REPORT ON RECENT ACTIVITIES

Human Rights for All
Youth Participation Project
Europa Handbook
New Opportunities, New Perspectives, The European Union
Enhancement of Youth Initiatives’ Knowledge on the European Integration Process of Turkey
Enhancement of Women’s Knowledge on European Union
Annual International Security and Cooperation Conference
Turkey Forums in Europe
Roundtable Discussions
Tuesday Forums
Exchange Programmes
Recent Publications
Economics and Foreign Policy Forum
Ethics Programme
Local Development Programme
Media Institute
Student Essay Competition

I- HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL

The aim of the project is to improve awareness of and support for human rights issues in the Turkish society. The target group for the project is the youth, between ages 18 and 30, with an emphasis on people living out of the main centres of Istanbul and Ankara. 80 % of the funding of Human Rights for All project was supplied by the EU Commission.

The objectives of the project are:
- To transform political debate on the issue of human rights from a polarised, ethnic/political/religious group-based issue into an individual-driven issue
- To persuade young people that human rights are important for the majority, not just for minorities
- To get young people participate in the intellectual and political process
- To assist young people to get better informed about the history and current state of the human rights issue
- To encourage a knowledge-based debate rather than a debate based on dogmatic beliefs and views

The project was designed to complement and build upon the accomplishments of two important civic initiatives in Turkey: A) The ARI “Youth Participation” project, which consists of an exploratory study, provincial forums, national conferences and an on-line network targeted towards increasing youth participation in civic organisations. (see item II for more information about the Youth Participation Project) B) The EU-funded “Freedom of Expression” project of the Association of Liberal Thought (ALT).

A. Exploratory Study:
The “Youth Participation” project has demonstrated the importance of studying our target group before the implementation stage and modifying the activities based on these findings. We followed the same methodology and investigated why the youth regards human rights as a minorities’ issue rather than a universal issue. We
- conducted focused group meetings
- prepared quantitative segmentation survey
- undertook survey with a nationally representative sample
- analysed the results qualitatively and quantitatively
- conducted further focused group meetings and detailed interviews based on results and analysis
- held public participation meetings in the regions to help prepare final document

B. Booklets:
We published five booklets to circulate the ideas we want the Turkish youth to internalise. Four of the booklets provide background information for the layman on human rights and the basic documents on universal human rights, rule of law and human rights in Turkish and EU legal systems, pluralism and finally human development.
1. Booklet on History and Meaning of Human Rights & Basic Documents on Universal Human Rights
2. Booklet on Rule of Law & Human Rights in the Turkish and EU Legislation
3. Booklet on Pluralism
4. Booklet on Human Development
5. Booklet on the Research Results

C. Provincial Forums:
The aim of provincial forums is to raise awareness in the area of human rights and rule of law among the youth and the residents of smaller towns in the less developed regions in Turkey. Each provincial forum lasts two days. At the beginning of the forum, the research results are presented and then the students are trained with an interactive approach on human rights in line with the content of the books. Finally the issue is discussed by the students. So far forums have taken place in Muğla, Urfa, Eskişehir, Trabzon, Aydın, Samsun, Ankara, and Kars. Coming forums will take place in the following provinces: Van, Konya, Maraş, Amasya, Gaziantep, Balıkesir, Kütahya, İzmir, Giresun, Isparta, Erzincan, Mersin

D. Website:
Another component of the project was setting up a web-based information center on human rights. We created www.hiih.org which includes background information on human rights, online surveys, summary of Provincial Meetings, contents of the books, and announcement of the activities within the scope of the “Human Rights for All Project.”
E. National Human Rights Conference
The conference is now at the final planning stage. It will take place on 11-12 April in Ankara. 400 students from all parts of Turkey will attend this conference.


