open society foundation (turkey) goals and

open society foundation (turkey) goals and

OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION (TURKEY)
GOALS AND STRATEGIES
2014-2017
1. SUMMARY
In the last couple of years the AKP (Justice and Development Party) government started to
impose a delegative understanding of democracy in which the ruling party does not need to
take the consent of people after it is elected. Since 2011, the AKP has increased restrictions
on freedom of speech, freedom of the press and internet use, television content, as well as the
right to free assembly. The government increased its authoritarian tone with an educational
reform strengthening the Islamist elements, restrictions on alcohol consumption, politicization
of abortion, the non-debated decision to name the Third Bosphorus Bridge as Yavuz Sultan
Selim Bridge despite the concerns of Alevites1 and plans about nuclear power plants
culminated an anger on the great majority of the society. Although, no one could anticipate
the timing and the scope of the protests, it should not be overlooked that during the last
decade public demonstrations have become widespread in Turkey, and the authorities have
used increasingly violent measures to prevent and suppress them. The government has
avoided confronting with the real causes of the protests and has perceived it as a conspiracy
against Prime Minister Erdogan’s political career by foreign powers, especially by the socalled interest rate lobby. George Soros and our Foundation were addressed as the figures
behind the movement. We believe that Gezi Park Protests2 is a milestone for Turkish
democracy which will pave the way for a democratic and pluralistic society in Turkey. This
movement can be interpreted as a process which will help Turkey become an open society.
Considering the Gezi Park Protests’ demand for open society values combined with the
government’s increasing authoritarian stance, our Foundation’s position and work have
become vital for the democratization of the country more than ever.
The momentum gained as a result of Gezi Park Protests has affected the way the controversial
issues are discussed and perceived by different groups in the country. One of the most
important and prevalent of these is the Kurdish issue, which has been a problem for Turkey
more than 30 years. It finally became clear in the Turkish establishment’s mind that it was
not possible to beat up PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) using only counter-terrorism and
economic measures as the organization had gained considerable social and political support
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The reason behind the discontent about the name of the bridge stems from the symbolic character of Yavuz
Sultan Selim, an Ottoman Sultan ruled between 1470 and 1520, who is remembered by the massacre of 40.000
Alevites.
2
Gezi Park Protests started in Istanbul at the end of May by about 50 environmentalists, opposing the
replacement of Taksim Gezi Park with a shopping mall and possible residence as well as reconstruction of the
historic Taksim Military Barracks (demolished in 1940) over the adjacent Taksim Square. The protests
developed into riots when a group occupying the park was attacked with tear gas and water cannons by police.
The subjects of the protests then broadened beyond the development of Taksim Gezi Park into wider antigovernment demonstrations and continued with the occupy of the square for almost 20 days.
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among the Kurdish population in the country. Last year, Turkish government has started a
direct and comprehensive dialogue process with the jailed leader of PKK for the first time in
the history of Turkish- Kurdish conflict. It can be claimed that the Gezi Park Protests has
directly and indirectly supported peace process, first through decreasing the power of AKP
and so increasing the bargaining power of Kurdish movement and by providing a platform for
dialogue between Kurdish movement and other segments of society. The encounters of
different groups in the Gezi Park also helped the peace process by increasing the legitimacy of
the Kurdish movement in the eyes of “middle class-white Turks”.
Even though it is difficult to predict the outcome of this new approach to the Kurdish problem
in Turkey’s highly volatile political environment, we, as OSF (Turkey), will adopt a multidimensional approach in our initiatives for the Kurdish question. We remain cautiously
optimistic and will concentrate for the social and political matters that will raise
(constitutional reform, education in mother tongue, de-centralisation and the situation of
47.000 rangers) once the disarmament process is completed and we will cooperate/support
international organisations which can provide a comparative perspective in these regards.
