Sosyal, Duygusal Öğrenim 1995 lerde netleşen bir kavram. Sosyal yaşamda IQ ( düşünsel zeka )   kadar EQ ( duygusal zeka ) nın da önemi, hayatta mutluluk ve başarı üzerinde direkt etkisi olduğu kanıtlandı. Bu becerilerin öğrenildiği öğretildiği bilimsel olarak kabul edildi ve programlar geliştirildi. Yıllar içinde bu programlar uygulandı, denendi, ölçüldü, somut olumlu sonuçları kanıtlandı ve dünyadaki tüm çalışmaları, programları inceleyen ve değerlendiren CASEL kuruldu. Casel hazırlanan programlar içinde Dünya Gençlik Vakfı’nın “Quest” programını en kapsamlı, uygulanabilir ve etkin bir  program olarak tanımladı. Programın yaygınlaşması amacıyla tüm haklarını 2000 yılında Uluslararası Lions Vakfı satın aldı. Bugün 26. yılını tamamlayan Quest 69 ülkede uygulanmakta.

Quest programı SEL başta olmak üzere 4 temel konu içermekte:

1 – Sosyal – Duygusal Beceriler

- Öz farkındalık  ( özgüven, duygu kontrolü )

- Sosyal farkındalık  ( toplumun değerlerinin ve çıkarının bilincinde olarak davranma)

- Öz Yönetim  ( öz disiplin, stres kontrolü, hedef belirleme, öz motivasyon, öfke kontrolü )

- Karar verme  ( sorgulama, analitik düşünme, etik sorumluluk, problem tanımlama ve çözme )

- Etkin İletişim  ( iletişim, işbirliği, takım ruhu, uzlaşmazlık çözümü, yardım etme ve isteme; yapıcı ilişkiler kurma )

2 – Karakter oluşumu  - Evrensel değerleri benimsetme  ( kendine ve başkalarına saygılı sorumlu, öz disiplinli, nazik, dürüst, güvenilir, aile ve toplumuna bağlı)

3- Koruyuculuk – Bedeni ve kendine zararlı maddelerden ve davranışlardan uzak kalma olumsuz baskı ve etkilere karşı durabilme becerisi kazandırma

4- Hizmet( yardım) – Başkalarına yardım etme alışkanlık ve becerisi kazandırma.

Quest yönteminde tüm bu beceriler ve değerler okul öncesi yaşlardan başlayarak 17 yaşına kadar her yıl sistemli ve sarmal bir şekilde verilerek kazandırılmakta.  Uygulaması son derece kolay malzemeleri ile öğretmeni donatan, eğitim seminerleri ile uygulamayı örnekleyen bir yöntem.

26 yıl içinde yapılan akademik ölçme ve değerlendirmeler bu programın öğrencilerin kapasitesini yükselttiği  ve  akademik başarıyı da  büyük ölçüde arttırdığı kanıtlamış durumda.

Tüm yaşlar için eğitim malzemeleri Türkçeleşmiş ve yerel eğitmenleri yetişmiş durumda. 4 yıl içinde 14 kentte MEF Okulları ve İstanbul Hisar Vakfı Okulundan Urfa Suruç İlçe Okullarına, Bursa TED Okulundan Diyarbakır Bilge Köyü okulu öğretmenlerine kadar 200 e yakın devlet ve özel okulundan 1600 öğretmene eğitim verildi. Sonuçlar çok başarılı. İlerleme ve yararları izlenmekte.

MEB müfredatında “değerler” ve “sosyal beceriler” başlık olarak var, ancak içeriği henüz yok. Rehberlik öğretmenlerine bırakılmış durumda.  Bu nedenle Yaşam Becerileri programı Türk eğitiminde önemli bir alanı dolduracak sistem ve yöntemler programı olarak yerini alması hedeflenmekte. TLV-TEV ortaklığında, MEB projesi içinde ölçme/değerlendirme çalışması Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi ile birlikte yapılacak.

When: The 2011 WINPeace  Conflict Resolution Camp for Greek , Turkish and Cypriot Youth took place July 3-July 9^th 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)

—-

“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)

Uçan Süpürge in Turkish means ‘flying broom’. The “flying broom” is a feminist group in Ankara that organized this year’s 3rd Women’s Film Festival from May 4+h to the llth and dedicated it to WINPEACE, the Greek -Turkish Women’s Initiative for Peace and to peaceful resolution of differences.

The mass media gave special emphasis to the presentation of WINPEACE in Ankara and the people showed their love in every possible way and at every opportunity.

The meeting in Ankara had a special color. In addition to women from Greece and Turkey steadfastly building bridges of understanding and trust, there were the film makers from other countries reminding us that for thousands of women on this planet, basic human rights have still not been manifested.

The buoyant and sensitive opening ceremonies of the International Festival creatively expressed women’s needs, desires and dreams as well as thinking and logic on a vast number of issues in contemporary life. The circulation of the Turkish version of the Greek children’s book “PEACE” of Aristophanis by Sofia Zarambouka published by Aksoy Yayıncılık demonstrated one of the joint ventures of WINPEACE.

Ankara was important in its richness of emotions, images, thoughts in a relationship that is becoming long lasting. Three days of seminars in conflict resolution gave WINPEACE members the techniques and skills they needed to deal with conflict through dialogue and the opportunity to practice peaceful resolution of differences between the Greek and Turkish women. While respecting differences in our ways of thinking, we became more conscious of our common traits of universality and unity.

The panel “Women for Peace” heard the voices of the Cypriot -Turkish SEVGÜL ULUDAĞ and the Cypriot -Greek Katy ECONOMIDOU and the Greek and Turkish representatives of WINPEACE. Katy started her speech with the follovving excerpt: “…One day while our children walk through the gardens, and discuss in public places, or stir up the ashes of a ruined civilization, they may not call us blessed. But they vvill not damn us either because they know we refuse to remain silent, to let things pass like within a dream”.

Zeynep : “Margarita: The proud Mother”

At the opening ceremony of the film festival in Ankara, the innaguration speaches were made by Margarita and myself. The last part of Margarita’s speach was like this:

We want to see films made that challenge misperceptions and biases that have flourished for so many years prior to the recent breakthrough. We want to forbid ourselves from accusing or rejecting human beings based on predeter­mined assumptions. At the same time, we are trying to avoid false harmony by learning to live with different points of view. We want most of all to foreclose the possibility of a war. This requires an intense faith in people, faith in their

ability to create and re-create, faith in their capacities to be more fully human. This is undoubtedly an essential ele­ment for everyone functioning within a civil society- a belief and faith in human beings.(…) I want also to congratulate your Minister of Forcign Affairs İsmail Cem for his role in the new direction for our two countries; and I need not say that I am proud to be the mother of George Papandreou.”