II- THE YOUTH PARTICIPATION PROJECT: GENÇ-NET 2003
The ‘Youth Participation Project’ aims to encourage the youth of Turkey between the ages 18-30 to become more active in nations civil and political life and a more effective voice for political reform. Motto for the project has been set as “Participate and Create Your Future” and the name of the Project Genç Net literally means “youth net”. ‘Youth Participation Project’ started in 1999 and still continues. There are 4 components of this project:
A. A comprehensive survey was carried out at the beginning of the project. It gathered crucial information on the target group’s attitudes towards participation; an in-depth look at the motivations and barriers for the Turkish young population to participate in politics and the policy-making mechanism.
B. Day-long provincial forums: Forums were organized during the academic year to share the survey results with the youth in each province and encourage them to organize around an issue of their choice and do something about it. Meetings were held with 40-50 young people coming from different backgrounds but living in the same city. The participants represented the universities, the student clubs, the youth NGOs, the youth branches of political parties, and the working youth. During the meetings, the research findings were deeply analysed and participants were encouraged to think about local issues, prioritise them and think about organizing around one or more of the priority issues, developing projects, taking action to create results. Since the project started 57 different provinces have been visited, 15 of which took place in 2003. Several of these meetings have produced local projects.
C. An annual national conference in mid-May: May conferences bring together the youth from all over Turkey for them to share their experiences with each other and strengthen the youth participation network. The 2003 Youth Conference was held on 11-12 May in Istanbul with the participation of 1200 young people (ages between 18-24) who came from 81 provinces and 73 universities. The theme of the 2003 conference was “youth leadership for societal change.” 2004 Youth conference will take place on 15-16 May and its theme will be “the role of Turkish youth on the road to EU membership”.
D. www.gencnet.org: This web-site was launched after the first national conference in 2000. Gencnet.org keeps the GENCNET network up-to-date about provincial forums and projects that were initiated by the provincial forums. On-line discussion forums on topical issues are very active. The website also includes news, announcements and various activities that would be of interest to young people.
Social Participation and Development Foundation published a book about Genç-Net (the Youth Participation Project) titled “Turkish Youth and Participation: Participate and Create Your Future” in May 2003.
III- EUROPA HANDBOOK

Europe Horizons Programme funded Europa Handbook project and Generation Europe was our partner in it. Europa Handbook is a practical tool in the form of a school diary which includes information about the EU, the Turkish accession process and issues that are not covered in other media relating to young peoples’ fears and concerns as future EU citizens. 100,000 copies of Europa Handbook were distributed to students between 15-18 years old in 20 cities: Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Balıkesir, Bursa, Çanakkale, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Eskişehir, İstanbul, İzmir, Kayseri, Kütahya, Malatya, Mersin, Muğla, Sakarya, Samsun, Şanlıurfa and Van.

In order to obtain feedback from the young users of the diary/handbook on their understanding of Turkish accession, a Youth Opinion Survey was conducted in conjunction with the handbook. We believe the diary engaged teenagers in the notion of future EU and enhanced their knowledge about the accession process for Turkey.

IV- NEW OPPORTUNITIES, NEW PERSPECTIVES, THE EUROPEAN UNION

In the meetings and conferences carried out with the youth, the most critical issue confronting Turkey’s international relations and domestic development was identified as the European Union. The participants concluded that the role of the young generation is very critical in Turkey’s accession process. However, they realized that their ability to contribute to this process was limited, as they possessed insufficient information on the topic. Therefore, YoungARI decided to design and implement a project that would bring together the interested youth and provide them with a deeper understanding of the European Union. This project was funded by Matra-Kap Programme of the Consulate General of the Netherlands. The aim of the project was to improve the knowledge of university students about the EU by organizing seminars at universities and by strengthening the YoungARI website in order to reach greater numbers of university students. So far 5 seminars were organized in Bursa, Eskişehir, Ankara, Izmir and Mugla. 4 more seminars in Samsun, Istanbul and Ankara will take place in the near future.

The young population of Turkey is of critical importance in the consolidation of the “culture of participation” in Turkey. By endowing young people with information on the values and mechanisms of the European Union we encourage them to voice their views and to participate in the debates in a constructive way.


