Sivil zdecember 2006 Issue 6

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1 Contracts of awarded projects are ready You can find the full list of grant awardees one page NGO activists took part in STGM trainings within one and a half year The STGM is planning for 24 more training until the end of the project Alevi movement activist Attila Erden: Transferring the Alevi culture was my father s most important testament Sivil zdecember 2006 Issue 6 ISSN Bulletin of the Strengthening Freedom of Association for Further Development of Civil Society Project implemented by STGM and supported by the European Commission. Published every two months. Rejuvenation in the Board of STGMD Happy New Year and Happy Holyday As all associations do, the Association of Civil Society Development Centre (STGM) has to convene its General Assembly in specific intervals and we had our second General Assembly meeting on 26 November After informing delegates about the activities of the last two years, discussions focused on the vision, mission, principles and values of the association. This was necessary indeed since some definitions and frameworks drawn back in 2004 when the association was first established were either used up or fell short of adequately covering what the STGM had done or would like to do in near future. It was something like enlarging a given dress. After discussions the STGM defined its new vision as towards a strong and democratic civil society. Accordingly, its mission was defined as conducting advocacy and campaigning; research, training and lobbying activities within its priority areas for: - promoting participation and democracy in civil society, - strengthening organisations and their autonomy, and - securing a better position to civil society in decision making. Underlying principles and values were reconsidered under the new vision and mission and some small alterations were made: The STGM, 1. in no circumstances interferes in internal affairs of civil society organisations, 2. is impartial to and independent of third parties, 3. observes transparency and accountability in all of its activities and at all levels, 4. respects all rights and freedoms recognised by international conventions, 5. takes stand against all forms of discrimination while considering differences and diversity as a source of richness 6. adopts the principle of positive discrimination in regard to those suffering gender discrimination, 7. is sensitive to the integrity of life and ecosystem values in the context of production and consumption patterns, 8. adopts participatory and pluralistic democracy as a mode of life, 9. is an organisation embedded in practical life, seeking fast and feasible solutions. Towards the end of the General Assembly, elections were held for the members of the new administrative board and auditing board. You can see the list of new board members in ensuing pages. The executive board, which used to comprise 5 members, now has 7 members and the association was rejuvenated with the membership of new and younger activists. You can find amendments to internal regulations and the list of members under the title Who are we? in our website. Only STGM is responsible for the content of this publication which does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union. Civil Society Development Center Sivil Toplum Gelifltirme Merkezi

2 From STGM The New Board of STGMD Festival GepGenç was lively indeed Membership to the boards of the STGM as a result of the 2nd Ordinary General Assembly Meeting on 26th November 2006: STGMD Executive Board is as follows: Chair: Levent Korkut Deputy Chair: Serpil Sancar Secretary General: Orhan Kemal Cengiz Treasurer: Feray Salman Member: fieyhmus Diken Member: Uygar Özesmi Member: Öyküm Ba c Alternate Members: Ayhan Bilgen Betül Çetgin Ozan Çakmak Fatma Nevin Vargün Victor Ananias Hülya Demiralp Turgut Alaca Board of Auditors: Full Members: Murat fiengül Nejat Tafltan U ur Zeydanl Alternate Members: Umut Güner Naz m Özfluca Adem Arkadafl (Ombudsperson): Fahri Huvaj Environment Platform of Turkey gathered in Mersin The STGM supports the Environment Platform of Turkey (TÜRÇEP) in its efforts to further strengthen the platform. Following the first meeting of the platform which took place in Samsun, the second meeting was held in Mersin on 8-10 December. During the meeting participated by platform representatives from the regions of eastern and western Black Sea, eastern and western Mediterranean, Marmara and Central Anatolia discussions focused on the institutional identity of TÜRÇEP and ways of making the platform more functional. The third meeting of the platform is scheduled for 3-4 March 2007 in zmir. The STGM was in Bilgi University in stanbul on 7-10 December The university was hosting the festival GepGenç. The STGM conducted a workshop on Youth and Civil Society on 7 December as a part of workshop activities in the festival. The STGM representatives discussed with young people issues related to NGOs, their outlook to civil life, their suggestions for solution to problems they confronted in getting organised and their expectations from the STGM. Outcomes of this workshop are available in the STGM website. During the Youth NGOs Fair on 8-10 December we had our promotion stand as STGM. This fair which is organised to bring youth together with NGOs active in the field of youth also served to acquaint youth and their NGOs with other stakeholders. Capacity building work in K z ltepe and Seyrek On December 2006 we will be delivering one and a half day capacity building training to Mardin-K z ltepe Municipality, which is one of the participants of Local Administration-NGO Cooperation in Participatory Democracy, and NGOs in the region. Prior to this activity, we will be in zmir Seyrek on December 2006 for the Joint Evaluation Meeting on the Outcomes of Situation Analysis of Participatory Management Planning and Development Potential in Seyrek Township.

