GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

BERDAN ÖZTÜRK: Thank you. Thank you very much.

SIS YVONNE PATTISON (NAPO): I would like to personally thank you for that very

moving presentation. I think it is really easy to ignore what is going on

elsewhere because you do not hear about it and I think you said this. We hear

about Syria, we hear about Iraq. I am just wondering if you have any idea

where there is so little reported about the plight of Kurdistan. It is amazing. I

know when we had the presentation from Elif before, I felt quite the same, and I

actually feel quite emotional, to be honest, so thank you.

BERDAN ÖZTÜRK: You are welcome.

BRO OSHOR WILLIAMS (PFA): I would like to also endorse what Sister Yvonne

Pattison has just said. We are tremendously grateful for your submission,

which was powerful and emotional and in very, very good English, I hasten to

add!

BERDAN ÖZTÜRK: Thank you very much.

BRO OSHOR WILLIAMS (PFA): Again, it probably touches on what Yvonne said.

Why do we not know sufficient about this particular issue? It is not as if it is not

being reported and it is not as if it is not reported out there. I would say it is

rather like, I suppose, our concerns about reports about the situation in

Venezuela or other situations. The actual agenda, the actual information is

basically controlled in a manner that keeps us ignorant of the actual facts and I

would suggest that if we did not have people like yourself who was prepared to

come and speak and talk openly about the situation at forums such as this then

we would remain always just in the twilight, in the sort of shadows of yes, we

think we understand and what is the response? We have got to ask ourselves

what is the national response, what is the international response, the United

Nations response. These are the questions that we really need to be asking

and really exploring ourselves – who controls the information that we receive

through our particular media and maybe we need to look for alternative sources

of information that are going to inform us a little better about situations such as

this. (Applause)

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