It is general election campaign time in Germany (the new Bundestag is to be elected on 24 September) and Afghanistan’s situation is making it into the discussion again, mainly related to refugee movements and the internal security situation. Chancelor Angela Merkel has just told daily taz in an extensive interview: “We should not send the simple [simplistic] message that millions of people, for example from Afghanistan, find a new home[land] with us, however much I understand [their] economic misery” – avoiding to mention the war and defining the Afghan refugees exclusively as economic migrants.
AAN’s co-founder, co-director and senior analyst Thomas Ruttig will be on three podiums over the next three weeks in Germany, first in Ostfildern (near Stuttgart) and later twice in Berlin. Here detailed information about those three events (all in German):
30 August 2017, Ostfildern (near Stuttgart)
“Refugees – How safe is Afghanistan? Experiences, analyses and outlooks”
(part of the series “UN Forum Baden-Württemberg”)
venue and time:
Katholisches Gemeindehaus St. Monika
Ruit, Ostfildern, Narzissenweg 17
7.00pm
Podium discussion organised by the German Association for the United Nations (DGVN), chapter Baden-Württemberg, in cooperation with Freundeskreis Asyl Ostfildern and the local Catholic Church.
Participants:
- Rainer Arnold, member of Bundestag, defence spokesman of the SPD parliamentary group
- Mohammad Hassan Basseej, Afghan refugee, medical doctor
- Markus Grübel, member of Bundestag, Parlamentarian Secretary of State (vice minister) in the German Ministry of Defence
- Jürgen Hauber, from Police Presidium Ludwigsburg, former leading police trainer in Afghanistan
- Thomas Ruttig, Afghanistan Analysts Networks
Moderator: Jörg Armbruster, long-serving foreign correspondent with ARD (main German public TV) and author
More information under: www.dgvn-bw.de +++ www.fkasyl-ostfildern.de
4 September 2017, Berlin
„The situation in Afghanistan“
venue and time:
Humboldt University, Seminarraum 2, 2. Innenhof, Sophienstraße 19, 10178 Berlin
4.00-6.00pm
Podium discussion
Participants:
- Martin Gerner, Journalist
- Zahra Musawi, Afghan activist and writer
- Arash Spanta, lawyer
- Thomas Ruttig, Afghanistan Analysts Network
Moderator Kava Spartak (Yaar e.V. Berlin)
20 September 2017, Berlin
“The situation in and around Afghanistan“
presentation by and discussion with Thomas Ruttig, AAN
venue and time:
Kreativhaus, Fischerinsel 3, Berlin-Mitte
10.00-12.00am
Organised by Verband für Internationale Politik (VIP e.V.)
More info here.
Revisions:
This article was last updated on 9 Mar 2020
