2011 WINPeace Workshop for Greek Turkish and Cypriot
Posted under: Youth: Focus on Collaborative Leadership.
When: The 2011 WINPeace Conflict Resolution Camp for Greek , Turkish and Cypriot Youth took place July 3-July 9th on the Robert College Campus in Istanbul. There were 45 students,
Who: 11 Greeks [ 2 from Athens and 9 from Alexandropolis}, 10 Cypriots Turkish speaking Cypriots from TRNC, 10 Greek speaking Cypriots, 10 Turks -plus 2 interns who were former participants.
The Sponsors were Robert College, The Aydın Doğan Vakfı, The Friedrich Ebert Foundation, The Greek Consulate of Istanbul, and a trustee of Robert College, Erkut Yucaoğlu. Many, many, thanks for their generosity and for making this workshop a reality.
The program consisted of 3 parts.
I. The Academic Aspect- A set of activities that taught skills of Conflict resolution, collaborative leadership, and human rights education.
II. The Creative Aspect – an adaptation of the UNDP Multicultural Village project in which students created a dance, film or new political system using the concepts covered in the Academic Aspect.
III. Recreation- students went to Ortaköy, Aya Sofya, the Grand Bazaar, the Sismangolio Megaro library at the Greek Consulate and had lunch in Haci Baba and walked down Istiklal, as well as a Boshorus dinner cruise.
The Academic Aspect:
The Academic aspect was an age appropiate comprehensive program; mostly hands on. The students were enthusiastically involved in all workshops. Each day started off with Dance and Movement exercises designed to introduce or reinforce the concepts of the workshop such as knowing oneself, cooperation, listening, thinking outside the box, etc.
On the first day, after Icebreakers, students were introduced to the concepts of Collaborative Leadership and Win/Win. They then did an exercise based on the story of the’ Blind Men and the Elephant’ on the importance of recognizing the validity of different perspectives to arrive at the truth. Participants then reached a consensus for the Ground Rules for the workshop. The rest of the day was spent on exploring the stereotypes of national identity. The students in national groups explored how their national group sees themselves, how they view the other, and how they would like to be viewed. Much discussion ensued as the different groups presented what they had worked on. Concurrent sessions followed as half the participants were introduction to the work of Marshall Rosenberg and the concepts of ‘nonviolent communication’ while the other half did a wonderful series of hands on Human Rights activities. For example one HR activity involved the students role playing being in a space ship that had crashed on a distant planet. They were put in situations in which they had to negotiate what decisions to take - for example should they choose a leader for the sake of expediency [oxygen was running out] or should they all have a say? How should they share the food? Etc. Reflection and discussion followed each activity.
Students were introduced to the notion of being a mediator and how a mediator operates. They then role-played in an activity where they took part in a conflict which they had to define the problem and state all the needs and concerns of all parties, then mediate a solution that would satisfy all parties with (hopefully) a win/win solution. 5 out of 6 groups succeeded in reaching a solution.
After the role playing, it was time to start work on the real problems. First students identified some problematic issues existing between Turkey, Greece and Cyprus. They then choose which issue they would like to work on. In groups they tried to come up with solutions which were then presented to the whole group and discussed.
II.
The Creative Aspect: Students viewed the exhibition of the winners of the Aydın Doğan International Competition of Cartoons for Peace. Each selected a particular cartoon and shared what this cartoon said to them. They then transformed the visual message of the cartoon into physical movements.
In the Multicultural village activities, students chose to work in the Dance, Film or Political Systems groups. On the last 2 days, they worked on producing a dance, a film or a new political system that embodied the concepts of collaborative leadership and living together peacefully. These were presented in the last evening at the closing ceremony and party.
Facilitators/Organizers:
Many thanks go to everyone involved in working with this workshop.
The trainers all knew their stuff and were able to be flexible. We made a great team!
Maria Hadzipavlou ,along with Madga Zenon, who did the Identity and brainstorming and presenting the real issues between the countries, Mine Atli and Omur Yilmaz, who did the exciting Human Rights activities, Defne Erdur who did the movement and dance to start the day as well as the Creative aspect- Dance, Jennifer Sertel , who did collaborative leadership, importance of perspective, win/win , mapping and roleplaying a conflict , Ece Palaz and Jameson Vierling who did the Creative – Film aspect. Yannis Kitros for chaperoning the Greek contingent, Fotini Sianou for facilitating the ground rules, and with her voice of reason while keeping her finger on the pulse of the camp throughout as well as the mediation exercise. (Who can forget the way she grabbed those chairs for her group in the human rights exercise!) Onur Unver and Öznür Mesut for their work in the dorm, and Güler Karabatur for her organizational help. Everyone did their utmost and it was great!