3 LGBTT networking is on rise STGM s post-grant training For project owners awarded grant under the Programme for Strengthening Civil Society in Turkey: Supporting Networks, Capacity Building and Participatory Local Projects a training seminar was organised in Ankara Midi Hotel on December The second networking meeting of LGBTT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Travesty and Transsexual) communities took place in Ankara on November In the first meeting participants had analysed problems commonly faced by LGBTTs. The second meeting focused on instruments to be developed to solve these problems in particular and problems caused by discrimination in general. Following SWOT analysis, group work started to identify the vision and mission of the platform. On the second day of the meeting, participants from Positive Life Society and Helsinki Refugee Support Programme made presentations. The third meeting of the network will take place in stanbul on January The training delivered by experts from the CFCU and STGM focused on project management under the given grant programme, monitoring and evaluation, EU visibility guides, contractual obligations, reporting and budget management. Trainers responded to various questions raised by project owners. Project visits started Contracts of projects awarded grant are ready Owners of projects which were awarded grants in the context of the Programme on Strengthening Civil Society in Turkey: Support to Civil Networks, Capacity Building Projects and Participatory Local Projects signed their contracts. The list of projects whose contracts were signed until 30 November 2006 can be found in the Table on page 3. The STGM will follow projects awarded grants under this programme and be available for support in their implementation. As STGM we wish success to all projects. The STGM started its project visits in the context of the programme for Strengthening Civil Society in Turkey. The representatives of the STGM have so far made the following project visits: to Association for Solidarity with Diabetes Patients for their campaign (in Sivas, 18 December 2006, for the campaign against diabetes); to Sivas Association of Local Singers and Folk Dancers (in Sivas, 19 December 2006, for the campaign Protection of Cultural Heritage in Central Anatolia); and to Association for Alignment with the EU, Development, Culture and Modern Life (in Adana for the campaign Call for Human Rights and Humanity).

