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ALDARFJÓRÐUNGUR FRÁ FALLI BERLÍNARMÚRSINS

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1 - BERLÍN


Nú eru liðin 25 ár fá falli Berlínarmúrsins. Af þessu tilefni sit ég ráðstefnu á vegum Institute of Cultural Diplomacy, ICD, þar sem fjallað er sérstaklega um þessi tímamót. Til hliðar við ráðstefnuna um Berlínarmúrinn fór fram ráðstefna um efnahagsmál. Ég talaði á báðum þessum ráðstefnum.
Ásamt mér voru hér í Berlín, Einar K. Guðfinnsson, forseti Alþingis, Halldór Ásgrímsson og séra Árni Svanur Daníelsson sem starfar á Biskupsstofu. Allir fluttu þeir ræður og tóku þátt í umræðunni sem var um margt fróðleg og vekjandi.
Sjónarmiðin voru að sjálfsögðu mismunandi enda komu ráðstefnugestir og fyrirlesarar víða að úr heiminum.
Öllum bar saman um hve mikilvægur sögulegur atburður fall Berlínarmúrsins var. Í ræðu minni setti ég fram 10 þanka sem kviknað höfðu í huga mínum þegar ég hugsaði til atburðanna hér í Berlín fyrir aldarfjórðungi.

Ég birti hér á eftir ræðu mína á ráðstefnunni í dag (aðeins á ensku því miður) og myndirnar sem ég notaði orðum mínum til áhersluauka: 

10 THOUGHTS INSPIRED BY THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL

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1) The fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago reminded us then – and should still remind us today  - that the world is changeable. That man´s doings can be undone, that man-made structures are subject to change. That the deep kiss of Brezhnev and Honnecker, we all remember so well, symbolizing a world that was for a good part of a century, was after all only a temporary bliss measured on the scale of history.

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2) The Fall of the Berlin Wall occurred long after the politics it was meant to protect had crumbled. This is another lesson from 25 years ago, namely that power structures tend to last longer than their raison d´étre and furthermore that there is a tendency to brush aside a call for change until it is long overdue. This is not always because the need for change is not recognized, but because self-interest forbids change.

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3) The Berlin Wall should be a reminder for us to look for outdated structures in our time; institutions and organizations that need to be changed, replaced or got rid of. What about the United Nations, the greatest and most important international arena of all? Is it organized in line with democratic demands of the 21 century, with its top heavy structure where ultimate power to decide on what is to be done – and of no less importance – what is not to be done – is vested in a Security Council, reflecting remnants of 19th century colonialism and 20th century Cold War geopolitics? Yesterday we were reminded by a judge from the International Court of Justice how often the General Assembly of the UN and the International Court of Justice on the one hand, and the Security Council on the other, come to contrary conclusions - but always the Security Council had the final say.

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4) The Berlin Wall reminds us of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The latter is gone, not the former. Should both have disappeared and be replaced by new structures based on new premises? NATO in its endeavor to adapt to a new world is in the process of abandoning its credo that an attack on one is in attack on all.  This is being replaced with the notion that a threat to one, regardless of geography, is a threat to all. Is this a good order for others than those who play a dominant and often threatening role and are consequently threatened by others? Is it possible that military formations should also adapt to a – hopefully – more democratic world, not dominated by military/industrial interests? Adaptations may not be enough; a more radical change may be needed with less emphasis on military power and more on political, social, and economic means – in a word, just solutions. In the eigth century a Muslim power had expanded and become a viable empire. The Caliph, Omar Ibn Abdel-Aziz, once received a request from the governor of Homs to increase his annual income so that he could build a protective wall around the city. Omar's response was, "Fortify your city with justice; drive oppression from its streets!" Omar´s vision was that his empire should rest on solid ethical ground. Is this a thought that the empires or superpowers of our time should consider?

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5) Memories of oppression that took place in the shadow of the Berlin Wall should be a constant reminder of one of the most pressing moral questions of our time, namely how to rise to our responsibility to protect people who are not being protected by their own governments, either because they cannot protect them or will not do so. This pressing moral question was raised by Kofi Annan, the General Secretary of the UN at the outset of the new century, later by the Canadian government and has been a constant inspiration for discourse in this organization, the ICD. The UN has not come up with a solution – neither has Canada nor the ICD! But the idea is being developed and worked on and this is of immense importance.