For two years now, women from Greece and Turkey, members of WINPEACE, have worked hand and in hand to ease tensions between our countries and to build a culture of peace. Immediately following the 1997 crisis that brought our countries to the brink of war and long before the earthquakes, we women decided that enough was enough.

We believed that the time had come to take active measures at making our world safer for our children. On the beauti­ful and historical island of Rhodes, this WINPEACE meeting came together in a radically changed atmosphere. The tragedies that caused immense grief for our people liberated the power of friendship between them and acted as a catalyst of solidarity. The two earthquakes gave evidence that political inflexibility leads to a dead end and the strong need is to overcome engrained prejudices

WINPEACE has accomplished quite a bit over the years. It is now gaining recognition by both national governments and support from international institutions. WINPEACE projects-joint ventures (book translations, conflict resolution seminars, agro-tourism, small and medium enterprises, youth camps and documentaries) are now getting moral and material support from international institutions.

WINPEACE appeals to the governments of Turkey and Greece to take concrete measures, such as, reducing military expenditures by 5% by the year 2003, which is consistent with the Beijing Platform for Women and as WINPEACE pro­posed in May 1998. Actions such as this, along with Turkey’s candidacy in the EU, will contribute to preserve the existing atmosphere of friendship and mutual understanding. Finally, WINPEACE asks the governments to desist from the use or threat to use military force as an option in the resolution of conflicts.

Civic society cannot allow this new window of opportunity to close.

After two years of collaboration and walking side by side, women from Greece and Turkey, the members of WINPEACE, send from Rhodes a message of good neighboring, peace and prosperity in the region and its communities. In the midst of grief from the earthquake catastrophe, the peoples of Greece and Turkey have liberated the power of friend­ship, solidarity and support. The fear of the awesome natural phenomena showed the dead-end of political inflexibility, put aside the sting of prejudice, and favored the effusion of a climate of trust. The citizens’ needs showed the path, the political practice should follow. It is within this path we should remain with stability, devotion and determination. This happens because the relationships between the countries are not only defined by their governments, but by their communities as well. In addition, this imposed by our duty to the earthquake victims, to the contemporary percep­tions of democracy and to the fact that the consciousness of multicultural societies is developed within conditions of globalization.

We, the women of WINPEACE, declare today that we stand for and will continue to stand for the advancement of this effort – firstly because we are women and therefore have been used to living a great extent away from power, have learned to dare to make the changes, to build durable relations, to tell our thoughts clearly, to act methodically and co-ordinate our actions so that tomorrow could dawn today.

Aware of the messages of our times, we declare our support to the promotion of the values of peace and the prosper­ity of the region. We say yes to the proposal for the reduction of military expenditure, to the proposal of the nuclear-free zone in south-east Europe, to the dialogue between the governments of Greece and Turkey, to the upgrading of the UN role, to the revision of the view which has been keeping Turkey out of the European family. We also ask to award –with the Nobel Prize for Peace – the selflessness of the rescue teams AKUT and EKAM who devotedly offered their services to both countries under difficult, crucial and critical circumstances.

Under the dust of the ruins, we, the citizens, have opened a new path in the relations between our two countries. We, as women, will help to establish this road, to widen it and to support it. This is our responsibility and we will do it with

great devotion

Women MP’s from Turkey and Greece join hands – Ankara Decleration May 2000

called “Memorandum of Understanding”:

April 30 – May 3, 1998

WHERE

KOS & BODRUM

COMMENTS

1st WINPEACE meeting: Worked together to bring wom­en’s perspective into finding creative solutions for the peaceful resolution of conflicts. For four days discussed building a peace culture between two countries.

WHEN

November 20-22, 1998

WHERE

ATHENS

COMMENTS

2nd WINPEACE meeting dedicated to the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Session devoted to discussion on women’s rights as human rights. Action plan prepared on joint ventures.

WHEN

OCTOBER 21-24, 1999

WHERE

RHODOS

COMMENTS

WINPEACE calls upon the governments of Greece & Turkey to stop using threats for military interventions as a means of solving differences. Winpeace calls both governments for a reduction of military expenditure by 5% upto 2003.

Winpeace appeals for the removal of nationalistic distor­tion from school text books. Winpeace states that History is useful when it identifies mistakes, emphasizes human values and reinforces the value of universal giving.

WHEN

May 4-8, 2000

WHERE

ANKARA

COMMENTS

UCAN SUPURGE organize the 3rd Women’s Film Festi­val and dedicate it to WINPEACE. Conflict Resolution seminar with Winpeace Trainers Dr. H.B.Danesh of the Landegg Academy in Switzerland and Ann-Sofi Jakobsson Hatay Phd Candidate & Lecturer Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala, Sweden. Speeches deliv­ered at public event by Cypriot sisters.

WHEN

December 15-17, 2000

WHERE

PETRA-MITILINI

COMMENTS

The Role of Rural Women in Regional Development was the main issue. Discussions on agro tourism, WINPEACE plans and projects. The participants gathered olives together with local women as a symbolic gesture and enjoyed their warm hospitality.

WHEN

April 21-23, 2001

WHERE

ISTANBUL

COMMENTS

Organized Seminar on disarmament and peace by Prof. Czempion. Joint projects are on the table for discussion: book translations, agro tourism, Winpeace Youth Camps. First approach to defining a process for the discussion of the Cyprus issue. Action Plan for Disarmament devel­oped.

WHEN

October 27-29,2001

WHERE

NAFPLION

COMMENTS

The West has to understand that punishment and re­venge will not stop the terrorists. It will create more. There is only one form of security, “mutual security”. Agenda pertained: Women in Globalization, Trafficking in Women, Plans and activities for the next year.

WHEN

November 8-10, 2002

WHERE

PERA PALAS, ISTANBUL

COMMENTS

9th WINPEACE meeting in Istanbul. Accession of Turkey into the EU and the need for disarmament were two of the topics discussed. Emphasis on alternative methods to resolve conflict especially at period of “War against Terrorism”. Against the threat of war in Iraq.

WHEN

October 24-27, 2003

WHERE

Cruise Boat, Greece

COMMENTS

We sail off from Piraeus. Our sisters fly to Athens and then, we meet in Mykonos. Review of all projects. Discus­sion on Peace Education. Gender, Peace & Foreign Policy. We visit Rhodes, Patmos, Kusadasi. From IMIA to a Culture of Peace. Meeting with women from other organizations in Athens.

WHEN

November 18-21, 2004

WHERE

Pera Palas Hotel in Istanbul

COMMENTS

Met historians from both countries. Projects, Greek-Turkish Relations, Public Event on Peace Education at the Bogazici University. WINPEACE APPEAL for the accession of Turkey into the European Union.

WHEN

September 30 – October 2, 2005

WHERE

CYPRUS

COMMENTS

WINPEACE expands to include our sisters from Cyprus. Focusing on Peace Education and how to move PE for­ward i.e. training teachers, testing the WINPEACE Manual. Public Event on PE organized on the Green Line.