The EU accession process has become an anchor for Turkey’s democratization in the last
decade therefore we believe that it is essential to revitalize the EU accession process as an
open society dynamic for Turkey. Even though, in 2005, the EU accepted to start
negotiations, the shared goal of which is Turkey’s membership to the European Union, the
negotiations are continuing very slowly and some chapters are blocked partly because of the
Cyprus conflict and some other members’ dissent concerning Turkey’s eligibility for full
membership. On the other hand, we believe that Turkey’s new EU spring presents us a good
opportunity to continue our efforts in this area. We will continue to support the activities of
the Independent Commission on Turkey (ICT) in 2014. Although it is difficult to acquire
tangible outcomes in a short term, our main objective is to vocalize the member countries
which are supportive of Turkey’s membership. We will continue supporting the work of
think-tanks in galvanizing the political will to undertake the EU reforms; monitoring these
reforms and to create dialogue platforms in Europe and Turkey to discuss Turkey’s EU
membership process. We will support researches that will replace myths and stereotypes with
numbers and analysis. We are also involved in the formation of research centres in the
European countries, which are supportive of Turkey’s membership to the EU like the
Stockholm University Turkey Studies Unit.
In recent years, there has been a serious deterioration of media freedom in Turkey, which
reached its peak during Gezi Park Protests. The mainstream media either did not cover the
protests especially during the first days or presented it in line with the aforementioned
conspiracy theories. Our previous reports depicted the consolidation of media outlets as a big
threat for media freedom in Turkey. The Gezi Park Protests demonstrated once again how the
collusion of the government with some media bosses and pressures on some other media
owners have made media organs unable to report news. Having supported various reports and
researches on press freedom in Turkey, we will now explore opportunities to create (and/or
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strengthen the already existing ones) independent news platforms like Media Part in France
and Pro-Publica in States.
More generally, we will provide support in the following fields; Peace and Reconciliation in
Post Conflict Societies; Rights of Ethnic, Racial and Religious Minorities; Gender Equality
and Women’s Leadership; LGBTI Rights; Roma Rights Policy Reform; Engaging Regional
and Global Institutions in Support of Open Society Values; Youth Engagement for Social
Change; Rights of People with Disabilities and Arts and Culture for Social Change.
OSF (Turkey) continues to be a truly independent voice at a time when independent voices
are rare and when authoritarianism and polarisation are on the rise. We manage to work with
the open society people in all sectors, without being beholden to any interests other than
advancing the open society values. In 2014 to 2017, our overall independent posture will be as
important as our individual projects.
2. PROGRAM/FOUNDATION HISTORY AND CONTEXT
The Open Society Foundation (Turkey) was founded as a non-profit organisation in 2008 and
began its operations in 2009 as a separate entity established under Turkish legislation related
to Foundations. The rationale was to have a secure and a sustainable legal status in a volatile
political environment.
Prior to the establishment of the Foundation as a separate entity, the Open Society Institute
Assistance Foundation Liaison Office –Turkey was established in 2001, reincorporated as a
Representative Office in 2004. Its mission was to facilitate the linkage between the civil
society organisations, universities, think-tanks in Turkey and the parent Foundation, then OSI,
and to make funding recommendations.
As a representative office, we neither operated programs nor made direct grants. All
operational expenses were covered by OSI. Now, in comparison, the Foundation is providing
direct support to grantees in addition to being in financial and strategic cooperation with other
donors and resources allocated by our founders.
We are effective in raising social awareness, promoting, recognising and discussing the social
problems by societal actors and formulate solutions to these problems through negotiation.
We have established strong networks both with the civil society organisations and actors,
universities, think-tanks as well as with the government bodies. Our strength comes from
being a flexible, supportive and non-bureaucratic organisation in our dealings with the civil
society.
Our Advisory Board is considered to be an important source of strength. Advisory Board
members are selected among people who have a life-long track record of independence, in
addition to being experts in their fields, have sufficient knowledge and experience, and can
assure the credibility of the Board’s decisions in the society. Our Boards have always been
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very inclusive. We have had liberals, leftists, Islamists, University presidents, activists,
business owners, trade-unionists, former and future members of the Parliament from both the
opposition and the governing parties.
Our matching fund principle is what distinguishes us from others in the OSF network. We
provide 1/3 of the total support and request that the remaining sources should be raised mainly
from local sources, which is being implemented with success since the establishment in 2001
creating an opportunity for sustainable projects and mobilising the local financial resources to
be used for open society ideals in addition to internalising ‘philanthropic’ modus operandi
rather than the ‘charitable’ ones. Even though, we are in close cooperation with the OSF
Network Programs, their operations are limited in Turkey due to our matching fund principle.