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6) The Berlin Wall, with the Yalta settlement as its historical background, reminds us of the real politics and self interest of nation states – where the democratic will of the people takes second place to the interests of the surrounding world. There are not all states that would have allowed a Scottish election; Spain does not allow a Catalonian election or a Basque one. The arguments are everywhere the same as they were in Katanga in Congo in the early 1960s or Biafra in the late 60s, namely that the integrity of the state must not be disturbed. And, therefore, Crimea should not have been taken from Ukraine, it is claimed, regardless of the will of the inhabitants. One can criticize – and one should condemn - how Crimea’s secession was engineered under the barrel of the gun, but the principle of self-determination is a human right.  And I ask: Was the commitment to the idea of the state the reason some NATO countries were reluctant to recognize the Baltic states, when they were struggling to break away from the Soviet Union 25 years ago? It must indeed be said that the Baltic states were always defined by the West as occupied countries. Iceland did, indeed, recognize them from the start, and subsequently also Slovenia and Croatia. Icelandic historical heritage may have helped. Icelanders were not wedded to the idea of the integrity of the state, when they decided in a referendum in 1944 to cut monarchical ties with Denmark – without consultation or endorsement from Denmark which at that time was under occupation. Iceland became an independent republic because the inhabitants of Iceland decided so. 

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7) The Berlin Wall reminds us of the  Ich bin ein Berliner speech by John F. Kennedy, a reminder of the importance of showing solidarity with human rights and  compassion regardless of state boundaries. This has resonance at all times and certainly  in the present. A state with its boundaries may serve as a framework for democracy but it may also be turned into something to the contrary. Instead of state-hood for all, we should give a thought to the notion of non-statehood for all. Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurds, beleives that the Kurdish people – whose status as minorities and whose human rights have been systematically violated by repressive regimes in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey – should concentrate on autonomy as part of a regionalist agenda. The notion of not opting for full independence may surely be influenced by pragmatism: to be surrounded by hostile states is often not a viable prospect for new nation states. But it also creates possibilities for a new democratic spatial arrangement, which differs from the geopolitical map created through power politics in the course of the last few centuries and by the use of a ruler in the imperial chambers of London, Paris or The Hague whereby boundaries were created without regard to cultural and democrtatic realities and  aspirations.  Sovereign regions may be the answer to many of our problems today, especially where minorities are denied basic human rights, such as the use of their language, culture, and self-governance – rights that are guaranteed in the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights. Freedom is indivisible,  John F. Kennedy said in his Berlin speech in 1963 and in this spirit we should all become Berliners removing walls which divide us!

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8) The Berlin Wall reminds us of constructed boundaries depriving people of the freedom of movement. Last March I attended festivities in Diyarbakir in Eastern Turkey - what some people would call Kurdistan. I attended a rally with more than a million people, all eager to support the Kurdish cause, whether in Turkey, Syria or Iraq.  I went close to the Syrian border, just north of the now besieged Kobeni. I also attended a huge rally there. I met with representatives of self proclaimed Syrian autonomous areas. They had been fighting Assad´s forces, now they were fighting ISIS. Their allies where always shifting. Yesterday’s enemy had become today´s ally. They said there was a constant flow of weapons over the Turkish borders to ISIS forces, but that the borders were closed to ordinary people. Therefore, brethren could not assist brethren. Later a reporter from a newspaper friendly to their cause asked me if I did not support airstrikes on ISIS since this was helping the Kurds. I said no: „But I am for opening the borders to ordinary people. If that had been done we might not be in this bloody condition today. But then again we might have a Kurdish state not to the liking of the makers of real politics of our day!” 

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9) The Berlin Wall reminds us of imprisoned people,  whether they be in Tibet, Thailand or other places.  Last time I went to attend the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where I am a representative, I met a lawyer, a young woman from Eastern Turkey. I told her of my travels to her part of the world. I had been in Diyarbakir in March I said. I was also in Diyarbakir in March she said. „A pity we did not meet“, I replied. „That would have been impossible“, she said. “I was in prison at the time.” She told me that she had been in a Diyarbakir prison for five years. “When I left law school”, she explained, “I became legal adviser to the imprisoned Kurdish leadership. That gave me five years! To my knowledge I have never harmed any person and have no intention of doing so.“ This made me think. She could have been my daughter. 
   
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10) Should the Berlin Wall and its fall not be a reminder to us all, always to be willing to think everything from anew? Should the Berlin Wall not become a living lighthouse for the critical mind? I think so. Let us ask: Where is the Berlin wall now?
I will finish with a poem by the Palestinian poet Mahmod Darwis who
has been described as incarnating and reflecting the tradition of the political poet, the man of action whose action is poetry - or should we say cultural diplomacy:

Cry not, teary eyed:

Ephemeral is the dark-pitch night.
Neither inspection rooms nor chains last:
Nero had perished, but with her eyes
Rome continues the fight!