V- ENHANCEMENT OF YOUTH INITIATIVES’ KNOWLEDGE ON THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROCESS OF TURKEY
This project was carried out by the Ankara branch of ARI Movement in corporation with the Danish Embassy to increase the EU consciousness of the youth especially in non-governmental organizations, university clubs and political parties. A series of seminars were organized at the ARI office in Ankara on 7 October 2003- 20 November 2003. Seminars were given by the EU experts both from academia and from professional life as well as ARI Movement members who have expertise on EU related matters. 49 people, who were university students, young members of political parties, and members of youth NGOs, participated in the seminars. The subjects of the seminars were as follows:
• What is the European Union? Part 1 (the idea of Europe)
• What is the European Union? Part 2 (aim, history, evaluation etc.)
• Structure of the EU (Institutions)
• EU and member states
• Treaties, Acts and Policies that build EU
• Turkey and EU relations (history)
• Integration process for Turkey and Copenhagen Criteria
• Youth Policy of the EU
• EU’s Education Programs-1
• EU’s Education Programs-2
• EU’s Youth Programs-1
• EU’s Youth Programs-2
• Workshop and Final Evaluation

In addition to the seminars, a youth summit was organized on 10 December 2003 in Ankara. 175 young people attended the summit and they produced a declaration about the view of the Turkish youth regarding Turkey’s road to EU membership.

VI- ENHANCEMENT OF WOMEN’S KNOWLEDGE ON EUROPEAN UNION

The project was carried out by the Ankara branch of ARI Movement and its partner in it was the Association for Supporting and Educating the Women Candidates (KADER). The goal of the project was to train women from various NGOs and political parties about the EU. 11 seminars were organized in 11 provinces of Turkey (Samsun, Sivas, Van, Erzurum, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Mersin, Aydın, Eskişehir, Bursa, Tekirdağ) on the European Union and Social Politics. Around 30 socially active women participated in the seminars in 2003. We undertook the preparation of training materials and at the end of the programme produced a handbook with the cooperation of trainers and trainees on the basics of EU. Women who attended the training programmes were encouraged to share their knowledge with their colleagues in their NGOs and political parties to enable the continuity of the project. Recently an evaluation meeting was organized (13 February 2004) where the participants of the project commented on the results achieved by the project.


VII- ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND COOPERATION CONFERENCE: “Security and Cooperation in Southeast Europe”
ARI Movement has been organizing annual international conferences since 1999 on issues related to security. These conferences provide a platform for networking, sharing of ideas, and voicing of policy debates. The ARI Movement’s fifth annual international conference, “Security and Cooperation in Southeast Europe” took place on 26-27 June 2003 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Istanbul. The conference comprised of four panels: “International Security Initiatives in Southeast Europe,” “The New Security Architecture and Southeast Europe,” “Economic Development as a Catalyst for Stability and Security,” and “Integration of Southeast Europe with the EU.” Last year’s international conference took place with the partnership and participation of ARI Movement, Economics and Foreign Policy Forum, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, IRIS, Kokkalis Foundation, NATO, Social Participation and Development Foundation and the Consulate General of Sweden-İstanbul.
The conference brought together experts on security, economics, conflict resolution and local development in Istanbul. Former Minister of State in Charge of Economy and current MP Kemal Derviş, along with the Deputy Foreign Ministers of both the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro gave opening remarks, and their statements paved the way for a lively discussion of the future of the region, its past conflicts and bloodshed, and the roles of Turkey and Greece in the region. The Cyprus issue was discussed extensively at the conference.

VIII- TURKEY FORUMS (IN EUROPE)

The Brussels office of the ARI Movement aims to function as a bridge between Turkey and the EU and support Turkey in carrying out an effective and stable EU policy. It also aims to communicate views of Turkish civil society to official and civil sectors in the EU. To this end, the Brussels office organizes “Turkey Forums” in the important European capitals.

The first Turkey Forum titled “Turkey: A Role Model for Islam and Democracy?” took place at the European Parliament on 22 January 2004. Sinan Ülgen, ARI International Relations Coordinator, chaired the panel, and Jean-François Bayart, former Director of CERI (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales) and President of Fonds d’analyse des sociétés politiques, and Robert Anciaux, a professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles, were the speakers of the panel.