3. FEALTY TO FIELDS AND PLACES
We, as OSF (Turkey), aim to create a more open society in Turkey with improved
responsiveness to human rights, democracy, and universal values. Our priority working areas
are: Peace and Reconciliation in Post Conflict Societies; Rights of Ethnic, Racial and
Religious Minorities; Gender Equality and Women’s Leadership; LGBTI Rights; Roma
Rights Policy Reform; Engaging Regional and Global Institutions in Support of Open Society
Values; Youth Engagement for Social Change; Rights of People with Disabilities; Arts and
Culture for Social Change.
Truth, Justice and Memory Studies Centre, Hrant Dink Foundation, Women’s Centre in
Diyarbakir (KAMER), Anatolian Culture, Filmmor Women’s Cooperative (FILMMOR), ,
Hrant Dink Foundation, Global Political Trends Centre (GPOT), Social Policies, Gender
Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association SPOD, Community Volunteers
Foundation (TOG) and the Independent Commission on Turkey (ICT), local think tanks such
as Diyarbakir Institute for Political and Social Research (DISA), Dicle Communal Research
Centre (DITAM), International Middle East Peace Research Centre (IMPR) and the
researchers at Bogazici, Koc and Bilgi Universities are among the organisations and
individual leaders whom we most trust to shape the best strategies.
Peace and Reconciliation in Post Conflict Societies
The peace process which was initiated by the government and positively answered by the
jailed leader of PKK, to end the armed conflict which has lasted more than 30 years between
Turkish army and PKK, opened a new phase for democracy in Turkey. Although the
disarmament process is supposed to be completed by September, 2013; whether it will lead to
democratization with a participatory approach and transitional justice mechanisms in the
following process is unpredictable. Turkey is known as a “country without memory” and
those factions of the society asking for acknowledgement and social transformation are
subject to further state violence and exclusion. For Turkey to “fully transit” to democracy, it
needs to come to terms with its many pasts and the accompanying mass human rights
violations. The need for civil society organizations for thinking through how to be engaged
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and influential in the government’s grand plan in coming to terms with this past, and
initiatives toward “justice” and “peace” has never been greater.
In this context, we are planning to support the organizations which are working in this field
and one of our main partners is Truth, Justice and Memory Studies Centre. We believe that,
with its activities, the Centre will underline that the Turkish civil society organizations,
human rights activists and local community-based initiatives are critical actors in this process.
There is a great need for an institution focused on advocating transitional justice mechanisms
for truth, memory and justice and disseminating these practices to the wider public, the media,
civil society, decision makers and academia.
The geographical position of Turkey, located near Middle East and having borders with
Caucasian and Balkan states provides the ground to establish international networks between
civil society organizations across the region. We will provide support to projects which aim to
exchange knowledge and experience between various post conflict societies in the region.
Rights of Ethnic, Racial and Religious Minorities
The hegemony of ethnic nationalism in Turkey has resulted with the imposition of TurkishSunni identity to a multicultural society and the denial of different ethnic and religious
identities. This monolithic understanding of the nation leads to formal and informal exclusion
of a great majority of society and sometimes violation of the basic rights of Kurds, Alevites,
Armenians, Greeks, Syriacs, Jews and other non Turkish-Sunni groups. Following the
multiculturalist trend in the world, Turkey has also experienced an opening process for these
identities. The long lasting political movement of the Kurds and the appearance of Armenians
in politics which has accelerated with the assassination of Hrant Dink, has provided an
impetus to the rights based identity politics in Turkey. Most of the excluded groups had a
chance to encounter and empathize with each other’s’ experiences during the Gezi Park
Protests. As OSF (Turkey) we would like to support works which will increase the visibility
of excluded identities and accelerate the dialogue between various segments of society. For
the next years, Hrant Dink Foundation will be one of the main organization that we will
support.