WHEN

November 1-4, 2007

WHERE

KOS-BODRUM

COMMENTS

10th anniversary of WINPEACE. Changes in the World during the 10 year WINPEACE experience. War against Terror. Peace Education. WINPEACE personal views and stories. New Issues. This was a WINPEACE meeting focusing on political issues, on social issues and on issues within ourselves. It was so touching, sentimental, mature, and political. With a lot of “know thyself’ approach.

INDIVIDUAL OR SMALL GROUP PARTICIPATIONS

WHEN

June 14-15,1999

EVENT

Vienna meeting of OSCE

ORGANIZER

Participation of Fotini Sianou

WHEN

November 8th, 1999

EVENT

OSCE Istanbul Summit

ORGANIZER

Woman for Women’s Human Rights & Winpeace Turkey

WHO

Winpeace Greece: Fotini Sianou

WHEN

November 27th, 28th, 1999

EVENT

Turkish Greek Forum in Athens

WHEN

October 8-11, 2000

EVENT

Meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security & Defense Policy in Brussels

ORGANIZER

European Parliament

WHO

Members of WINPEACE went to Brussels to attend the meeting of the Committee where the draft report on Turkey’s application for accession to the European Union and the state of negotiation would be discussed. The group was also briefed by the Commissioner on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities. The group participated in the World Women’s March Against Violence & Poverty which took place in Brussels on October 10, 2000.

WHEN

June 23-26, 2001

EVENT

Women’s Leadership & Conflict Resolution in Berlin

ORGANIZER

Frauen Computer Centrum.

WHO

Winpeace speakers: Nilgun Lermioglu Niord Fotini Sianou

COMMENT

Presentation of WINPEACE as a module for good prac­tice. Militarism & Sexism.

WHEN

September 2001

EVENT

Frankfurt Peace Meeting organized by Turkish and Greek people living in Germany.

WHO

Guest speakers: Zeynep Oral on behalf of Winpeace Tur­key and Soula Panaretou on behalf of Winpeace Greece

WHEN

December 3-7, 2001

EVENT

European Parliament Afghan Women’s Summit

ORGANIZER

Euro-Parliamentarian Anna Karamanou invitation to meeting in Brussels on women in Afghanistan

WHO

KEDE & Winpeace members express their solidarity to women of Afghanistan

WHEN

May 2002

EVENT

Ramala, Palestine

ORGANIZER

Israeli & Palestinian Women’s Organizations

WHO

KEDE/WINPEACE members take part in the Women’s March to RAMALA

WHEN

June 2002

EVENT

Vienna Austria

ORGANIZER

Turkish & Greek&Cyprus Women Conflict Resolution Seminar

Bruno Kriesky Foundation

WHO

4 Woman each from

Turkey / Greece / North,South Cyprus

WHEN

January 2-8, 2003

EVENT

Visit to Baghdad

ORGANIZER

Members of KEDE & Winpeace visited Iraq to contribute to the effort to stop the impeding war.

WHO

Met with other delegations from Europe and the USA. Margarita Papandreou, Zeynep Oral, Fotini Sianou, Omaima Rawas

WHEN

May 28 – 30, 2003

EVENT

“Gender, Peace and Foreign Policy: the EU Perspective” Athens Forum

ORGANIZER

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Greece

WHO

WINPEACE speaker from Turkey: Nur Mardin

WHEN

October 16, 2004

EVENT

Peace Education Seminar-Athens

ORGANIZER

KEDE/WINPEACE

WHO

Margarita Papandreou & Nilgun Lermioglu Niord opened the seminar. Speakers from WINPEACE Turkey, Lebanon, Bosnia & Herzegovina, & Greece.

COMMENTS

Integrating Peace Education in the Greek School System

SPECIAL EVENTS

February 8, 1996: Open letter of Margarita Papandreou on behalf of all the women of KEDE to the Women of Turkey.

November 28-29, 1997: Greek-Turkish Peace Initiative Declaration was put out after a meeting between Greek and Turkish women in Athens.

August 25-27, 1998 Istanbul: Margarita Papandreou delivers a key speech at the International Conference on “Heri­tage, Multicultural Attractions & Tourism” organized by the Bogazici University as the Coordinator of WINPEACE on “The Role of Tourism in the Creation of a Culture of Peace”.

November 12, 1999 Athens: Margarita Papandreou receives the ABDI IPEKCI PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP PRIZE for the work of WINPEACE

April 14, 2000 Athens: Margarita Papandreou delivers a key speech in Conference at Pantheon University on “Strengthening Civil Society in the Balkans”. Title of her speech is “What Can Women Do in Building a Civil Society?” Module of good practice is WINPEACE.

November 11, 2000: Margarita Papandreou organizes and implements a plan to break the UN sanctions against the people of Iraq. She hires a 737/400 Olympic Airways airplane and with the participation of one hundred passengers international personalities, representatives of NGOs, peace activists, lands in Baghdad, breaking the UN sanctions.

March 2001: Margarita Papandreou delivers a speech in Geneva, Human Rights Committee against the UN sanction on the people of Iraq.

June 11, 2001 Athens: Winpeace Greece has a meeting with the President of the Greek Democracy Mr. C. Stephano­poulos. President is informed about the philosophy of WINPEACE; WINPEACE activities and the initiatives for Disarma­ment.

December, 2001 Brussels: Margarita Papandreou visits Brussels with 30 other women to express solidarity to the women of Afghanistan. She speaks at a special session of the European Parliament.

May 28 – 30, 2003: “Gender, Peace and Foreign Policy: the EU Perspective” Athens Forum

“No! We are not going to occupy Greece” The confidence building and group formation process was not at all easy. Our Turkish group was politically very heterogenous, coming from different organisations and backgrounds. Some of us, under the influence of the official history teaching and Turkish foreign policy positions had nationalistic anxieties. At the time, Margarita’s son Yorgos, had a very important position in the Greek Foreign Ministry. This also created hesitations in some of us regarding the independence of the Greek side as a grassroot initiative, as distinct from the official policies of Greece.

Although they were more politically homogeneous than we were, the same nationalistic anxieties existed in the Greek group. However, there was another obstacle. At least in the beginning, some of our Greek sisters had deep in their hearts and minds, the fear of occupation of their small country, by the much bigger Turkey in order to take back what the Ottomans had lost.

Just after the Kos-Bodrum meetings ended with success, a Greek sister, from one of the Aegean islands, and I were sitting in a cafe at the Bodrum port, drinking wine. I noticed that she was uneasy and anxiously staring at the crowd around us. When I asked the reason, she very sincerely told me that she can’t get rid of the fear of an eventual Turkish occupation of the Aegean islands. I tried to explain her that, we have enough land and such a plan would not be supported by the great majority of the people, or any sane politician, for that matter. I don’t know how far I could convince her, but this experience proved to me, how important but difficult our mission was to build a new culture of peace and peacefull coexistance. How could we end fear and mistrust between our two nations? Yet we must end the fear and mistrust since they are the main causes of violence, wars and they breed the militaristic culture.