A special thanks to the Aydın Doğan Vakıf for the wonderful students from the Aydin Doğan Vocatıonal school for Communıcation as well as for the Cartoon Exhibit and for positive press coverage. Thanks to Zeynep Oral also for speaking to the students at the Sismanoğlu Megara and for writing a piece about the workshop in Cumhuriyet.
Evaluation: Anecdotal comments all were positive. But one had only to be there as they were taking leave of each other to see the impact this week made on them all. Attached is a compilation of the open ended evaluations by the students. Surprisingly, one of the favorite activities according to the evaluations were the guided meditation activities. This supports the idea that ‘peace starts within’.
A pre and post- test was given to all students. This is currently being compiled by Gamze Gazioglu of the Bogazici University Peace Education and Research Center and will be available in October. A Facebook group is very active and the students are staying in touch.
A short film was made of the whole camp by Ece Palaz.
Suggestion for future workshops
1. Starting the day with Dance and Movement was highly successful due to the professionalism and energy of the trainer. However some students felt that at least sometimes, a shorter daily time could have been allotted to it so that there would be more time for more academic activities. The Meditation activity was hugely successful. This should be retained. The academic aspect worked extremely as it was tightly scaffolded and full of activities wherein the students learned by doing. The’ hands on’ nature as well as the connection between the topics is essential.
2. Having 2 dorms with a responsible adult for each dorm was an ideal situation but one that is not always possible.
3. For the Turkish delegation, the partnership with the Aydın Doğan Vakfı and school was a win/ win situation and hopefully this can be continued.
4. There was an accident when one of the participant’s shoulder went out. Luckily she had insurance. This brings home the point that all students must have mandatory travel insurance.
5. The most salient conflicts occurred between the Turkish group and the Turkish Cypriots. As the Turkish settlers (Turks from Turkey who have settled in Cyprus, especially as part of a policy of the Turkish government) are also part of the problem, I would like to recommend that they be included in camps in the following years if possible.
A Participant’s perspective:
I would like to close with some feedback from the participants:
“The activities and lessons were really helpful for widening our perspectives in various issues. The activity where groups wrote about their communities and other people’s opinions about them was the turning point of the camp as we had the chance to see the reality in different communities and not just what the media tells us….
The multicultural village activity was the one where people already got used to each other and worked collaboratively in order to create beautiful things. It was the most productive session for me with all the political discussions about systems etc. in the political group…
This was the best camp I have ever attended in my life! I used English more than my total use in the Columbia University summer program for 3 weeks last year.
Students were very open-minded and the lessons directed us to understand each other. I listed many of them as brothers and sisters on Facebook and invited them to Istanbul, to stay in my house. I saw them in my dreams, and am planning to visit Cyprus next August. The Facebook group is great for keeping on contact, and we had Skype video conferences just yesterday.
We even had information about the explosion that happened in Cyprus and its effects that the press didn’t announce at all. I feel I am a world citizen now and see that the problems between these countries are creations of bad politicians and disavowal policies. “ (Mert Uzunoğlu , participant from Turkey)
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“Winpeace 2011 was one of the most amazing and remarkable experiences I’ve had. Not necessarily because of the gorgeous city (Istanbul) that we were living in, but mostly because of the opportunity that we were given to spend a whole week with 40 teenagers working together, interacting with each other. By the end of the week we had become a family, we had shared together so many awesome moments together, learned and gained from the different cultures present. I found the different topics that my peers chose to discuss with us during the week very exciting and important so we’ll be able to build strong and healthy relationships with other others in the future . All in all I believe this peace camp made us better people, taught us many values such as equality, collaborative leadership, empathy, etc and made us gain a lot of new friends.” (Lefkios Participant from Greek Cyprus ).
I believe that what Winpeace is really great at is proving everyone that we all can live together as one and not as different nations without losing our individual identities on national basis. ….We learned by doing. The first day in Winpeace we established our ground rules, which is, as we have been taught, the first step to solve a conflict in a way where everyone can win. Establishing the ground rules together enabled us to have the environment in which we all could live as we wanted. For example we wanted to sleep a little bit later than usual and we talked about it together and that enabled us to have the time that we wanted before we slept. We created the environment where everyone could feel comfortable by listening to each others’ needs and trying to answer those needs. With this atmosphere it was much easier to understand other people…. Every single moment was special in Winpeace, I wish I could live that week over and over again whenever I want to, which would be practically every day of my life J This was a week that really changed my life in a very good way, and I am not just saying it, it literally did so (T. Koray YozgatIı, participant from Turkey)