Hrant Dink Foundation was established in 2007, after the assassination of the ArmenianTurkish journalist Hrant Dink, by Dink family and a group of human rights activists. The
Foundation aims to contribute to the development of a secure and healthy environment
economically, socially and politically, as well as individuals with democratic citizenship
awareness, respecting the cultural diversity and differences. Since its establishment, the
Foundation has implemented remarkable projects in the fields of arts and culture,
democratization, education and Turkish-Armenian relationships. Looking at history with
alternative methods has become a necessity in our times when national historiography still
dominates in Turkey. Letting the primary sources speak for themselves as visual materials via
mapping, rather than interpreting them in the framework of an ideology will introduce a new
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approach to the history of Turkey. We will support the Hrant Dink Foundation in the coming
years, to conduct researches, which will become means to be used in advocacy activities.
A significant dimension of supporting rights of ethnic, racial and religious minorities is to
support local think tanks and researchers to provide knowledge on past violations and
continuing inequalities. The geographical position of Turkey necessitates a cross-border
perspective in order to have a comprehensive understanding. Out of Turkey’s border, there are
approximately 15 million Kurds in Iran, Iraq and Syria. Therefore, it is essential to have a
macro level analysis to the Kurdish question in terms of social, political, historical and
cultural, as Kurdish question in Turkey also concerns the Kurds in Syria, Iraq and Iran. The
relationship, dialogue, and perception between the Kurds and other ethnic/religious groups
living in different sides of the border, are underestimated or overlooked until now. In order to
increase non-partisan research capacity of Turkey, it is indispensable to support small and
specialized think-tanks. In this respect we will support the researches of the local think tanks
such as International Middle East Peace Research Centre (IMPR), Diyarbakir Institute for
Political and Social Research (DISA) and Dicle Communal Research Centre (DITAM).
International Middle East Peace Research Centre (IMPR), founded in 2012 by a group of
academics coming from diverse backgrounds in Ankara, will be one of the emerging new
think-tanks, which we will support. As a think tank, IMPR has adopted an interdisciplinary
working model in order to conduct researches in Middle East and North Africa, which we
think the researches will provide valuable information not only for OSF (Turkey) but also for
our other Foundations working in the region.
Although IMPR is a young think tank, it has managed to produce high quality publications
such as “the Impact of Syrian Crisis on Hatay and Gaziantep Economies” which was funded
by local universities. Given the lack of expertise of Middle East and North Africa among
other think-tanks in Turkey, IMPR has the potential to emerge as an expert think-tank in
evaluating Turkey’s relation with Middle East and North Africa. We will support their work
mainly on Kurds and partly Assyrians in the beginning.
As stated above, we will continue supporting various local think-tanks, especially in the
Kurdish region. To this end, the cooperation with Diyarbakir Institute for Political and Social
Research (DISA) on familiarizing Turkey with good bi-lingual education models are parallel
to the Open Society ideal such as developing an open dialogue on cultural diversity and
equality. That kind of an open dialogue will be consonant with the goal of Open Society
Foundation which pursues intercultural dialogue. There are respectable experts, Turkish and
Kurdish intellectuals, among the founding fathers of DISA. Thus the Institute has the capacity
and social networks to organize those seminars and to lead the overall agenda.
Another local think-tank to be supported will be; Dicle Communal Research Centre (DITAM)
which focuses citizenship rights and social problems in the Kurdish region. In the following
years we will support their work in producing objective data on the respected issues.
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Gender Equality and Women’s Leadership
In Turkey, women do not confront with any legal obstacles in exercising fundamental human
rights such as education, political rights and employment. The Turkish legislation guarantees
equality between men and women and with amendments in the Article 10 of the Constitution,
the state assumed the responsibility to take necessary measures to provide women equal rights
and opportunities with men. However, these legislations cannot guarantee gender equality in
daily lives of women.
A strong patriarchal culture, gender discriminatory traditions and practices are still operating
regardless of class and region in Turkey. Violence, unemployment and lack of representation
in decision making processes are some of the ongoing problems with respect to gender
equality. Relying on this picture, we plan to provide support to various women’s
organizations which work to combat gender inequalities. In this field, one of our main
cooperators will be KAMER- which has an accumulated experience and knowledge on the
issue.
Given its accumulated experience and knowledge, Women’s Centre, (KA-MER) is likely to
remain as our key investment in East and South East regions in Turkey in 2014. It has set an
extraordinary example with its work since 1997 in East and South East Turkey, where
women’s conditions are dismal. It built up strong networks nation-wide and became one of
the most important source of know-how on violence against women.
