The project aims to create a youth data base on the demands, priorities and political views of youth through surveys. The questions will address youth’s political views on Turkey, EU and global issues as well as Turkey’s foreign and domestic policies. The surveys will be conducted all around the Turkey, but specifically in 16 cities that represents 12 NUTS regions.(Istanbul, Edirne, İzmir, Denizli, Bursa, Ankara, Konya, Antalya, Adana, Kayseri, Samsun, Trabzon, Erzurum, Malatya, Gaziantep, Diyarbakır)

“YOUTH POLL” PROJECT PROPOSAL
FOR KONRAD-ADENAUER-STIFTUNG

Objectives and short description of the project

The project aims to create a youth data base on the demands, priorities and political views of youth through surveys. The questions will address youth’s political views on Turkey, EU and global issues as well as Turkey’s foreign and domestic policies.

The surveys will be conducted all around the Turkey, but specifically in 16 cities that represents 12 NUTS regions.(Istanbul, Edirne, İzmir, Denizli, Bursa, Ankara, Konya, Antalya, Adana, Kayseri, Samsun, Trabzon, Erzurum, Malatya, Gaziantep, Diyarbakır)

This project has an important role in identifying the trends rising about domestic and political issues among youth as the municipal/local elections 2009 is approaching. The participation of youth in the elections is also very important because of two main reasons: First, youth in Turkey composes a huge demographic group (10,841,555 young people between the ages of 18-25) (2006) will have an important impact on elections. Secondly, ARI Movement believes in the importance of youth’s participation in democracy and in shaping their future. Therefore understanding their views, priorities and tendencies are critical to make assessments about the future of Turkish youth as well as future of Turkish society at large.

The main aim of the project is to identify the priorities of youth as they head for the ballot. Those priorities will be including the youth’s perceptions on youth politics, themselves, leadership, and participation in general. Surveys will also have the role of disseminating the importance of participating in municipal elections and underlining once again the direct impact of municipal elections on youth’s lives.

The direct output will be attaining the perception of youth on politics in general such as, right or left ideology tendencies. Whereas the indirect outputs will be attaining the perception of youth on issues such as EU, Europeans, global issue.

After the poll is concluded, ARI will be discussing the results and publish a report on the conclusions. The report will be disseminated through several ways; media, press conference, web, round table etc. Being one of the leading NGOs in Turkey, ARI has a large media network, and its activities and studies get coverage in national and local media. ARI will utilize its network to disseminate the results of the project to a larger community.

For wider access and further discussion of the results, a concluding panel will be organized at the ARI headquarters in Istanbul. The panel will start by summarizing the findings of the study and continue with a discussion on the repercussions of the study as the elections near. The participants will include ARI members, Turkish and foreign media representatives, students, academics and foreign diplomats residing in Istanbul.

Regarding that, if it would be approved by your institution, we would appreciate your contribution of 5000 euro to cover some of our survey and book publishing costs of Youth Poll project.

Yours Sincerely,

URAL AKÜZÜM
CHAIRMAN
ARI MOVEMENT