The WINPEACE experience has proved that only through sincere and continuous dialog; only by digging deep into the roots and causes of the fear and conflict, as individuals and as a group, can we change and learn to trust each other. Ofcourse, there were few women from both sides, who couldn’t learn and change during this process and they left us.

Dina :

“So many times I came so close to death”

I remember the year in Rhodos, I was there as a member of Winpeace and a member of organizing committee. Actually I was the only member of the organizing committee, so there were many things I had to do . According to the program there was a tour in the old city and someone would be a English speaking guide but this person did not fulfill his job so I was there walking with the Turkish group and one guide who could speak only Greek and German . I was translating and watching all these Turkish women running around . Then I realized that this guide was using expressions against the Turks. So I started to translate without the “gory adjectives”, but I realized that the guide spoke only with such adjectives. So I felt I had to change what she said and not translate it…For example, “ This place is where the Ottoman sultan cut heads off “ I had to say this is the place where Malta knights came and fought.” I kept on praying I hope none of them speaks Greek… So many times I came so close to death ..

Zulal: “To believe in…”

At our initial meetings, writing the press release took hours. I remember the first time in Kos, it was very late when we finished the meeting and sat down in the hotel garden to write the release. Supposedly two persons, one from each group, were given this task and unfortunately I was the one appointed by our group. The Turks mostly went to bed, but the Greek women one by one joined us, so that in the end there were about 10 people in front of the computer. Each word was discussed, changed, then changed again. Actually the content had been decided during the meeting, so all this debate was really just about semantics. Dawn was breaking by the time we had a one page bulletin ready. This went on for a couple of more meetings. Afterwards, however, so much trust was established that the each side fought to have the other side write the press release, so they could go on dancing, drinking and having fun.

Ferai:

“We are so ashamed”

What impressed me most was the opening of the PKK Office in Athens during our first meeting in Kos. We were preparing the press release of this first meeting, April 30, 1998 . Just some days before on April 5th first time the Turkish Military Forces Commander had visited Greece and started trying to heal relations. So the news that PKK opened a Balkan Office in Athens was like a cold shower.

I envisioned the next day papers.. Amoung the anti Greece news, the papers would ignore any peace attempt of Turkish and Greek women or perhaps they would make fun of our initiative. I was thinking this and wanted to have a declaration from the meeting which condemned the Greek Government . However our Greek friends did not want to bear political responsibility by signing such a declaration. How wrong I was. In peace initiatives amoung people everyone represents her(him) self, not their government. Our meeting there , our efforts to develop projects was much more valuable than submitting protests regarding governmental policy. However destructive the governmental decisions might be, people insisting on peace and raising their voices is much more important . After years of working together, on our 10th anniversary, we and our Greek friends remembered that day in Kos. They admitted how badly they felt that day and how ashamed they were that they were desperate to act. It took us10 years to admit this among ourselves.

After much correspondence and meetings with heated discussions on this side of the Aegean, the time had come for the first bilateral meeting with the women on the other side of the Aegean and I found myself with Şirin (Tekeli) and Nilüfer (Kuyaş) in Athens. I have been to many international meetings before but this was going to be the first “bilateral” one and I was to meet the legendary Margarita Papandreou and the meeting was going to take place at the historical place “Kastri” in which Margarita was living. All of this was a dimension beyond excitement for me: We were in Athens to open a new page at the history of Greek & Turkish relations.

Between November 28-29th, 1997, for two days & nights, we talked, discussed, laughed, got stressed, embraced, shared our fears, hesitations, reservations and dreams thus we’ve met! During this period I come across a one sided reality which never could have occurred to me nor could I have ever imagined. While searching for a name for our initiative, I suggested the “Aegean Woman’s Peace Initiative” to which there was a strong resistance: According to the Greeks, the Aegean was Greek and the use of the word ‘Aegean’ even for a peaceful cause would be the end of the beginning of our initiative! The women at the table were sincerely trying to explain that, it was the commonly accepted, mainstream notion by the people on the street. I was amazed! I was trying to understand how they could believe that the Aegean was Greek only!? I became apprehensive. The issue was still unresolved when Margarita said “when I told my driver to pick up the Turkish women from the hotel he frankly told me of his mixed feelings and how disturbed he felt” I began to realize how powerful hatred could become and how tough our mission was going to be. While biased knowledge is turning into prejudice, pride and fear captivates the present and the future by scattering renewed and rejuvenated seeds of hatred. In return we had to sow the seeds of love against this culture of hatred, urgently!

Finally we named our initiative named WINPEACE. WINPeace has once more made me realize how thin the line is between hate & love and how easily the former could become a weapon of violence and even mass destruction. Thus, we all need to protect and nourish love for the sake of peace with passion.

After ten years; although we could not become the wide spread grassroots movement reaching all strata of both societies I dreamt of, the movement is still standing. I am still enjoying the embracing power of love and I am proud that I have lived the experience of turning a culture of hatred into culture of peace. I know that with tens of WINPEACE women I miss, we will continue to be the guardians of peace of our Aegean on both sides: Now everyday from where I sit, I smile across to the care freely stretching Island of Kos where we held our first public meeting in May 1998. I wink and send my gratitude to the goddess of love, Aphrodite of Knidos, at the tip of the majestic peninsula of Datça which is extending into Aegean caressing Kos, with love.

Ceylan Orhun

20th century was tragically sad for the peoples of Turkish and Greek origins living if not hand in hand, at least side by side on the beautiful Aegean islands and on the Anatolian soil.
I lived the 6-7 September events at Yeniköy in İstanbul as a small child. I remember vividly the stones thrown to the windows of Aunt Eleni , who was our neighbor, and I can not forget the image of her bleeding head behind her windows. Perhaps this scene have never happened, it was just an illusion of my memory provoked by angry crowds coming from

Cyprus war was the reason of this last wave of migration.

Many years later when I went for the first time to Greece, I was profoundly shocked. This was during1990’s. I was rather scared to say that I was Turkish. Now I want to avoid using the word “enmity” to describe the situation and prefer to say that “I felt I was surrounded by a deep coldness.” On that visit I learned that on many products imported from Turkey they did not put the sign “Made in Turkey”. Because people refused to buy anything bearing this sign.

Üsküdar to Yeniköy on small boats with horrifying cries, by the confusion they created and by the fearsome crash of the breaking windows. Time after the events, all my best friends disappeared one by one. Later on, we learned that they left for Greece without telling this to any of us, to their neighbors.

WE THREW KARDAK NEWS TO WASTE BASKET

On December 1995 we started to get news from the Ankara bureau of the Hürriyet Gazetesi.