4 STRENGTHENING CIVIL SOCIETY IN TURKEY: SUPPORTING NETWORKS, CAPACITY BUILDING AND PARTICIPATORY LOCAL PROJECTS Beneficiary Action Title Action Location Action Duration (Months) Grant amount (EUR) Konya Çevre Koruma E itim ve Araflt rma Derne i rainings on the Laws of Environment and the Waste Exchange System to the Industrialists in Konya City KONYA ,16 Edirne Roman Kültürünü Araflt rma, Gelifltirme, Yard mlaflma ve Dayan flma Derne i Strengthening of Institutional Capacity of EDROM for the Culture and Rights of Roma People ED RNE, ANKARA, STANBUL ,28 Datça Çevre ve Turizm Derne i "Building the Institutional and Technical Capacity of DAÇEV for Effective Nature Conservation in the Datça Peninsula" DATÇA, MU LA ,34 Karadeniz Çevre Derne i Ecodialogue Project R ZE ,00 Bat kent Zihinsel Engellileri Koruma Derne i Mentally Disabled People's Rights and Their Participation to Social Life (OZ-HAK) ANKARA,ERZURUM, fianliurfa, MERSIN ,40 Midyatl lar Sosyal Yard mlaflma, Dayan flma, Çevre ve Kültür Derne i There is not another world D YARBAKIR, MARD N M DYAT ,60 Bursa Kafkas Derne i Strong Civil Society for Strong Democracy BURSA ,39 Kad n Dayan flma Vakf Project of Consulting Centers and Database for Violence Against Women ANKARA, ZMIR, STANBUL, VAN, ÇANAKKALE, ZMIT, fianliurfa, ADANA, MERSIN, ANTALYA ,10 Ulusal Sosyal ve Uygulamal Gerontoloji Derne i Yenimahalle E itim Kalk nma ve Dayan flma Derne i Nursing Woman ANTALYA ,00 Enhancing Perception of Violence against Women and Promotion of The Women's Rights at Local Scale ANKARA ,80 Kayseri Kafkas Derne i To Make Kayseri Caucasus Association an Active Civil Society Organization by Building its Technical and Managerial Capacities KAYSER ,80 Yeniflehir Sanayici ve fladamlar Dayan flma Derne i Giving Teeth To Roma Culture Helping And Mutual Benefit Association For Rights Of Organization Of Roma ZM R ,00 Gülistan Ahlak Kültür ve Çevre Derne i A project in Isparta directed for collecting solid waste after decomposing it and to make the public conscious of the topic. ISPARTA ,16 Kaymakl Güzellefltirme, Yard mlaflma ve Dayan flma Derne i From The Kaymakl Districtive Units To The Local Governance Women Altogether NEVfiEH R ,27 Avrupa Birli i'ne Uyum, Geliflim, Kültür ve Ça dafl Yaflam Derne i Respect to Human Rights, Invitation to Humanity ADANA ,36 Güney Marmara Do al Ve Kültürel Çevreyi Koruma Derne i Edremit Körfez fiubesi Interaction Project of Environmentalist Civil Society Foundations of Marmara EDREM T ,00 Diyabet Hastalar Yard mlaflma ve Dayan flma Derne i War Against Diabetics S VAS ,94 Ad yaman Yüksek Ö renim Derne i Not Drop Litter-Not Damage the Trees Not Spit on the Ground ADIYAMAN ,00 Silvan Gönüllüleri Derne i Silvan Volunteers Meet in Hasuni S LVAN ,26 Sivas Fas l Heyeti Afl klar ve Halk Oyunlar Derne i Preservation of cultural heritage in Inner Anatolia S VAS ,79 Bingöl Kent Giriflim Derne i Reduction of the amount of solid waste and recycle (Let's Not Put Our Future into Dustbin) B NGÖL ,43 Yenimahalle Gençlik Merkezi Gençlik ve Spor Kulübü The Active Participation of Youth to the EU Negotiation Process ANKARA ,33 Çatak Kalk nma E itim Kültür ve Dayan flma Derne i Project on Promoting and Strengthening of NGO's Carrying Activity out in Van Province VAN ,00 Anadolu Sürdürülebilir Kalk nma Ajans Derne i Step by Step from Anatolian Steppes to EU: Civil Society is Walking KIRIKKALE, KIRfiEH R, NEVfiEH R ,98

5 Turkish Coordination of European Women Lobby gathers STGM Trainings Once more year is left behind and there is lot to do The Turkish Coordination of European Women Lobby had become a full member of the European Women Lobby in After this membership, the Turkish Coordination held its first meeting in Ankara on November 2006 with the support of STGM and participation of 47 representatives from various organisations. The primary agenda of the meeting was to give the Turkish Coordination a sustainable organisational structure in a meeting participated by the representatives of constituent organisations. The meeting was helpful in establishing an organisational model and working procedures of the coordination. NGOs continue their meetings at STGM Office You all know that the meeting room of the STGM Office is available for the meetings and other activities of NGOs. Lately in December, for example, Ankara branch of Ka- Der realised its trainings in Women s Political School at this venue for 5 consecutive weekends. The Youth Platform too used this room during its meeting on Youth Policies on 24 December. We have left a year behind in the training activities of STGM. Now we are working intensively to