Self-determination

For some time now self-determination as a subject has been at the centre of my interest. In any event, this subject has, in some way, always been present in my engravings. My interest in a subject which is par excellence political is a conscious choice.

At first sight, the acceptance of self-determination seems self-evident. Moreover, one of the first articles of the United Nations Charter deals with the right to self-determination of peoples.

But it’s another matter that all peoples do not have this right and it is not implemented every-where. So often this right, sacrificed on the altar of profit and self-interest, is lost completely. Everyone, nations and peoples, should be able to determine their ‘fate’ and their future as they themselves want-even at an individual level: freedom of thought and self-determination of the individual.

But all these self-evident things are forbidden for very many peoples: from Kurdistan to Tibet and Chechnya, and in many other countries. The wealth of the subsoil, such as oil, has become a chain of slavery and has been fitted to the neck of the Kurds by the four occupying states. The cause of the occupation and annexation of Tibet by China is the same. And the same is true of Chechnya.
Serhad Bapir, September 2007.

From catalogue “Greek Printmaking Today”, 2007.