KA-MER has successfully carried out awareness raising activities for women and supported
the formation of grassroots organizations as independent organizations in spite of the difficult
conditions in the region; successfully carried out activities in western cities as a response to
local demands. It is utterly important that sides can face with one another as well as with the
past, so that on-going tension is diminished and the prejudices are overcome.
The positive stance of the Foundation in Turkey for the past 10 years has broken the political
resistance among various women’s organisation in approaching us for cooperation. Our
cooperation with Filmmor Women’s Co-operative, will provide us an opportunity to work in
different fields in the gender area. FILMMOR, aims at producing films by and for women;
boosting the presence of women in cinema and the media; improving women's opportunities
to express themselves, communicate and produce in this field; as well as, expanding nonsexist representations and experiences of women. Working against sexism, violence and
discrimination in cinema, the media and other fields, it organizes women's cinema workshops,
women's film festivals, film screenings, exhibitions and conferences. It runs MEDIZ
(Women's Media Watch Group); participates in various campaigns and platforms; and shares,
via visual means, the ideas, efforts, and dreams of women, through such activities as women's
film weeks and special programs in Turkey and abroad.
We believe, they are very effective in reaching out to women all over Turkey and provide
them a debate platform through events other than screenings.
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LGBTI Rights
The basic contribution of Gezi Park Protests to our democratic culture was to bring different
groups together, which would otherwise remain apathetic to each other’s demands. One of
these groups which gained visibility and had a chance to explain their stance was LGBTI
organizations. Regarding the prevalence of homophobia in Turkey, this encounter was a
valuable experience which paved the way for future cooperation. We have been one of the
main organizations that provided support to for the LGBTI groups in the country and we plan
to take the advantage of this new dialogue culture and increase our support to LGBTI
organizations in order to increase their visibility and create sustainable policy change. We will
cooperate with various LGBTI organisations to collect data on violence in various parts of
social life, but especially regarding sexual orientation and gender based violence, oppression
and social exclusion and work towards ending all kinds of discrimination in the society. We
will support LGBTI organisations to run campaigning, advocacy, and awareness raising and
research projects.
Roma Rights Policy Reform
Roma people are found to be the most disadvantaged and most discriminated groups in
Turkey according to many researches that are conducted in recent years. In March 2010, PM
Erdogan organised a gathering of 10,000 Roma people and promised them that their problems
in housing and the second-class status of Roma citizens of the Turkish Republic would be
addressed. Unfortunately, after three years of this so-called Roma opening, the dire condition
of Roma in Turkey has not changed. Inclusive social policies targeting Roma do not seem to
be on the agenda of the government even though the European Commission highlighted the
precarious situation of many Roma in the Western Balkans and in Turkey. We are aiming to
empower Roma people and increase the capacity of Roma civil society organizations so that
they could advocate for the development of effective inclusive social policies.
Roma people also face difficulties in the education system. They have limited access to
educational services and very few Romani students can succeed in university entrance
examinations. When they succeed in entering a university, to graduate is still a remote
possibility due to economic hardships.
In 2009, Anatolian Culture and OSF (Turkey) introduced a new educational scholarship
program for Roma students. The main objective of the project was to create a social aid
system by providing regular financial support to the culturally and economically
disadvantaged youth in order to increase their participation in the educational system. Due to
low quality education in most of the public schools, the students have to attend the private
courses in order to succeed in the university entrance examination. Regarding this important
fact and the existence of many other scholarship opportunities for the university students, in
2010 the scholarship program focused on senior high school students and high school
graduates. Since there is still no scholarship targeting Roma, we will continue our support in
this area.
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Engaging Regional and Global Institutions in Support of Open Society Values
We believe that collaboration with international think-tanks is significant as it opens up
controversial issues to discussion in Europe and USA and create international pressure. The
most important international institution that has a considerable impact on Turkey is EU. In
this respect we will provide support to projects which work towards the revitalization of
Turkey’s EU accession process.
We will support Global Political Trends Center (GPoT Center), who is a non- partisan
research institution under the auspices of Istanbul Kultur University and a strong supporter of
Turkey’s membership in the EU. It has up to date conducted a number of Cyprus projects. We
will work with GPoT to work on EU-Turkey related matters, and especially on the Cyprus
issue. Cyprus issue is one of the biggest obstacles before Turkey’s accession to the EU, due to
the Republic of Cyprus’ persistent blockade of the negotiation chapters. We think that
solution efforts based on dialogue should be encouraged.
