish movement and especially to review the Treaty of Lausanne, which has no value for us. It is null and void.”
The Conference of Lausanne opened in November 1922 to negotiate a new agreement to replace the 1920 Treaty of Sevres between the Allies and the Ottoman empire, which Turkiye no longer recognized under its new leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Lausanne was chosen primarily due to Swiss neutrality, but also because it was easily accessible by the Orient Express train which linked Paris with Istanbul.
The conference, with Britain, France, Italy and Turkiye as the main players, ran from November to February, and again from April to July. The new Italian leader Benito Mussolini addressed the talks.
The treaty resulted in forced population exchanges between Turkiye and Greece. It allowed for unrestricted civilian passage through the Turkish Straits.
Eastern Anatolia became part of modern-day Turkiye; in return, Turkiye gave up its Ottoman-era claims to Syria and Iraq to the south.
Armenians and Kurds played no part as their territorial ambitions were dashed.
“Lausanne is synonymous with betrayal, with deep trauma for these peoples. And it still lasts today,” historian Antoine Fleury, professor emeritus of the University of Geneva, told Switzerland’s ATS news agency.
“We demand an apology from Lausanne, which divided Kurdistan into four parts,” said protester Munevver Gok, 56, a housewife living in the Netherlands.
Fellow demonstrator Kardo Lucas Larsen, 41, who lives in Denmark, told AFP: “a protest like this joins the Kurdish people together and this gives us the feeling like a nation.
“We can stay strong... and then we can decide about our future.”
Switzerland’s Turkish community is planning its treaty commemorations in October around the 100th anniversary of the Turkish republic, with concerts and conferences.
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Indian firm inks deal to explore EV production facility in Saudi Arabia
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s electric vehicles ecosystem is expected to get a further boost, with Indian startup Pravaig Dynamics planning to set up a left-hand-drive EV manufacturing unit in the Kingdom.
In a statement, Pravaig Dynamics said that it signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi India Venture Studio during the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance Summit held in New Delhi last week.
The Bengaluru-based firm said that the EV manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia would have a production capacity of up to 1 million units and cater to the demand of the Gulf, US and Europe markets.
The MoU was signed between Pravaig Dynamics CEO Siddhartha Bagri and SIVS CEO Mansour Al-Sanooni.
“By combining Pravaig’s expertise with the Kingdom of Saudi’s invaluable support and strategic guidance, we are poised to unlock unparalleled economic opportunities of $31 billion-plus across international markets,” said Pravaig Dynamics’ Bagri in a statement.
SIVS is a Saudi government-backed firm that aims to accelerate the EV market in the Kingdom.
Under the MoU, both companies will work toward exploring co-development, supply and service special purpose vehicles, including EVs, AI-driven solutions, advanced batteries and energy storage solutions.
Saudi Arabia’s EV ecosystem has been witnessing a rapid expansion over the past few years, as the Kingdom has set its net-zero targets in 2060. Its National Strategy for Transport and Logistics also focuses on raising the utility of electric cars to 25 percent by the end of this decade.
Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia’s Transport General Authority launched a program that allows residents and tourists to rent Lucid Motors’ EVs.
In March 2023, Faisal Sultan, Lucid’s vice president and managing director in the Middle East, told Arab News that it would roll out its first fully Saudi-assembled electric car in September in Jeddah.
“Very exciting things are happening at Lucid, and if you take a flight to Jeddah and drive to King Abdullah Economic City, where our plant is going to be located … Pretty soon we are going to start putting equipment in that,” said Sultan.
Last year, Lucid also signed deals to build a production facility in the Kingdom with an annual capacity of 155,000 zero-emission EVs.
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President Sisi to attend Russia-Africa Summit 2023: Tass
Ahram Online , Saturday 22 Jul 2023
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will participate in the Russia-Africa Summit that will be held in St. Petersburg from 27-28 July, a diplomatic source told the Russian Tass news agency.
President El-Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin co-chaired the first edition of the Russia-Africa Summit, which was held in Sochi in October 2019 under the motto "For Peace, Security, and Development."
Aimed at strengthening Russian–African cooperation on all fronts, the Russia-Africa Summit will be held in parallel with the Economic and Humanitarian Forum, which is taking place also in St. Petersburg from 27–28 July.
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