Karakutu
This presentation was created by the Turkey Team: Steven Darby, Devan Deck, Kelly Low, Matt Rozansky, Joseph Seif
Historical Background
Armenian Genocide
Ottoman military bringing Armenians to an execution site
A map detailing the locations mass atrocities committed during the Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide (1915-1917) resulted in the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Turkey. The Turkish government does not recognize this event because doing so would insinuate wrongdoing and many Turks still believe that the event was necessary to obtain the country's current status.
Current Political Climate of Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey
The Armenian Genocide is not recognized in Turkey due to the authoritarian nature of their civil society. This narrative is furthered by gerontocracy, meaning that the older generation is the ruling class of Turkey. Women and the youth continue to be silenced.
NGO Sector in Turkey
Civil service workforce by sector in Turkey, 2011
The nongovernmental/nonprofit/civil service sector of Turkey makes up for less than 5% of the total workforce.
Most service provided is human services: health care, social services, and education.
NGO sector provides aid and services in two ways: outside the country and within of the country.
Location of Sahel Countries
Aid Provided Outside the Country
Foreign aid has always been an important tool of soft power for states to generate influence over other states.
Development aid is in two categories: assistance received and assistance provided.
Turkey was receiving assistance until early 2000 when it started leading in assistance provided. Turkey's first foreign aid was started in 1985 to the Sahel countries, located in central Africa.
Most Generous Donors 2017
Turkey's Development and Humanitarian Aid from 1997-2017
Nonprofit revenue by sources, 2011
Aid Provided Within the Country
Aid outside of the country is growing, but the government provides little to no funding towards NGOs within their borders.
Informal giving is more prevelant than formal giving within Turkey. Informal giving defined as providing money, food, clothing, and shelter to friends, neighbors, acquaintances and beggars.
Karakutu's Mission
"Karakutu," means "black box," in Turkish and as a reference to flight recorders on airplanes
"In Turkey, we have to use different channels to institutionalize democracy. Addressing taboo issues through adapting new perspectives of history is one of these channels."
Protests on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide
"Despite silencing attempts and disputes in everyday life, young people’s efforts to uncover the past can contribute to the coming the terms with the past as well as peace and democracy."
Logic Model
Karakutu's Logic Model
Work of Karakutu
Young Turks on a Memory Walk in Istanbul
“Memory Walks are participative activities of remembrance structured in nontraditional methods, where young people are not ‘students’ or ‘tourists’ but ‘explorers,’” said Gürsel. “For a whole day, young participants follow the clues they have been provided in groups, and explore stories of discrimination and violence hidden in the details of the city.”
In Search For Justice Seminars
One of the first seminars held by Karakutu, since then the number of attendees has grown signifigantly
"In these seminars, we learn and discuss about different forms of human rights violations as well as social movements resisting these the violations in search of justice. Our seminars, held every third Thursday each month, continued in 2019 too. In this year, researchers, activists and academics from different areas have been our guests in 8 seminars, attended by 211 persons."
Adnan Ergec Fund
Children of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, learned of a shared musical culture with Turks
Ayşegül Özadak and Tuğçe Özdemir, recipients of Karakutu's first funding, on a visit to Armenia
“Visit to Armenia was not easy, but a crucial experience. What makes it difficult was my own prejudices and apprehension about how I will be treated. Although I felt the burden of the past on my shoulders in most encounters during our visit, I turn back with hope for our generations to create social dialogue. I was aware of the importance of open borders before my visit, but I feel now more deeply..”
Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention
After the Holocaust, after Cambodia, after Rwanda, after Bosnia, and after Darfur, many dreamed of a world without genocide and mass atrocities. That goal has not been achieved.
Memory and Prevention
"In reality, memory is a force that is embodied and that affects the ways our bodies interact with others. When memory isolates or atomizes bodies it has little chance at being preventive. On the other hand, when it draws people together in the public sphere-even when it leads to nonviolent disputes and contentious debates-memory has a much greater chance of preventing genocidal violence".
This is an example of a Memory ID card created by one of the participants of the Memory Walk. The ID card contains a detailed history of the place and the events that happened. Then the ID card explains how "enforced dissaperance" which took place at Galatasaray Square is a tool many totalitarian regimes utilize and connects it to other atrocities committed around the world.
"Memory Journey aims to recognize and speak out human rights violations within the society with the aim of fighting against social polarization and discrimination and contributing in social justice and peace-building with the power of civil society. Rethinking the widespread narrative of official history and searching for the truth about recent incidents containing serious rights violations contributes raising the level of awareness of youth in terms of pluralism, living in coexistence, democratic values and decent life".
Karakutu focuses on more downstream prevention, though there is some overlap. The upstream prevention streams result from the memory initiatives and truth finding activities that Karakutu does. These types of activities can have a positive impact on future genocide and mass atrocity prevention.