have an overall evaluation of trainings we have delivered in Let s take a look at figures for 2006: Originally, in the context of the project for supporting civil society, we had envisaged to respond to training needs of local NGOs at least partly by delivering 78 trainings in total within 2 years. Within the last year we delivered 61 trainings in 21 provinces from 7 geographical regions. Their breakdown is as follows: Capacity building (30); project cycle management (21); training of local experts (3), information technologies (1) and tailor made trainings for various platforms (6). NGO representatives from all provinces of Turkey were invited to these trainings. In total, 1,375 NGO leaders, staff or activists took part in them. Although figures may be useful in certain lines of reasoning quantitative data tell almost nothing in many cases. Nevertheless, considering that there are 52 weeks in a year we believe that we have reasonably fulfilled our commitment to local organisations with our training activities. We are planning to have at least 10 capacity building, 10 project cycle management and 4 information technologies trainings until next May. The training programme for the next 2 months is as follows: The members of ÖZ-GE DER (Association for Solidarity with Children Deprived of Liberty) had an information sharing meeting in the same venue on December 18th. During this meeting lawyer Eylem Ümit and sociologist P nar Öktem repeated their presentations first made in Brussels on October 2006 during the conference Juvenile Justice in Europe: A Framework for Integration January 2007: Capacity Building Training in stanbul January 2007: Project Cycle Management Training in Adana January 2007: Project Cycle Management Training in Gaziantep 5 9 February 2007: Capacity Building Training in Ankara February 2007: Project Cycle Management Training in Zonguldak February 2007: Project Cycle Management Training in stanbul

6 Civil Activists Attila Erden (Federation of the Union of Alevi-Bektafli Organisations) Oppression and systemic discrimination against Alevi people which continued from the Ottoman to the Republic are still problems of our day. Despite organisations of the late 80s which raised specific demands on the name of Alevi people, their basic problems still remain unsolved and their requests unmet. The book Being Alevi Stories of Discrimination as Told by Alevis (published in 2005 by the Life World Foundation under the Gelin Canlar Bir Olal m project launched by Pir Sultan Abdal Association) is one of the rare sources giving an account of first hand experience in discrimination faced by Alevi people. As stressed in this book, Alevi people suffer discriminatory practices in public sphere, in social life and at individual level. It is clear that this problem is not only related to the recognition of Alevi s rights, it is mainly associated with deeping the modernisation process in Turkey on the basis of democracy and equality. In this issue we interviewed Attila Erden who has been taking actively part in organised Alevi movement since Born in 1943, Erden served as the President of Hac Bektafl Veli Culture Association and as President and Secretary General of the Federation of the Union of Alevi Bektafli Organisations. After graduating from the Ethnology Department of the Faculty of Linguistics, History and Geography (Ankara University), Erden was a faculty member of the Folklore Department of the same school during until his retirement. Erden conducted studies and researches of the ethnic and cultural makeup of Turkey and Anatolian Alevis. A photography artist at the same time, Erden is the author of a book on Anatolian Dressing Culture. had said cem evi is nothing but a place for entertainment. Once we were discussing on TV with an authority from the Religious Affairs and he asked why do you insist on cem houses? Why don t you come to mosques? I said I promise, we ll come, but I will bring my wife and daughter too for semah He said it was impossible. It is impossible indeed. If so, why do you ask us to come to mosques and pray there? I consider it a shame if I can t take my wife along when going to somewhere. If I can t take my wife and daughter to a nice meeting, I will be labelled as either oppressive or undeveloped. We don t have this kind of male-female distinction in Alevi faith. What do you think about giving Alevis the status of minority? When people from the European Union visited us we said, Don t call us as non-moslem minority or things like that. We are no minority. We are the citizens of this land for centuries. There is a distinct legal system and status for minorities. We don t favour such a distinct system. 