Meydan (Square)

The effective participation of CSOs in decision-making mechanisms is largely dependent on dialogue. Through the “Perceptions and Approaches to CSOs in Turkey” research we conducted as YADA, we determined that both public administrators and citizens believe that the participation of CSOs in decision-making mechanisms is a prerequisite for democracy. We also saw that citizens and CSO representatives highlighted the lack of communication, dialogue, and cooperation among CSOs. CSOs in Turkey generally focus on their own specific projects rather than producing information or sharing data on the issues they are working on. The main issue here is that CSOss do not follow each other’s work and efforts and are not positively influenced by each other. Since the political and social polarization in Turkey is largely reflected in civil society interactions, CSOs perceive each other as position-oriented rather than issue-oriented. This, in particular, causes CSOs from different identities and backgrounds not to come together, not to establish a democratic dialogue, and thus to become ineffective. In another work of YADA; we have produced an important method in areas where dialogue can be established among various CSOs. We started to create environments where CSOs could discuss their issues without focusing on their existences and ontologies. In these meetings, which we called Civil Talks, we brought CSOs together and enabled them to listen to each other. To go one step further, we started the Meydan (Square) Meetings, where CSOs can not only listen to each other but also discuss common issues through mutual dialogue. As YADA, we have developed Meydan (Square) in order to prepare the ground for dialogue and negotiation by creating common sharing and working areas in order to overcome the state of being closed to itself as a result of research and observations we have made for many years.“Meydan” which means “square” is an open space to meet, discuss, and debate. The strategy behind this name is that a square belongs to a city but no one, a commonplace for everyone to meet and host diversities. The name Meydan is used as a metaphor which addresses the objective of building a democratic dialogue among diversities, CSOs from different backgrounds.

With the Meydan (Square) meetings we have developed as a civil society in Turkey to overcome this isolation problem, which is a reflection of polarization; we strive to create a democratic negotiation environment that will enable civil society in Turkey to confront its contribution to polarization, where they can talk without claiming more rights than the other and without trying to emulate the other.

As CSOs, we established the first Meydan (Square), where we met to talk about realizing a new model of dialogue and negotiation, to talk about cities where differences can coexist. In the first event of the Meydan (Square) meeting series, where we come together to talk, listen, negotiate, and collect on the issues of Turkey, we brought together CSOs from different backgrounds and working in different fields with the call to “talk about the cities that belong to all of us”. We had discussions around the concept of the city, urbanization and sustainability on how cities can “belong to all of us”. We have discussed the points that these discussions have in common and diverge about living together. We created spaces for the participating organizations to meet each other, we talked about our imaginations and realities of the city, and we discussed how it is possible to live together in the city.

In the second of the Meydan (Square) meetings, called “whose issue is the refugee issue?”, we came together with CSOs to talk about the work done in the field of refugees and to discuss the needs in these areas together. In this meeting, we talked in more depth about the prominent themes regarding the refugee issue and tried to see different issues from different perspectives and explore them together.

We brought together CSOs of Turkey and CSOs founded by refugees for the first time in the second Square, which we established to share the experience and skills of civil society to embrace, discover, define, bring to the agenda, produce knowledge and solutions. In “Whose issue is the refugee issue?” meeting we had two main goals, which we set up with the title of the following: First, to invite CSOs that may or could not have established a connection with the refugee issue, but have not yet established such a connection, to think and exchange information; the second was to take the perspective of the studies carried out in the field from the micro perspective to the macro dimension, to question together the existing practices on rights violations, hate speech, cooperation and most importantly living together. In these two dimensions, we aimed to prepare the ground for the start of the discussion and to support the cooperation of the actors who would continue this ground.

Titles of other Meydan meetings that we organized were: “What is the role of municipalities in education?”, “Disabled people’s access to the city, to the location, to education, health, culture and art!”, “New dialogue, negotiation, and cooperation models in pandemic”, “Roles and roads that are intersecting in the disaster issue”, “When Climate Crisis Knocks on the Door”, “Whose issue is the youth issue?”.

Along with all these outputs, we continue to design different Meydan (Square) meetings that will support civil society, togetherness, and an environment of dialogue-negotiation. We invite everyone to be a part of the Meydan (Square).