As the foreign news editor, I used to bring them to the editors meetings.
The news about an island with the name of Kardak which was in Aegean Sea was not news for anybody.

But the story was about Greek fisherman boat which approached the island and Turkey sent a gunboat to confront it.

It sounded to the editors as a usual and minor incident

In the Aegean, the so called “it dalaşları” (dogfights) in the air, and tensions caused by transgressing mutual borders on territorial waters were usual events…

One morning we woke up with the news about the “war of flags in Kardak”.

Turkish journalists had put a Turkish flag on the island which led some Greek citizens to pull it dawn and replace it with a Greek flag. The two countries found themselves in the middle of a deep and dangerous tension.

Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller gave the order to the Turkish Navy Forces: “O bayrak oradan inecek” (that flag will be pulled down from there.)

Both sides were on the edge of a war without really willing to wage war. If USA had not intervened, Turkey and Greece would be involved in a war that we would still try to solve the side effects even today.

WINPEACE was created in such a situation of extreme tension.
ISSUES CONFRONTING TWO COUNTRIES

CONTINENTAL SHELF

Issues on which two countries were in confrontation were not that much complicated to resolve. Yet “the air of the era” (zeitgeist) was such that collaboration among two neighboring countries was blocked each time there was an attempt in that direction.
Continental shelf issue is not still resolved.

But in those days, any drilling operation under the see by a Greek or Turkish boat became immediately big news on the first pages of newspapers in both countries. Both of them were blaming the other side of drilling secretly and illegally to find oil under the sea bed. ; These unproven accusations were helping to increase the tension.

TERRITORIAL WATERS

Some costs of Turkish and Greek territory in the Aegean Sea are so close to each other that, any declaration from either one of them about their intention to apply the international rules about territorial waters, lead inevitably to crisis.

The UN Convention of 1982, on Maritime Law recognized the right of the states to increase the territorial waters to 12 miles. Turkey did not sign this convention, whereas Greece did. According to the 6 miles regulation applied before, Greece had 43, 5 % of the Aegean see and with the application of 12 miles her share of the territorial waters would increase to 71, 5 %. One year after 1994, when the convention acquired legal status, Greek Parliament adopted a decision and declared that “she had the right to enlarge her territorial waters to 12 miles”.
1995 was a year of confrontation regarding the issue of territorial waters: Turkey rejected this declaration. Whereas Greece argued that “For the time being we are not applying the 12 miles rule but, this is part of our sovereignty that no one can refuse to recognize”.

Turkish National Assembly adopted a decision on 8 June 1995 hoping that Greece would not change the status quo, but in case she would, but gave authorization to the government to take all necessary measures including declaration of war. Hence to increase the territorial waters to 12 miles was considered by Turkey a “casus belli”.

Has this issue been solved today? No. But, Greece is not referring to this issue anymore, and Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoğlu promised to his counterpart in Greece to change this old decision.

CYPRUS

One of the three major issues among two countries is the issue of Cyprus. At the time of creation of WINPEACE, in Turkey those who were pro “solution” were largely considered as “traitors”.

It was not better in Greece where the approach was far from being rational. In the process of enlargement of European Union towards Middle and Eastern European countries, Greece worked very hard to include Cyprus in this process. And it did. Finally Cyprus became a member of EU before the problems of the island were resolved.
This new situation was not only a supplementary obstacle for resolving the Cyprus problem, but it also blocked the process of an eventual membership of Turkey to EU.

WINPEACE invited to the conflict resolution seminars Turkish and Greek Cypriote women, and to the youth camps, aside the Turkish and Greek youngsters, youth of both parts of Cyprus. It also promoted always the dialogue between the Cypriotes.
SUPPORT FOR PKK

Behaving according to the idea that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” Greece gave tactical support to PKK, which enraged Turkish people since the beginning of this politics.

The news about the existence of a PKK Camp in Lavrion, nearby Athens and the information indicating that PKK terrorists were getting military training in Greece hurt deeply the Turkish public opinion since the second part of 1990’s. Unending exchange of diplomatic notices lasted until the arrest of Abdullah Öcalan in Kenya, hosted by the ambassador of Greece.
Öcalan’s capture was a turning-point. Greece gradually ended her support to PKK.

Here, the foreign ministers of two countries, İsmail Cem and Yorgo Papandreu played an important role by signing the agreement of fighting against terrorism.

Following the 17 August 1999 earthquake Greek people was one of the first to propose help to Turkish victims.

The political rapprochement attitude that leadership of both countries adopted on the one hand and the friendly attitudes that both people adopted mutually, opened a new page in the relationships of Turkey and Greece.
WHERE DO WE STAND NOW?

The best way to resume where we stand now, is to listen to the words pronounced by Theodoros Pangalos, the deputy prime minister of Greece in the meeting gathering journalists of both countries in Izmir, on September 2010.

Pangalos used to be one of the foremost harsh politicians of 1990’s. Among one of those who opposed firmly the membership of Turkey to EU, Pangalos was talking to journalists in Izmir about the importance of good relationships between Turkey and Greece, he told that “he was and will always be in favor of rapprochement among journalists of both countries” and he praised the economic success of Turkey.
Cem-Papandreu governments adopted a new policy avoiding to lean only to the problems, instead they pointed the issues which were helpful for the rapprochement of the two people. . Within these framework initiatives of rapprochement among business men, women, youth and artists were promoted. Thus, breaking the stereotypes, Turkish and Greek people started to know each other better.

This rapprochement process continued and even grew stronger during the governments of AKP.

AKP governments adopted a diplomatic approach defined as “zero conflict with neighbors”. And nowadays the “rapprochement” policy is developing further into a policy of “partnership”.

In 2004, Tayyip Erdoğan, was the first the prime minister to visit officially Athens, after 16 years.

In May 2010 when Erdoğan visited Athens with 200 business men and nine of his cabinet members, a High Level Cooperation Council met for the first time and this was a new step in their relationships.

Are conflicts resolved? No. But working groups at different levels are trying to open new areas of collaboration and hence contribute to the fact that “working together”, comes before talking about the problems.

The exploratory consultations about the political problems between two countries which started in 2002 are still going on, in a more comprehensive way.
The bilateral meetings about confidence building measures continue successfully. And they already agreed upon. 29 articles as building a direct line of consultation among foreign and defense ministers; to inform each other about the next year’s planned maneuvers; collaboration among Military Academies of both countries; building a direct communication line between National Air Force headquarters situated in Eskişehir and Larissa, building a direct communication line among the Commanders in Chief of military forces. These are some of the extremely important security building measures.

The level of foreign trade which was very low in 1980’s is now booming and measured in million euros. The investment by Greek business men in Turkey is over 4 millions euros. But the most striking fact is about tourism that seemed “unimaginable” few decades ago: In 2009, the number of Greek tourists visiting Turkey was 617 thousand, and Turkish tourists visiting Greece reached 250 thousands.