The second panel was organized in association with the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House) in London on 30 January 2004. The title of the panel was “Secularism, International Terrorism and Security.” Yaşar Yakış, former Foreign Minister of Turkey and current Chair of the Parliamentary Commission for EU harmonization, and Lord Wallace of Saltaire, RIIA Council Member and Professor at the London School of Economics, Department of International Relations, were speakers on the panel.

The third panel titled “Cyprus: Towards a Settlement” took place at the European Parliament on 18 March 2004. The panelists included Prof. Ruşen Ergeç, Advisor to the TRNC Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat, and Michael Emerson, Senior Research Fellow, CEPS. Kemal Köprülü, ARI Movement Coordinator chaired the panel.


IX- ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS

ARI Movement holds roundtable discussions on current political topics. These roundtable discussions are attended by ARI members, ARI staff, academics, students and press. Below are some of the roundtable discussions organized by the International Relations Committee of the ARI Movement.

• “Turkish-EU Relations after the Copenhagen Summit” with Ambassador Hans Kretschmer, Head of the European Commission Representation to Turkey. (20 January 2003)
• “Developments in Iraq and Turkish Foreign Policy” with Brigadier General (Ret.) Nejat Eslen and Soli Özel from Bilgi University. (26 February 2003)
• “Turkey and Europe: 18 Hard Months to Come” at the European Parliament in Brussels with Kemal Derviş, MP, Former Minister of State in charge of Economy and Joost Lagendijk, Member of the European Parliament, Chairman of the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee (17 March 2003)
• “Cyprus” with the Cyprus Republican Turkish Party Leader Mehmet Ali Talat (28 October 2003)
• “Means to Solve the Cyprus Problem” with TRNC President Rauf Denktaş (19 November 2003)
• “EU Expansion and Turkish-EU Relations” with Charles Grant, Director of Center for European Reform (23 March 2004).

X- TUESDAY FORUMS

International Relations Committee of the ARI Movement has been organizing Tuesday Forums on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month since February 2004. Forums are attended by ARI staff, ARI members as well as academics and students.

• “EU-Turkey Relations in Cyprus Axis” with Prof. Faruk Sonmezoglu (Istanbul University, Department of Political Science), (10 February 2004)
• “European Parliament Elections in Turkey’s Accession Process of Turkey” with Acar Şensoy (General Secretary, EU-Turkey Cooperation Association-TURKAB and ARI Movement Member), (24 February 2004)
• “Turkish Public’s Euroskepticism and Concerns” with Assoc. Prof. Hakan Yılmaz (Bosphorus University, Department of Political Science and International Relations), (9 March 2004)
• “BTC pipeline: 1760 km from the Caspian to the Mediterranean” with Mehmet Binay (Director), (23 March 2004)

XI- EXCHANGE PROGRAMMES

Exchange Programs form the core of the ARI Movement’s mission to help educate the civic leaders of the future. These programs promote a free and open exchange of views and the sharing of information, which is one of the ARI Movement's main objectives. Participants learn diplomatic skills, engage in dialogue on bilateral issues and forge professional relationships through the unique access they receive to the political leadership of the nations they visit. Exchange programmes also include visits to NGOs and universities.

Three Exchange Programmes took place in November 2003: The Turkish Programme of American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL) between 1-11 November, the USA Programme of ACYPL between 15-25 November and the Israel Programme of Israel Youth Exchange Council between 18-23 November.

XII- RECENT PUBLICATIONS
[Since publications of specific projects/programmes are included under the headings of Ethics programme, Local Development Programme, Europa Handbook, Human Rights for All, and Europa Handbook, they are not listed here to avoid repetition.]

