[#STORIES]
There is a need for an integrated approach for living together
Interview with Ceren Suntekin Could you tell us a little about the work you do in the field?
have been working in the field of human rights, and especially children’s rights, for 20 years. During this time, I prepared a thesis about Roma children. I worked with children in Armenian schools on children’s rights; an especially an important experience for me was working with young people from various parts of Africa without a common language, in Germany. However, I will always have a special place in my heart for the Tarlabaşı Community Centre. At Tarlabaşı Community Centre, we worked to consolidate, disseminate and apply the culture of living together in a multicultural, peaceful way, together. Although Tarlabaşı covers a certain group known as “Tarlabaşı locals”, it is a multicultural place where people together as Roma, Kurd, refugee, African and non-Muslim.My Tarlabaşı experience lasted 13 years; I still provide volunteer counselling there. I wrote my thesis on Roma children; during the Ottoman period, Roma were directed to Tarlabaşı and they settled there. In fact, that such a poor group can live together in a crime-related region and also be located in the city centre is like a model. As the locals of Tarlabaşı say:
The Report: Multiculturalism in Turkey and France/ Living together: Possible Together?
As YADA Foundation we carry out studies to increase the impact capacity of civil society, and in this direction, we try to contribute to the strengthening of the dialogue between different actors of civil society. In the events we organize, we bring together many institutions that are quite different in terms of both their fields of work and their backgrounds and motivations, and we pursue negotiations and even collaborations between differences. In this context, we think that dialogue and cooperation between CSOs that work with, represent or represent identity and culture groups should be increased.
There is a Need for More Concrete Steps for Collective Living
Interview with Dr. Mine Yıldırım
Could you tell us a little about the work your organisation does in the field?
The Freedom of Belief Initiative originated from my individual field of study. While I was doing conducting my doctoral studies on the collective dimension of freedom of religion and belief, I saw that there was no NGO advocating freedom of religion and belief for everyone. At that time, Mazlumder had was doing some work; it was also a faith-based formation but does not continue to work in this area constantly.
Prejudice is A Barrier Against Living Together
Interwiev with Reyhan Gümüşkaya
Could you tell us a little about the work your organisation does in the field?
I work in the child development centre of the Metropolitan Municipality, in the Roma neighbourhood. We conducted women’s health education training, handcrafted activities, and conduct awareness trainings about early marriage of girls. We are right in the middle of the Roma neighbourhood. We held women’s health seminars with the Syrian Solidarity Association; 6 seminars lasting for 6 weeks. We also conducted health seminars for Kurdish, Syrian and Iranian women (with the support of Foça Peace Women) in Foça. On behalf of the Women’s Solidarity Association, we offered solidarity with Syrians in Eski Çam; we held health seminars with the youth association. We conducted activities focused on the body, reproductive health, sexuality and gender. I have done a lot of work with Turkish woman too.
We Need to Know the Reflection of Diversities to Society
Interview with Güneş Daşlı
Could you tell us a little about the work your organisation does in the field?
As the DEMOS Research Centre, we work in the area of peace studies. However, we consider peace in a considerably broad way. We consider the struggle for peace or peace building as a broad framework that can lead to living together, including combating all kinds of violence (for example, violence against refugees and LGBT individuals. In parallel to this, we focus especially on the issues of public memory, transitional justice, gender and peace. To date, we have carried out a lot of research projects; for example, we have studied the most recent case of the Colombian experience. In these studies, we especially observe the participation of civil society organisations and individuals in these processes. We produce reports and disseminate them in different provinces. In our current activities, we focus on three pillars: rehabilitation (legal, moral), memory (we will focus more on cases), perceptions of groups with different backgrounds living together. In addition to field research, we carry out book studies on various topics for the production of alternative information, in the scope of our objective of targeting diversity.