CSOs’ Role in the Solution Process was Discussed in a Meeting in Malatya

Around 40 representatives of different CSOs came together and talked about peace after two years, with the occasion of Peace Foundation’s report called “NGOs at the 2013-2015 Resolution Process”.

4 April 2018

“NGOs at the 2013-2015 Resolution Process” was prepared by academician Cuma Çiçek for the Peace Foundation and was discussed in a workshop held in Malatya. Many opinion leaders and representatives of different CSOs came together in the workshop hosted by Initiative for Haq and Malatya Office of Human Rights Association.

Hakan Tahmaz, Board Chairman of the Peace Foundation opened the session and said:

“We talked about many things after the conflicts had started, but I think we did not speak enough of everything. CSOs operating in this land did not talk about what they couldn’t do and why they couldn’t do it. We do not show courage to speak and ask: “what is wrong with our neighborhoods?” We prepared our last report on CSOs because we believe that civil society needs to face its own reality. We want to highlight here that unless CSOs play an active role in peace processes, there would be no solution at all.”

Reha Ruhavioğlu, who contributed to the Report by conducting field researches in Diyarbakır and Van, made a presentation after Hakan Tahmaz.

Ruhavioglu reminded the studies of CSOs since the 90s and said that he interviewed with 45 CSO representatives. Some quotations from the interviews are as follow: CSOs in Turkey were generally in political engagements during the solution process and main actors of the process were in favor of that tendency. CSOs operating in the east were not in close contact with CSOs working in the west and they lacked financial and human resources capacity. “Although people in the region have been witnessing the conflicts for a very long time, the language of conflict resolution is still unsettled and people are not well-informed about international experiences,” Ruhavioglu indicated.

Ruhavioglu said that the Kurdish question cannot be forever managed by conflicts; people need to struggle for a political solution.

To check the Report of Peace Foundation: http://www.barisvakfi.org/eng/reports_2013-2014.pdf