1-Turkish Policy Quarterly
Turkish Policy Quarterly (TPQ) is an issue specific journal that provides an international forum for practitioners, opinion leaders and researchers on Turkey’s foreign policy, international relations and economics. The journal publishes articles on current affairs, opinions, policy pieces, review articles and interviews. TPQ is intended for expert advisors, researchers, practitioners, professional groups, government, institutions, business connected with policymaking and a general audience of individuals with interest in Turkey’s foreign policy and economics. The themes of the 2003 issues are as follows:

- “Reviewing Post-Elections: What is New, What is Not?” Vol.2, No.1 (Spring 2003)
- “State of the Disunion: Transatlantic Relations Today” Vol.2, No.2 (Summer 2003)
- “The Economy Reloaded: Economic Governance in Turkey” Vol. 2, No. 3 (Fall 2003)
- “European Foreign Policy: Is Turkey an Asset?” Vol. 2, No. 4 (Winter 2003)

2- 21st Century Magazine
The 21st Century is a quarterly magazine whose target group is youth between 15 and 25. The magazine aims to broaden the horizons of Turkish youth and acts as a free platform for them to express themselves. The 21st Century examines issues that interest youth and it aims to give their perspectives on the specific theme of each issue. Each issue includes essays from students, young professionals, as well as interviews, reports, and articles. The first issue of 2004 was published in January and the theme was “Change.” The themes of the coming three issues will be “Freedom”, “Unity”, and “Future.”

3- Rethinking Democratic Accountability (translated into Turkish)
“Rethinking Democratic Accountability” (published by Brookings Institution Press) is an outcome of a long research and comprehensive analyze by Robert D. Behn and it is the first of the translated books, which the ARI Movement will continue to publish in order to open a discussion in Turkey on rule of law, transparency, rights and responsibilities, accountability, and ethics. “Rethinking Democratic Accountability” puts the dilemmas, uncertainties and mistakes in accountability concept, in official institutions, mainly in bureaucracy, about financial, judiciary and daily issues. In the book, a new holistic accountability system based on collective, mutual responsibility is proposed and a new public administration is marked. According to this new system, not only the people who are objects of the accountability but also people who are subjects of the accountability are asked for accountability. The Turkish version of “Rethinking Democratic Accountability” (Demokratik Hesap Verme Zorunluluğu) was published in 2003.

4- Doing Democracy (translated into Turkish)

ARI Movement has recently published (in March 2004) the Turkish translation of “Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements” by Bill Moyer; with JoAnn McAllister, Mary Lou Finley and Steven Soifer (published by New Society Publishers). Doing Democracy provides both a theory and working model for understanding and analyzing social movements, ensuring that they are successful in the long term. Beginning with an overview of social movement theory and the MAP (Movement Action Plan) model, Doing Democracy outlines the eight typical stages of social movements, the four roles of activists, and case studies from the civil rights, anti-nuclear energy, Central America, gay/lesbian, women's health (breast cancer), and globalization movements.

ARI Movement hopes the Turkish version of “Doing Democracy” (Demokrasi Yapmak) will fill an important gap in the literature on participatory democracy in Turkish and bring important concepts about social movements to the forefront.

XIII- ECONOMICS AND FOREIGN POLICY FORUM

The ARI Movement’s Social Participation and Development Foundation launched Economics and Foreign Forum (EDP in Turkish) in June 2003 as an independent Forum within the general framework of the ARI movement. EDP brings together a network of members interested in the linkages between economic and foreign policy issues facing Turkey. The forum has members from all parts of Turkish society and it is politically non-partisan. All members of the Forum, however, share the view that Turkey joining the European Union, as a full member with equal rights and responsibilities is the priority strategic objective for Turkey in the years ahead. EDP is dedicated to help achieve this objective, mindful of the difficulties that must be overcome and of the need for Turkey to negotiate effectively so as to maximize the benefits from the European integration process for Turkey, while at the same time attaching great importance to the construction of the enlarged Europe based on common values, reasonable compromises and shared responsibilities.

EDP activities can be grouped under three headings, policy oriented research, discussion groups, conferences and brainstorming and networking. Below are some of the recent activities of the EDP:

1. EDP-CEPS project: This project, carried out jointly with the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels, aims at identifying the major problems and challenges posed to Turkey’s accession process in areas such as agriculture, labor markets, border controls, trade in services and the legal system. The project analyzes the problems and proposes policies to ease the transition and the convergence for both Turkey and the existing EU countries.