Youth Engagement for Social Change
The central role of the young people in Gezi Park Protests has proved the democratic
aspirations of a significant portion of society, which were used to be known as “apolitical”. .
We plan to cooperate with the Community Volunteers Foundation (TOG) and support mainly
its Human Rights Program in the following years. The Foundation contributes to the personal
development of young people by encouraging them to participate in social responsibility
projects as volunteers. Community Volunteers network has increased to 123 TOG Youth
organizations in communities and on university campuses in 71 cities of Turkey and Northern
Cyprus.
We think that the participation of young people into traditional structures such as political
parties and NGOs is not satisfactorily strong, comprehensive support systems are thus
needed, respecting also the differing needs of different groups of these young citizens for
them to fully share their needs within a greater public sphere. 3For the improvement of
governance in Turkey in general and for an inclusive and effective youth policy in particular,
the participation of young citizens themselves in offsetting the priorities of the social policies
and human rights, as well as in the monitoring of the actual implementation of those, is
essential. Young citizens must thus be empowered to identify and express their own needs and
rights based on their everyday life practices. This certainly would provide a healthy impetus
for the development of democratic culture in the country, for participation and advocacy is not
only an outcome of a democratic society, but also is the key to it. OSF (Turkey)’s cooperation
with TOG will also enable the Foundation to reach out to the grassroots organisations
throughout Anatolia.
3
UNDP, Turkey Human Development Report on Youth, 2008
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Rights of People with Disabilities
Although there are almost 7.5 million disabled people in Turkey there have been many
obstacles in terms of disabled people’s participation to social life. They are pushed into a
disadvantageous position in overall society. Raising awareness, strategic litigation and
advocacy are essential in combating with discrimination against disabled people,
unfortunately NGOs working in this field are lack of right’s notion. There is a large number of
NGOs working for / with disabled people in Turkey, but they mainly serve as service delivery
organization.
We are planning to give support to The Platform to Combat with the Discrimination Against
People with Disabilities which was established with the support a local donor organization in
order to increase advocacy capacity of NGOs working for / with disabled people. This
platform aims at increasing the advocacy / litigation capacity of these NGOs and changes
their service delivery function / discourse with the right’s discourse.
Arts and Culture for Social Change
In this field, we will fund projects which initiate effective communication, collaboration and
understanding between divided regional and ethnic groups. More specifically, we plan to
support projects including cultural colloboration and exchanges, film screenings and
exhibitions.
One of our main partners in the area is Anatolian Culture (AC), which is a not-for-profit
company established in 2002 as a civil initiative by leading figures from the arts and culture
field with the aim of encouraging production and access to arts and culture activities outside
of Istanbul. AC utilizes art and cultural programs for developing, discussing and furthering
notions of democracy, citizenship, human rights and social cohesion.
4. PROGRAM/FOUNDATION CONCEPTS AND INITIATIVES
Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression
The issue of press freedom in Turkey has prominently been featured in Turkish, American,
European and international publications. The reactions have generally split between concern
for Turkish efforts towards reform and democratic liberalisation on the one hand, and
confusion about the complicated domestic context that has left close to 50 journalists in jail on
the other.
It is long-standing judicial problems that most clearly affect press freedom; too many
journalists are in jail and many more complain about the need to censor themselves because of
the political pressure exerted on their publication owners or on themselves. Journalists also
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cite the dismissal of major columnists and hosts, allegedly ousted for holding views that clash
too starkly with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
We have established a broad ranging conversation about the current political situation in
Turkey that has been guided by the overarching principles of freedom of speech and press
freedom as pillars of democratic modernisation. To this end, we have cooperated with the
Centre for American Progress, Carnegie Endowment-Europe, Freedom House, European
Commission, Committee to Protect Journalists, European Parliament, Financial Times and the
New York Times. OSF (Turkey) has access to and an influence over these
organisations/institutions and plan to continue our cooperation and implement projects
together in 2014 and beyond.
