Irish republicans will meet Kurdish and Basque separatists at a summit designed to encourage armed movements to adopt political dialogue and put an end to two conflicts that have cost thousands of lives.
The two-day meeting in Venice, which starts on Friday, will bring together activists from Sinn Féin, Sortu – successor to Herri Batasuna, Eta's former banned political wing – and the Kurdish BDP (Peace and Democracy party).
In decades gone by the IRA, Eta, Corsican nationalist and other armed groups closely co-ordinated bomb-making technologies and military expertise. But now activists say they are comparing notes on negotiation tactics and dialogue with the state.
Despite attacks by dissident republicans, the success of the Irish peace process has established a template that many armed groups are eager to adapt to their "national struggles".
The meeting comes barely a month after Eta, the paramilitary wing of the Basque separatist movement, announced a "permanent ceasefire" ending more than 50 years of fighting – a declaration as yet unrecognised by the Spanish government.
In Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) extended its temporary ceasefire until the summer's general election amid rumours of behind-the-scenes contacts and allegations that "show trials" of Kurdish civic leaders are undermining hopes of reconciliation.
One prominent participant is Alex Maskey, a member of the Northern Ireland assembly who was interned as an IRA suspect during the Troubles and later served as the first Sinn Féin lord mayor of Belfast. He has travelled widely to promote Belfast's peace process; in 2008 he accompanied Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness to Iraq.
Maskey stopped off in the Basque country on the way to Venice to advise the nationalist movement on how it might engage in a dialogue with the Spanish government and to attend the launch of Sortu on Wednesday, at which the new party emphasised its rejection of violence and unveiled plans to field candidates at the next election. Maskey said: "Nobody will ever agree on the past, but you can agree on the future."
Several Basque mayors from radical Basque groups will be in Venice to discuss the prospects for advancing their cause by political rather than paramilitary means.
But it is the Kurds – whose conflict in south-east Turkey has cost most lives – who have most to gain from the experience of more advanced peace processes. The BDP succeeded the Democratic Society party – Turkey's main Kurdish party – which was banned in 2009 over alleged links to the PKK. The PKK has been designated a terrorist organisation by the US and the European Union.
Fayik Yagizay, the BDP's representative in Brussels, said: "The conference will exchange notes and compare examples. You can't apply exactly one example to another country but there are common themes.
"We believe the Irish example is a good one for the Kurdish conflict. Turkey says the PKK is a terrorist organisation and that they won't talk to it – but they said that in the UK even when the government was talking [to the IRA] in secret.
"Everyone knows there's a dialogue between the Turkish state and Abdullah Öcalan [the imprisoned leader of the PKK] but we don't know its content and it seems it may be for stopping the fighting and not a solution. Without dialogue it's impossible to solve these questions."
Andy Carl, executive director of the London-based Conciliation Resources charity, has been involved in conflict resolution around the world. "There are a lot of these conferences happening now," he said. "The Basque process is in a very dynamic state. They believe what they are going through is very relevant for the Kurds.
"Many of these meetings have had to take place in Switzerland or Norway because some of these groups are on EU lists of banned terrorist organisations. That has been one of the unintended consequences of keeping anti-terrorist lists."
The Venice conference, supported by Venice city council, has been co-ordinated by Orsola Casagrande, an Italian journalist and activist who first brought the three national groups together at the Venice Art Biennale in 2009. On that occasion the Basque Independent Left party endorsed the Mitchell Principles – established for the Northern Ireland peace process as a means of renouncing violence – and subsequently accepted by Eta.
"There have always been strong links between the Basques and the Irish," she said, "but there have never been such close relations with the Kurds. We are hoping to build bridges and improve relations."
The Kurdish BDP will be presenting the conference a paper on its "democratic autonomy" project, she said, proposing the principle of regional devolution for south-east Turkey and stressing the need for peaceful co-existence between Turks and Kurds.
The conflicts
Northern Ireland conflict: 1968-1998
The Provisional IRA has decommissioned its weapons and disbanded. Sinn Féin, its onetime political wing, now forms part of the power-sharing executive in the devolved Northern Ireland assembly at Stormont. Dissident splinter groups with little political support, such as the Real IRA, continue the "armed struggle".
Deaths: 3,500
Basque conflict: 1959-2011
"Permanent ceasefire" declared by Eta on 10 January this year. A new political party, Sortu, formed to contest elections. Renouncing violence, it hopes to open up a dialogue with the Spanish government to advance its ultimate aim: an independent Basque homeland.
Deaths: about 1,200
Kurdish conflict: 1984-present day
The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' party) has extended its temporary ceasefire until after the Turkish election in June. The Kurdish BDP has 20 deputies in the Turkish parliament; members have been accused of supporting the PKK and several are currently on trial in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
Deaths: approaching 40,000.
