On the 13th of July 2014, a Youth Council was established in Turkey, giving almost 30 different youth organizations the chance to cooperate between them. Among them, there is also AEGEE, represented for now by AEGEE-Ankara. The AEGEEan spoke to Turgut Tosun and Oğuz Tosun, member of the coordination group and boardmember of AEGEE-Ankara, to find out more.
On the 13th of January this year, fifteen youth organizations got together to discuss the proposition that was released by the government about setting a National Youth Council in Turkey. “According to the proposition, it was supposed to be established within the Ministry of Youth and Sport”, Turgut says. “However, the problem is that it would be controlled by the ministry and they would have the final word in case of a disagreement. This was a totally unacceptable case for youth organizations, so a group of five people made an arrangement with the ministry to discuss the current situation”. However, an agreement could not be reached, so the organizations kept working as a civil initiative with the aim of creating a civil youth council which would represent as many youth organizations in Turkey as possible.
Turkey’s youth has to deal with a lot of problems with the government, of which the arrest of several young people after the Gezi Park protests is just one example. “We were in contact and tried to share any outcomes of our meetings with the ministry, but after the Gezi Park movement and the policies of the government towards the young people of Turkey, we decided to temporarily suspend our relation with the government”, Turgut explains. “This council is an initiative to save youth from the fire in Turkey”, Oğuz adds. “If we implement this council properly, the youth can start to know themselves. We want to give the youth the chance to understand themselves, so they can change the world”.
AEGEE-Ankara got involved in the process of establishing the Council from the beginning, attending the first meeting in January and all the meetings taking place afterwards. Some representatives from other Turkish-speaking AEGEE locals also attended a few meetings, but so far AEGEE-Ankara is the only local involved in the Youth Council. However, there will probably be a Network Meeting organized to see how the Turkish-speaking AEGEE locals can get involved in the Youth Council, since AEGEE does not have a national level.
Moreover, the Youth Council cannot officially be called National Youth Council, because the use of the words ‘national, council, Turkey, initiative or platform’ is officially banned after the Gezi Park movement, but this does not mean the organizations have given up. “To use the word ‘national’ we need permission from the Council of Ministers of Turkey, which I don’t think we will have in the next fifteen years. Thus, we decided to call ourselves Gençlik Örgütleri Forumu – GÖF or Youth Organizations’ Forum”, Turgut explains.
The expectations for the work that can be done with the Youth Organization Forum are high. “I think the youth in Turkey has a great chance to act in many fields, from democracy to environment”, Oğuz says. “I believe this is the best thing for young people. Before we start to change things on a local level, we want to observe as much as possible different examples all over the world. The youth in Turkey can bring the local and international actions together to change the system in Turkey. Wish us luck and power!”
Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen & Raluca Radu, AEGEE-Cluj Napoca