Turkey's crisis of press freedom extends beyond the outright silencing of journalists through
imprisonment. Much of the problem stems from the consolidation of major media holdings
over the past two decades and the cross-ownership of media outlets by large conglomerates,
which became one of the main factors that crippled the media’s ability to report objectively
during Gezi Park Protests. The worsening situation of media freedom in Turkey necessitates
the creation of the independent news platform like MediaPart in France and ProPublica in
States. We will explore opportunities to establish these kinds of platforms, while
strengthening the already existing ones.
European Union: Independent Commission on Turkey
The Independent Commission on Turkey (ICT) was established in March 2004 by a group of
distinguished and concerned Europeans, deeply committed to the integration process and
having held high public office, for the purpose of contributing to a more objective and rational
debate on Turkey’s accession to the European Union, with our initiative and support and in
partnership with the British Council. So far, ICT has produced two different reports which
were published in six different languages. The main central message of the last report was that
EU-Turkey relations are beneficial for both parties. To reap the maximum benefit, the EU
should restore the credibility of Turkey’s membership prospects and Turkey should get
serious about the reforms. In addition to the reports, we organized events in 14 European
capitals and the United States between 2009 and 2011. The rational voice of the ICT arguing
‘pacta sunt servanda’ increased the same kind of demands especially in countries which are
supportive of Turkey’s EU membership but had remained less vocal.
The Independent Commission on Turkey (ICT) is made up of former heads of state and
government, foreign ministers and European commissioners, and other Europeans who have
previously held high positions in public office. ICT has eight members currently: Martti
Ahtisaari (Former President of Finland, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2008) is the chairman of
the Commission; Albert Rohan (Former Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs of Austria),
Emma Bonino (The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy; Former European Commissioner),
Hans van den Broek (Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Holland; Former European
Commissioner), Wolfgang Ischinger (Former Secretary of State – Germany), Marcelino Oreja
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Aguirre (Former Foreign Minister of Spain, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe and
European Commissioner) Michel Rocard (Former Prime Minister of France), David Miliband
(Former Foreign Secretary of the UK). Previous members are Bronislaw Geremek (In
Memoriam, Former Foreign Minister of Poland), Kurt Hans Biedenkopf (Former Prime
Minister of Saxony, Germany), Anthony Giddens (Former Director, London School of
Economics and Political Science) and Chris Patten (Former European Commissioner).
The Independent Commission on Turkey has exceptional notoriety in the EU and in Turkey.
Its members meet with PM Erdogan and have lunch or dinner with President Gul in each trip
to Turkey. They work very closely with OSF (Turkey) and are a key asset for us.
Lately, there have been positive improvements regarding Turkey’s membership to the EU.
The revitalisation of the EU – Turkey negotiation process stems from appreciation of the cost
of deadlock in EU- Turkey relations by the EU and Turkey’s institutions. In addition, the
election of the presidential candidates in France and Cyprus, who are expected not to oppose
Turkey’s candidacy as strongly as their predecessors, have also renewed Turkey’s interest in
the EU. In Turkey’s new EU spring, ICT can play a crucial role in overcoming the stalled
accession process.
Political Apologies: Confrontation with the Past
We will be cooperating with Anatolian Culture (AC) on the ‘Apologia’ project. AC is a notfor-profit company established in 2002 as a civil initiative by leading figures from the arts and
culture field with the aim of encouraging production and access to arts and culture activities
outside of Istanbul. AC utilizes cultural programs for developing, discussing and furthering
notions of democracy, citizenship, human rights and social cohesion.
The objective of the project is to raise awareness about the political apologies across the
world, cleanse the Turkish debate on apologies from any preconception and expand it towards
the society at large. It will be emphasized that this obligation to apologize is not unique to
Turkey, and the context, reasons and consequences of worldwide apology cases will be
outlined. Accordingly, the debate on official apology will not be limited to a small circle of
individuals and sceptical approaches, and large sectors of the society will have the chance to
intervene.
