European Convention on Human Rights

The fate of the Kurdish peace process depends on the election success of his party in the June 7 parliamentary election, Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) Co-chair Selahattin Demirta? has said, citing his party?s success as a potential facilitator in the laying down of arms by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK).

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with EU Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Tuesday morning, with both men  agreeing that there is an urgent need to review the controversial Dublin III regulation.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party?s (PKK) jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan and the Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) reject the presidential system, the latter?s co-chair Selahattin Demirta? has said, stressing that such a move would mean putting all the fruits of the Kurdish movement?s labor at the service of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has voiced his support for Turkey's ongoing Kurdish peace process, speaking after a meeting with a visiting delegation from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Arbil on March 30.

"We have supported peace and its process since the beginning and we are ready to do our part," Barzani said.

Zübeyir Aydar, a leading figure in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) based in Brussels, has claimed that the PKK is neither a separatist nor a nationalist organization, while also stressing that the group fully supports the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan's stance in the ongoing peace process.

The recent Newroz declaration of the jailed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan contained many ambiguities, but it could still be considered a positive step on the path of the so-called ?peace negotiations.?

Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Thursday took part in Brussels in a high-level conference on the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights as a shared responsibility, where he said Romania has attached special importance to enforcing the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that concern it .

Photo credit: (c) Ilie BUMBAC / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

ECHR rulings in 2014 to cost Serbia EUR 2.7mn

STRASBOURG -- The CoE Committee of Ministers has published a report on the supervision of the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights for 2014.

The document states that Serbia will have to pay around EUR 2.7 million in damages.

In 2013, the sum was around EUR 1.65 million.

A French court on March 24 sentenced two Kurds to five years in prison and seven others to lesser terms in an extortion case linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Investigators probed an extortion racket linked to a PKK campaign to raise funds among Kurdish immigrants through a so-called revolutionary tax.

It was President Tayyip Erdo?an who initiated the talks between the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) in pursuit of a political solution to Turkey?s Kurdish problem when he was prime minister back in 2012.