WHAT WAS THE CONTRIBUTION OF WINPEACE ?

Women’s initiative for peace among Turkey and Greece, WINPEACE, was not expected to resolve all these conflicts, but helped this process of peace building with her conviction, endurance, and day to day concrete field work.

In an era where even the word of “peace” curdled one’s blood, women from both countries called on their governments to reduce defense budgets, and pronounced this demand openly, addressing the public opinions of both countries.
They tried to publish articles of their counterparts in their own press with the aim of informing their public opinion about the thoughts of the other side.

They opened to discussion in their conflict resolution workshops, the most critical issues. And when it came to question of to which cuisine belonged “dolma”, everybody got so nervous and the moment they realized this, they laughed together about the heath of their passions.

They gathered young men and women in youth camps and, reached to women living in distant areas like Karaburun and Lesvos Island through agro-tourism projects.

They supported together the membership of Turkey to EU, they pleaded their cause in front of politicians and they were heard by public opinions of both countries.

They invited women representatives of both national assemblies to get together and sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for friendship.

WINPEACE women, defended and lived thorough their experiences that the political problems between two countries may not be solved, but surely will be made unimportant with the efforts of those who are committed to peace.

WİNPEACE women, they watched with joy, how the modest but sincere peace message that they thrown from the Aegean coasts, created a growing wave in the sea.

Ferai Tınç

Şirin Tekeli

I became an activist after I resigned from the university in 1981. (In 1967 when I visited Athens ,I discovered that the time we chose was wrong. Athens was suffering under the boots of the military junta. In 1980, it was our turn to suffer under a military junta… ) At that time European women were curious to learn about what we were doing as feminist women. I was invited here and there to give conferences in the second part of 1980’s.
Among these meetings, those organised by KEGME, which was a woman’s organisation rather close politically to PASOK,
had a particular place. Once we got together in the island of Spestes, and once we met in a hotel at the Greek part of Lefkoşa in Cyprus. I met Margarita Papandreou and Eleni Stamiris during these meetings. I felt no hostility towards me in these meetings, on the contrary there was the sentiment of solidarity, as we, the women living at two different sides of the Aegean were suffering from the same oppressions, like poverty, violence, non representation in the politics etc. I published reports of these meetings as well as articles by Greek women scholars in Toplum ve Bilim, a journal where I had a role in the board of editors.
For me, people living in two sides of the Aegean had lived long enough, for many centuries in peace, and shared a common
culture in spite of the difference of religion. They understood each other deeply.
In 1996 we were active to create a new organisation in Turkey : The Association for the Support and Training of Women Candidates KA.DER in order to defend equal representation of women and men in all fields of life. Both Zeynep and myself were among the founding members… The crisis of Kardak / İmnia broke up. Zeynep received a letter from Margarita and we launched the initiative of WINPEACE. For one of the preliminary meetings, Ceylan, Nilüfer Kuyaş and myself went to Athens or rather to Kastria where Margarita had her house. We met all those enthusiastic women surrounding
her. There was no sign of hostility but friendship and love; peace loving was the only motivation that moved us all. A suitable strategy was adopted and we started to work. Our first public meeting in Kos and Bodrum was
unforgettable…
Later on I was so much involved in the activities of KA-DER that, I could not spare time for WINPEACE. But it was one of the activism that I appreciated most, hence she remained always in my heart and brain. In spite of my absenteeism, friends were kind enough to invite me to the 10. Anniversary meeting, held again in Bodrum and Kos. And Zeynep kindly offered me to write few lines for this book.
The legend says that Cyprus was the island where Aphrodite was born. And the island lived many centuries as a multi-cultural peace island. I hope that in near future she will become again an island of peace and love and, that myself will be able to see this happen in my lifetime.

Zeynep

I had worked for various Turkish-Greek relationship and activities since the 1970’s such as “The Turkish- Greek Peace and Friendship Association” and “The Abdi İpekçi Friendship and Peace Prize”… After I met Margarita in 1985 in Nairobi, I joined several activities that she had organized for peace. She knew about my work and efforts concerning the relations
between the two societies… So it was inevitable that we should cling together for our common vision and perspectives.
I got great help from Meryem Koray , Şirin Tekeli and Ceylan Orhun to organize the first steps.

Eleni

The aim was to bring women together from two hostile countries, Greece and Turkey. To consider alternative and more sustainable ways to solve conflicts peacefully rather than the use of the male.
I became a member of Winpeace as I have been involved in peace activities for more than three decades domestically and internationally. When I returned to Greece in 2001, after an absence of eleven years abroad, I contacted Margarita Papandreou with whom I had worked for many years during 1980’s on gender and peace issues. I was happy to join KEDE and its WINPEACE Program.
I am both happy and satisfied of being a member of Winpeace. Meeting and working with our Turkish sisters and later on with our Cypriot sisters both Greek and Turkish has been one of the highlight of my life returning to Greece. As both my parents are Greeks from Turkey, I have a special feeling for the country and peoples of my forefathers, even though devastating historical events the last few centuries have created great enmities and have driven the two peoples apart.
I feel that not withstanding all the differences between us – political, religious, language, etc – I feel that we are the same people with similar cultures, biological make-ups and ethical systems. But most important of all, being together is FUN and our informal time together is more enjoyable, joking, laughing, singing, telling stories, sharing meals, dancing on ‘tables’, and getting to know the ‘real’ person can only be accomplished through personal contact.

Ceylan

I am one of the three so called founder members of Winpeace upon invitation of Zeynep Oral. Our aim was to break the animosity and prejudices of the two countries among the women and through the women, thus to contribute to peaceful grassroots societies.

Fotini

The aim was to work for peace between Greece and Turkey; to meet our neighbors and to see that they are human beings
just like us; to discover our humanity. I was working very hard at that time in the General Confederation of Labour (GSEE) in the position of Deputy General Secretary on hundreds of labour issues. I was the only woman and feminist in the presidium. When Margarita and her feminist friends and partners made a call to the women in Turkey, they also contacted quite a few women in Greece. I responded positively to this call because “women and peace” had always been on my mind, in my heart and in my work. I am glad that I overcame the political obstacles at that moment, being in the political office of Synaspismos of the Left to join in with Margarita and all the other beautiful women.

Zülal

I have taken part in various peace initiatives since the 1970’s, but for me Winpeace has a very different place among them, because in Winpeace we realized concrete grassroots activities, we felt that we touched women’s lives. And I consider the efforts concerning peace education as an extremely important and innovative step for both countries.

Ifigenia

The purpose of WINPEACE was and is to establish relations between human beings not Greeks and Turks. To create a bridge between two different(?) cultures and to promote peace.
Müjgan
To me the main objective of Winpeace is to prove that bringing together women from different backgrounds , professions
, ideas and opinions of the two countries to know each other , discuss and search solutions for common problems
is possible. To develope friendship amoung the two groups and avoid the idea of “ the other”. I joined Winpeace in 2002 when I met Winpeace members .