With this project, we as OSF (Turkey) in partnership with the AC, plan to conduct a
comprehensive literature review on political apologies; to analyse in depth selected cases
bearing similarities with the Turkish one; to organize an exhibition (followed by exhibitions
in various cities in Anatolia) on selected cases; to prepare a publication containing opinion
pieces of thinkers from Turkey and the world. The literature review and selection of the visual
materials will be conducted by a team composed of prominent academics, curators and
researchers. Among them, 9 specific cases, such as Willy Brandt’s Warsaw Genuflection
(Germany), The Confinement of Japanese-Americans in Internment Camps During the World
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War II (USA), Yeltsin Revolution Day and Coming to Terms with the Tsarist Past (Russia),
Australia and the Stolen Generations, The British Apology for Bloody Sunday and the
Bulgarian Apology to Ethnic Turks for the Revivalist Process will be highlighted. The
communication department of Open Society Foundation New York Office provided
assistance in the collection of visual material regarding apology cases selected in preliminary
research. A free exhibition will be organized in Istanbul for a month and then it will be carried
to at least 10 Anatolian cities, especially the ones which is marked by nationalist/conservative
stand. The opening of the exhibition will be accompanied by a panel, where the authors of the
book will participate and through the media coverage, it will be utilized as an opportunity to
open a discussion on the issue on the eve of the 100th anniversary of Armenian Genocide.
We believe that a society's confrontation with its past mistakes is a significant step towards
becoming an open society and this project will enable various sections of the Turkish society
to start a discussion on the experience of societies which confront their past. It is aimed to
highlight the similarities between such experiences and the Turkish one. Even as apologies
are delivered and received more than ever across the world in order to confront the past in a
creative fashion and to head towards a more peaceful and secure future, the climate in Turkey
stands in stark contrast to this general trend. As we approach the centenary of the Armenian
Genocide, laws drafted in France criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide continue
to arouse ire in Turkey. In such a national climate of suspicion and fear towards political
apologies, this project has been designed with the belief that highlighting international
examples of apologies could provide a more objective framework for the current debate. A
comprehensive understanding of the conditions, reasons and consequences of the apologies
will clear the way for a more impartial approach towards apologies. We believe that a better
understanding of international examples of apologies through this project could pave the way
to an eradication of preconceptions concerning apologies and the initiation of a sound
discussion.
This project can be classified as successful if it manages to expand the discussion on
apologies towards the society at large, to have extensive media coverage especially in
mainstream media, to receive invitations from Anatolian cities for the exhibition.
5. CONTRIBUTIONS TO SHARED FRAMEWORKS
We plan to increase cooperation with the Arab Regional Office in trying to figure out what
kind of humanitarian assistance can be provided to Syria especially the Syrian refugees in
Turkey as well as creating a joint women’s human rights work in the region.
We also plan to explore the various models, relationships and the structure of TIFA in
Indonesia. We have already started the cooperation with TIFA to examine the uniformity and
the diversity in each country in addition to clarifying mutual areas and organisations where
the two countries can cooperate, transmit and share knowledge and experience.
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We also plan to organize a visit to Brazil in cooperation with the Open Society Latin America
Program in order to explore the possibilities of joint actions that the Open Society
Foundations can take in these two similar contexts. Despite the difference in their locations,
both of the countries show strong similarities (such as booming economies, significant
increase in middle class, democratically elected leaders, considerable influence in their
regions and global ambitions which were followed by flash demonstrations of popular anger
that are marked by a middle class character, composition of divergent political groups, the
decisive role of the social media and the demand for a democracy that goes beyond holding
free and fair elections) which are of interest to us for exchange of knowledge/experience and
future collaborations for creating more inclusive and democratic mechanisms.
6. OTHER SIGNIFICANT COLLABORATIONS
To reiterate, the operation of the network programs are limited in Turkey due to the matching
fund principle. Provided the high numbers of Roma population living in Turkey and the
potential participation of Turkey to the Roma Decade, Roma Initiatives Office will be an
exception in this regard for the next two years.
7. INTERNAL ORGANIZATIONAL PLANS
We, as OSF (Turkey) are not planning major changes at the staff level. The current staff is
composed of 4 people; The Executive Director, a program officer (who coordinates the
programmatic work under the Director’s guidance) and 2 program associates. The
administrative responsibilities are shared among the program staff and accounting is
outsourced to an international firm. There is a part time accountant who works mainly as a
consultant for compliance with the rules and regulations of the Foundations Directorate under
the Ministry of Interior.
We plan to search for a suitable communications expert or a company to support in the
advocacy and the dissemination of the work supported and realised by the Foundation.
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