EDP-CEPS project’s kick-off meeting took place on 26 January 2004 at the Princess Hotel in Istanbul with the participation of academics and researchers from each party. The participants including Kemal Derviş from EDP and Daniel Gros from CEPS discussed the content and form of working papers. The draft working paper on EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) written by Michael Emerson and Nathalie Tocci will be discussed at the next meeting. The meeting will take place on 26 March 2004 at the Pera Palas Hotel in Istanbul.

2. EDP has been participating in a working group, coordinated by Mary Kaldor from London School of Economics and Political Science, on the future of European Defense and Security.
Can Buharalı, EDP Coordination Council member, attended the first meeting of the working group in London on 14-15 December 2003. The results of this series of workshops will be presented to EU CFSP High Representative Javier Solana.

3. Kemal Derviş, EDP Coordination Council member, is also a member of a global working group, “The International Task Force on Global Public Goods”. Ernesto Zedillo (the former president of Mexico) and Tidjane Thiam are co-chairing the Task Force. The Global Public Goods Task Force held its second meeting in Istanbul on 5-6 March 2004 with the support of EDP and Koç University.
4. The EDP Forum is providing support to the joint project on “Immigration” prepared by Boğaziçi University and Open Society Institute. The initiating workshop of this project, “Conference on the Integration of Immigrants from Turkey in Austria, Germany and Holland” was held on 27-28 February 2004 at Bogazici University. Academics and officials from Europe and Turkey who are experts on immigration participated in the conference. The aim of the project is to analyze the adaptation problems faced by the immigrants from Turkey in their host countries and to come up with ideas and strategies to deal with their adaptation problems.

5. EDP and ARI MOVEMENT supported the “12. National Quality Congress” that was held in Lütfü Kırdar Convention Center on 13-15 October 2003. Kemal Derviş, EDP Coordination Council member, gave a lecture titled “E.U. for the World Leadership”.


XIV- ETHICS PROGRAMME
ARI Movement kept the ethics issue a priority in the Turkish agenda in 2003, by organising several events with the help of different institutions and NGO’s. The end goal of the ARI Movement is to enforce the enactment of a Political Ethics Law in the Turkish parliament, as we believe that this is indispensable to the stability of our democracy and the prosperity of our nation. We cooperated with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in the preparation of a white paper describing the framework for this Political Ethics Law and in enlisting ethical standards that would be applicable for other legislation.
The white paper is titled: “Towards an Ethics Coalition in Turkey.” This study was published as a booklet in November 2003 and presented at the 3. Ethics Summit on 4 December 2003 in Istanbul. 3. Ethics Summit was organized together with National Democratic Institute, Turkish Ethical Values Centre Foundation, Ethics Resource Center, and the US Consulate General. A booklet titled “Ethics: Political and Legislative Solutions for Turkey” was published in September 2002.

XV- LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

ARI Movement encourages the establishment of local development institutes. We helped establish The West Black Sea Development Institute Association in northern Turkey and the Çukurova Development Institute Association in southern Turkey in 2001 and 2002 respectively.
During the course of 2001 and 2002, ARI members worked on the research and writing of a book titled “Local Development Institutes.” The book was published in May 2003.
ARI Movement organized 3 seminars on local development in 3 cities (Balıkesir, İskenderun, Yozgat) and more seminars and conferences are being planned right now and they will take place in 7 different regions of Turkey. During 2003 a comprehensive database about local administrations in 81 cities was also compiled.


XVI- THE MEDIA INSTITUTE

The Media Institute, established in 2001, aims to increase the number of media institutions in Turkey, to provide them with more opportunities, to strengthen them, to improve their technologies, to reach the modern, legal legislation and to maximize their reliability in the eye of the public. Also this institute provides educational facilities, which are in the form of panels, courses, training seminars. Within this framework, a course on “Writing News in English” was arranged in cooperation with the British Consulate General of Istanbul in Istanbul on 27-28 January 2003. The course was taught in İstinye Education Center of Istanbul Stock Exchange. The subjects of the course were “Choice of News Angles and Sourcing and Story Structure”, “Writing a ‘hard news’ story”, “Writing a ‘color’ story”, “Rewiew of participants’ morning news stories”, “How to construct a radio report”, “Writing for the broadcast media” and “Compiling a television report”. The participants of the course were the staff from the following newspapers and TV stations: Sabah, Zaman, Yeni Şafak, Radikal, Milliyet, Cumhuriyet, CNBC-E, CNN Türk, TRT, Sky News, NTV, NTVMSNBC.