90 % of us share the same opinion. The word minority refers to the excluded groups from the power. There have been discussions on this issue in our Federation. Some younger friends said, We are a minority. This term minority is already negatively perceived in our society. We are all aware of the implications of this term in the context of legal arrangements and Treaties of Lausanne and Sevres. But there is no significant number of people or organisations who accept to be treated as a minority. A handful of people and that s all. When did you first join the Alevi movement as an activist? What are the actions, initiatives or campaigns you worked with and which reached success? What is up in the agenda of Alevi organisations in Turkey nowadays? First of all there is the issue of getting Alevi meeting rooms (cem evi) officially recognised as temples. The second item in the agenda is stopping the assimilation of Alevi youth and community. Thirdly, there are efforts to strengthen Alevi organisations to resist against pressures from ruling governments. Finally there are some initiatives to take part in some political organisations. There are 20 million Alevis in Turkey and the remaining population have no idea about the authentic stance of Alevilik. In a secular society, the State cannot be a representative or take sides with any specific religion or faith. Yet the State still acts as the founder, promoter and protector of the Hanefi sect of Islam. The Head Office of Religious Affairs enjoys a budget larger than that of some government ministries. Our religious faith does not coincide with others such as Islam and Christianity. We are out of church, mosque or synagogue. We have our cem houses. It is there we gather, practice our rituals, pray, sacrifice, judge and dance (semah). The state provides free electricity and water to churches, but not to cem houses. What is the legal barrier in considering cem house as a temple? The old legislation provided for allocating spaces to churches and mosques, but there was no provision for cem houses and so we were out of scope. Now the new legislation uses the term temple instead of referring specifically to churches or mosques. The Alevi is working hard to have cem houses included in the new legislation as well. The former Deputy President of Religious Affairs Personally I am a part of an organised movement since I am in this movement to penetrate deeper in this culture and transfer it to coming generations in a healthy manner. In my initial years in organised movement, I noticed that there were many problems and this increased my commitment. The number of our organisations and their branches increased. Earlier, the foundations of Hac bektafl and Tunceli could not come together. But we later saw that we had a common denominator and we raised the same requests. So organisations came together to establish the Alevi Bektafli Federation. Younger people started to come in and we started to give courses. We started symposium type activities in various associations and foundations. We started to run specific ceremonies like Hamza Baba and Hac Bektafl in which people came together. Now there are organisations each with branches and 30 to 40,000 members. In coming years, we will form groups to influence the social makeup of Turkey, guide governments and to further raise our demands. What did you personally gain from being in this movement as an activist? Or did it have some negative repercussions in your private life? This is my responsibility and the most important testament of my deceased father. He used to say, Unless you commit yourself to this culture and struggle for it, I will follow and question you even on the Judgement Day, if there is such thing. It is indeed a fine culture based on love and equality devoid of any discrimination on the basis of faith, language or gender. I have suffered no harm from my activism. It doesn t bother me if some vested interests call me atheist or communist. Alevi Bektafli Federation Sokullu Mehmet Pafla Cad. de sok. No: Dikmen Ankara TURKEY Tel: Fax: [email protected] 89. Sok. 14/ Y ld z Çankaya ANKARA TURKEY Phone: (pbx) Fax: [email protected] Owned by on Behalf of Civil Society Development Centre Association: Levent Korkut Responsible Editor in-chief: Gamze Göker Graphic Design: M. Cem Kocatafl Illustrations: Ferit Avc ISSN: STGMD Executive Board Chair: Levent Korkut Vice Chair: Serpil Sancar Secretary General: Orhan Kemal Cengiz Treasurer: : Feray Salman Members: fieyhmus Diken, Uygar Özesmi, Öyküm Ba c