Nilüfer

The main purpose was to create a dialogue group of women who would use their communication and leadership skills to build more peaceful relationship between Turkey and Greece; and to set an example for other conflicting nations. Moreover, I saw it as an important initiative for improving second track diplomacy between Turkey and Greece.

Dina

WINPEACE was established at a certain historical/political period and its main purpose was to address a critical and serious situation through dialogue and peaceful means rather than aggressiveness and hostility, through a pro-peace women’s perspective.
There are some things in my life that I can not do. When I realized I could be part of a group that aimed to overcome prejudice and biased attitudes, wished to be peaceful and productive, and to do all that in a long-term basis, I simply took part. Being a member of WINPEACE does not make me either happy or satisfied. It makes me feel like a responsible
citizen of that part of the
Mediterranean, a person who realizes that preventive diplomacy, prevention, education and development projects are far better that aggressive actions and conflict.
Being a member of such a group as WINPEACE has affected me – it makes feel that I not only believe in peace and prevention
in theory but I also get active and involved in activities to implement these beliefs and principles.

Fulya

With full appreciation of our unique diversity we are one human family and the main purpose of our life is to serve humankind. From an early age I was inspired by this core message of the Baha’i Faith to find a direction in my life and as part of my spiritual journey I have been in a constant search to find meaningful expressions to put my belief into practice. For this reason when I was invited to become a member of Winpeace in its initiation phase I was very excited and embraced the principles and the purpose wholeheartedly and honored to be part of the group. This was a unique opportunity for me not only to contribute to this process, but also to learn from the journey of other wonderful women. I joined with no hesitation, because it was not a political concern or a formal agreement or a resolution what brought us together, but heart to heart dialogue and our desire as Greek and Turkish women to become a channel for sustainable peace between these two beautiful nations. Could there be any other powerful source to realize this noble cause than our love for each other? Although I was not able to follow closely Winpeace activities for the past 9 years due to my international work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan and New York where I have continued to dedicate
my work to the advancement of women, I considered myself as a voluntary ambassador for Winpeace. I tried to share our experiences and presented Winpeace as an effective model whenever I took part in meetings where the role of women was discussed in the context of resolutions of disputes and establishment of peace, because I believe the world needs to see similar initiatives to be inspired by other strong, courageous, determined women like my friends in Winpeace. I am thankful for Zeynep and Margarita for their visionary leadership and for believing in themselves and also us!

Gülriz

My main purpose was to foster understanding and good will to enable peaceful relations between the nations as well as initiating joint projects to enable the members to work together.

Pınar

I’m a founding member. As a feminist, 1) I think peace is the best way to ensure human security, 2) I advocate for anti-militarism. Moreover, I had a personal interest as my grandparents are migrants from Thessalonica.

Özen

Some ten years ago, I responded to a letter from Zeynep, regarding the initial discussions she and Margarita had concerning
the formation of Winpeace. “What a creative and beautiful idea” I thought. I had just returned to Istanbul after living many years abroad, and was seeking a meaningful cause to volunteer in. I was very attracted to the fact that we women could make a difference by actually contributing to the process of bringing two nations together which, despite being neighbors, had an unfortunate relationship of severe political mistrust. The whole team experience was amazing.
I have served 4 years with great pleasure, I cherish wonderful memories, such as the youth camps established in Greece and in Turkey.
Beth: In the past several years, women from Cyprus have been included in this mission.
I was happy to become a member of WINPEACE because as an international educator I felt that it
was of considerable significance and importance to work with youth from the three regions in regards to peace related matters and issues.

Begüm

My goal was and still is to convince every member of this society to contribute to peace and to educate them as in how to make this contribution nationally and internationally. My father was born in Thessalonica, Greece and when he was 30, he settled in İzmir, Turkey; but he had always kept in touch. Almost every spring break we went back to Greece for vacation. Throughout my childhood he told us that we have to make an effort to be together with all the people but not to try to unite them.. He said that the conflicts of his childhood were only because of differences in perspectives. So when I was invited to the first meeting at Zeynep Oral’s house I was so happy and hopeful. The content of the project, the participants’ attitudes towards it made me excited. I believed it with all my heart. I felt like I found my father’s (who had passed away) old friends.
Every year we host Greek students in the Prince’s Islands, Istanbul with my Greek friends who live on the island. At one of our meetings on the island, Stefo Papu was present, he was one of the symbols of the island and he has since passed away. At that meeting he hugged the Greek students and he burst into tears from happiness. That moment, I realized that what we are trying to do is very important. An old heart was finally relieved to feel the peace around which was missing for a long time. Thank you Zeynep, thank you all! We are glad to have you! Su
I attended several meetings and activities on peace, but I always felt that it was not complete and the concept was not filled in. But in Winpeace I found something . I saw that concrete results can be achieved working with women, traditions
and customs in daily life.

Karin

The aim was to build a peace network, to influence the political relations between the two countries from a women’s perspective; to show that communalities are much more than animosities between the two nations and to prove peace is possible. My organisation, Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways is a founding member.

Ferai

As a Foreign News Manager in Hürriyet ; I had followed the Kardak event very closely and watched the tension grow between the two countries. If it was so easy to promote war in this men ruled world, we women should promote peace. On top of all I was the foreign news editor and a foreign policies journalist so I had the tools to address the public. I had to be in this womens initiative. Zeynep had called me soon after their first Athens meeting and before the Kos/Bodrum meeting I joined them with huge excitement and enthusiasm.

Jenny

Before Nur invited me to join WINPeace, I had met Beth and she had been doing a project joining her Greek students with Native Americans in the US. I told her, we really should be doing a project between her students in Greece and mine in Turkey so we started a small project which led to our work in WINPeace. At the first meeting of WINPeace, I was so impressed with all the energy of all these highly motivated, highly capable women and how that energy was all directed
towards the cause of peace. I was excited and felt lucky that these women whom I so admired had asked me to be a part of their adventure to construct a better world. I have learned so much about conflict, how to deal with conflict and have grown much through my association with WINPeace. I have become a different person, a better person from working with the women of WINPeace. If we can teach young people how to respect others and not to judge them, as well as how to deal with conflicts, we CAN make the world a better place.