The Media Institute published a report titled “Free Media Legislation Report” in April 2003.

XVII- STUDENT ESSAY COMPETITION

The World Bank and ARI Movement’s Social Participation and Development Foundation held a student essay competition on “Sustainable Development Strategies for Turkey.” The competition was announced in April 2003. 111 articles were submitted, 93 of which fit the application criteria. The jury included Kemal Derviş, Osman Arolat, Korel Göymen, Kudret Tamerler, Hakan Tansel, and Abbas Yüksel. The results will be announced in April 2004 and prizes will be awarded to the winners of the competition at the Kadir Has University, Istanbul. Social Participation and Development Foundation will then publish the 10 essays, which were awarded, in a book in 2004.

21ST CENTURY YOUTH JOURNAL

21. Yüzyıl, (21st Century) is a youth magazine published quarterly by Genç ARI, the youth branch of ARI. The magazine is a non-profit project, prepared by young volunteers from different backgrounds. The target reader of 21st Century is the 15-25 age group.

21st Century defines its mission in connection with the youth as follows: to improve
the democratic consciousness of the youth with regard to participation. In this respect, 21st Century believes that the Turkish youth needs pioneers in establishing such an understanding of participation.

21st Century also aims to function as a bridge, or an interface, between the different segments of the youth. There are huge gaps between the lifestyles, understandings, beliefs and viewpoints of the youth in Turkey. 21st Century believes that improved dialogue between different segments of the youth may contribute to a better understanding of participative democracy.

The interest areas of the magazine are numerous. One may find articles and stories in a cluster of different disciplines and popular interest areas ranging from university to business life, economics and politics to the problems of rural youth, or from travel to fine arts. Since active participation is its basis, 21st Century accepts articles and stories from all the different segments of the youth. Among the diversified writers of the magazine, there are university students, youth NGO representatives, young businessmen, artists, academicians, volunteers, and other young individuals who would like contribute. 21st Century creates an opportunity for the ordinary young citizens to put forth their arguments.

As stated above, 21st Century is a non-profit project and is funded through advertisements. In this respect, 21st Century does not receive any support from any institution. As it relies heavily on advertisements, it has close connections with the professionals from the business world who may also contribute as writers or advisers.

21st Century aims to improve the current situation of the youth by cooperating and collaborating with the very same youth. Come and help us shape our bright future.

ARI YOUTH


ARI Youth: Mission, Identity and Activities
Why Youth?

ARI Movement regards youth as the basis for creating its new political mission. At the same time the youth is the most important and influential segment for ARI Movement to achieve its new political mission. With this aim, ARI Movement began organizing ‘ARI Youth’.

The main reasons behind ARI Movement’s emphasis on the youth are as follows:

a) 55% of Turkey’s population is under the age of 25.
b) The young people are the individuals that are most exposed to education in Turkey today.
c) The young in Turkey have greater access to knowledge.
d) The youth establish relations abroad and follow closely the recent developments.

Today’s youth will be influential in determining the new political and social values in Turkey in the following ten years.


1)The ARI Youth Identity: Who is a Young ARI?
• ARI Movement’s youth targets the 18-25 age group in order to introduce the new political understanding of ARI.
• ARI Youth is an organization that is autonomous but connected to ARI Movement in its general strategy.
• It is based in Istanbul, but it aims to get organized in other major cities of Anatolia. ARI Youth has also established itself in Ankara.

2) The Mission of ARI Youth:
• To represent, adopt and disseminate the new political understanding among the youth.
• To create new platforms and tools to increase the participation of youth in all areas.
• To establish a basis for youth within ARI Movement.
• To help raise future ARI Movement Members.

3) The Activities of ARI Youth:
• To organize province-based search conferences for youngsters between 18-25 years.
• To organize projects on educational, cultural and social issues (such as projects on fighting against drugs) and to ensure youth participation by sharing their problems and finding solutions to their needs.
• To follow closely the recent trends in the world regarding media, political systems and non-governmental organizations by attending exchange and training programs.
• To ensure the organization of youth in various activities as well as to enable participation of youth in these activities. To create an opportunity for the youth to take initiatives in community activities.
• To participate in ARI Movement’s activities and support ARI Movement.
• To establish contacts with domestic and foreign NGOs and co-operate with them.
• To increase youth interest and sensitivity on national and global matters. To provide the necessary tools to the youth to enable them to adopt a multidimensional approach to various national and world issues.

Young ARI initiated a new project in 1999, which aimed to establish and then solve the problems of young people, together with the International Republican Institute (IRI). A survey was carried out by Strateji Mori Research Company in 12 different cities under the title, ‘The Youth in Turkey and Political Participation’ and the results of this research have been discussed in the meetings organized with universities, NGOs and youth branches of political parties. Another aim of these meetings was providing solutions for young people in these cities.

As a result of these meetings, a conference was held in Istanbul in May 2000. Young people from 25 different Anatolian cities participated at the conference. The most important part of this meeting was the project, ‘Genç Net’ that is a youth website. The core of the Genç Net project lies in encouraging participation, establishing communication and enabling continuous information sharing among young people of Turkey.

The second conference took place in May 2001 with 500 young people from 42 different cities. Young and successful people had the opportunity to share their experiences with the participants.

Another new project of ARI Youth is about ‘Ethics’. The objective here is to define ethics, the ethical values of Turkey and create projects over different areas of ethics such as business ethics, academic ethics, etc. This new project will be held with cooperation with TEDMER, which is also an NGO, focusing on ethics.
INSTITUTES
Based on the “new political understanding,” the most important institutions that ARI Movement is trying to establish in Turkey are the issue based national and local institutes.

National Institutes:

ARI Movement has been a part of the preparatory work on the foundation from the very beginning and since April 2000, ARI Movement is a founding member of the Turkish Ethical Values Center Foundation (TEDMER).

In cooperation with Turkish and international partners, ARI Movement is working on the projects for founding a European Union Institute, a Leadership Institute, and a Debate Institute.

These institutes will serve as research & development, training and meeting centers, contributing to the transition of Turkey towards being a society that creates and share information and knowledge.

Local Institutes:

At a regional basis ARI Movement is helping to found and run Local Development Institutes that aim to mobilize national and international funds rather than state funds in order to contribute to local development. The mission and vision of these Institutes clearly define the indispensability of such structures for economic, social and political transformation.

ARI Movement believes that local development institutes will bring together and merge different cultures to serve the aim of regional and social development. Despite regional cultural differences, this form of institutionalization will emphasize a new understanding that targets creation of values based on better mutual understanding and greater integration with the world. Such a system will enable different regions to cooperate on an issue basis thus preventing politicians from abusing regional populism.

INSIGHT TURKEY

Turkey is a dynamic developing country that attracts major attention in the areas of economy, international relations and security. While it is possible to obtain information about Turkey through various channels, our journal -Insight Turkey- aims to fill a gap by presenting in-depth perspectives and current analyses prepared by prominent Turkish and foreign academicians, experts and businessmen in English in order to enlighten the reader.

Since January 1999, ARI is actively involved in the preparation of the quarterly journal in English, Insight Turkey which aims to contribute to international relations and the promotion of Turkey by including opinions and research of foundations, institutions, specialists, public authorities, academicians and politicians, involved in international relations and foreign policies. The journal has a wide range of subscribers in Turkey and throughout the world and reaches out to opinion leaders, politicians, diplomats, businessmen, media representatives, academicians, civil society and students.

Insight Turkey aims to create a discussion platform embracing different views on various issues by reflecting the opinion of prominent experts and providing a valuable reference to those interested in Turkey.