Nilgün

I was a member of International Lions Clubs Organization, had been active in Habitat 1996 Istanbul meeting where I met women of other NGOs. I always felt like a world citizen and I believed that working for peace was my mission. The Lions mission is to contribute to world peace but even under this international association we could not get along well with our Greek colleagues. I could not understand why. All through my childhood, I had Greek friends and neighbors whom I adored. Individually we were great friends, people of the same culture, same character but when it came to a collective mind, there was always a huge wall between us. In WINPEACE I learned so much about not only the reasons of this wall but also explored myself, my inner hidden nationalism and perceptions. It took years to understand and trust each other and start speaking the same language but we came to a point that we were one soul in many women of two societies. In a way, we all transformed ourselves into different people. During the course of our time together, we also had so much fun and joy. I feel privileged to have experienced working with wonderful women in both countries.
Feriha : I was already involved with several projects in the Bahai group. To contribute to world peace was my objective. Without any discrimination of race and religion, the unity of all people was a concept we had always dreamed of. Nur, Ozen and myself got together for the youth exchange program. We focused on the subject and on what to create for the youngsters; I believed the exchange of university students was a perfect means to reach our objective. I realized afterwards that while we were setting up the infrastructure of meetings attended by more than 200 university youngsters,
we were actually building up security lines for ourselves. I have been deeply influenced by WINPEACE.

Gönül

In Turkey, I used to have many close friends of Greek origin, who unfortunately had to immigrate to Greece because of the enimosity between the two governments, due to the Cyprus problem. A branch of my greater family were migrants from Crete. Durıng my years in the Nederlands as a political refugee, following the military coup of 1980 in Turkey, I used to spend most of my vacations in Greece, where I always felt at home with such similar music, cuisine, customs and habits. But were’nt we supposed to be enemies? We were on the brink of a war for a piece of rock called Kardak/İmea. This was irrational, unacceptable. Therefore I got involved in WINPEACE. I am most interested in the mission of trying to replace the culture of militarism and national hatred with a new culture of peace and non-violence, in both countries.

Nur

I went to Athens in 1998 to the second Winpeace meeting, which was also my first visit to Greece. When I met Margarita in the lobby of the hotel for the first time, I was immensely impressed by her charm, elegance, friendliness and humbleness.
The rest of the Greek women were also so very friendly that I did not feel as if I was in a foreign country.
I remember thinking to myself, why haven’t I been to Greece before? It was strange since I was a person who liked traveling yet I had not even thought of visiting Greece till then.
I had known Greek people in United States while I was studying there; some of them had been quite friendly yet I also remember a few who would not even shake my hand just because I was Turkish. Yet I had always been a person who was against any sort of discrimination; be it nationality, gender, religion or status and I had adopted the slogan – “ Humanity above all Nationality” -ever since I had seen it written on a stone chair at the winding road going up to Robert College (now Boğaziçi University) in 1967, and had decided that it represented my way of thinking and beliefs. Having such thoughts and wondering why I had not been interested in Greek, Turkish relations before, I joined Winpeace and met many extraordinary people from Turkey, Greece and Cyprus who have enriched my life. I can say that joining Winpeace
has resulted in giving a meaningful mission to my life which I am also trying to transmit to some others especially to the younger generations.

Şule

My relationship with WINPEACE started when I was invited to a meeting in Brussels by my friend Anna Karamanou who was an MEP whom we had supported during the elections for the Socialist International Women Vice-Presidency. I remember that some people were surprised by that support. As I also knew the Turkish members of WINPEACE group, I started being involved in their activities as a passive member of WINPEACE because I lived in Ankara.
I had a very good reason for getting involved . The cause of “having peace and solidarity in the region” was something I had always fought for throughout my life. WINPEACE was comprised of politically and socially conscious women who were also very active in different areas of daily life in both countries. I attended meetings in Midilli and in Istanbul. After one of these meetings in Istanbul, we went to visit Erdal and Sevinc Inonu’s house together with Margarita Papandreou and Fotini. I remember spending a very nice afternoon there talking about Margarita’s memories and Erdal Inönü’s parents.
She told us about her memories in Washington DC where she went in the ‘60’s with Andreas Papandreou. When she was telling us about what she remembered, I was amazed by her vivid memory.
When we look back now and remember that it was her son George Papandreou who restarted good relations with Turkey together with late Ismail Cem, we understand how a lot of problems can be solved or eased with a little bit of personal human touch and good human relations despite political obstacles. If mothers bring up children with a peaceful attitude, with belief in the importance of trying to understand others’ thoughts and feelings and if we all work hard for that, then our children and grandchildren can hope to live in a peaceful world. Thank you Margarita, thank you Zeynep for having initiated the Winpeace group.

Violet

I attended a program in the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul in which several NGO representatives and press members participated. This was my first meeting with the leaders of this cause (WINPEACE), and it was my luck to meet such wonderful people. Their sincerity, humility and modest behavior impressed me so much that I was fascinated with the solution seeking program. But this was only my very first participation.
Now, I had a huge group that could embrace and uplift my ideals which I had always felt in my heart and had labored towards since my childhood.
Many times the Adana Union of Women’s Associations which consists of 38 Associations-Nongovernmental Organizations
and 4 Political Parties asked for the participation of Winpeace representatives on a special day to meet and know each other. I chose the persons to demonstrate their capabilities respectively: Nur, Zülal, Jenny, Feriha, and Dina would show their academic capabilities; Margarita, Zeynep and Ferai their capabilities in media relations; lovely Shirin (from the Greek side) and Su, their capabilities in artistic performances; Nilgün, Güliz, Gülriz, Müjgan, Gönül, Selin, Begüm, Özen, Fotini, and others their interactive nongovernmental and humanistic relations to teaching and publicizing the understanding of Universal Peace and how to implement this aim in practice. Now in Adana we have peace education at women’s prison for more than 150 women. We gave two wonderful books of dear Zeynep Oral with her signature to the ADANA KARATAŞ WOMANS prison library. So it shows us that each one of us whoever we are, can work for building peace in the world.

Selen

I see the aim of WINPEACE as promoting peace in grassroots level through un-conventional methods with a women’s
perspective. WINPEACE shows that such initiatives are possible. The reason why I initially joined Winpeace was a very personal one: I was in love with a Greek man while I was studying in US, one of my greatest loves. When I came back to Turkey and heard about Winpeace from my mother and that there will be a trip to Rhodes, I yearned to be on the same land in which I would be able to breathe the same air, to hear his language… However, I realized other things both during and after the meetings in Rhodes. Things like…I had never questioned the rapid disappearance of our Greek neighbors in Halki Island; that I had never done anything against the official narratives nor the nationa-list politics through which the Greeks (and Greece) been made to become the “other”, the “enemy”! I did not do anything, despite the fact that I was aware of the situation for a long time (at least since the Nations and Nationalism
course I took in Bogazici University). When this questioning and this awareness started, I found my reasons to continue within Winpeace.
During the implementation of the EU funded project, which included the establishment of an agro-tourism cooperative
in Karaburun, development and piloting of a peace education curriculum and literature exchange, I had first-hand experience in witnessing the grassroots approach of Winpeace due to the fact that I was dealing with the project administration together with Nilgün Lermioğlu Niord. I gained both knowledge and skills in managing different levels of conflict during the process, and administration. I think this project as a whole, despite all the problems and difficulties, was an opportunity for us, as Winpeace, to bring to life the projects we have been developing on a larger scale.