turkish-greek civic dialogue - AEGEE Europe

higher level. Depending on the magnitude of the disaster and the expertise
of the teams, both public & civil groups work together on such occasions as
happened in our mission to Greece. AKUT was approved to be deployed together
with the Civil Defense, a public institution. In Athens, we have worked with
EMAK, which is the Greek counterpart of Turkish civil defense. This constituted
a remarkable incident where public and civil initiative cooperated on an
international platform.
We are happy to say that our collaboration at Marmara Earthquakes and
afterwards at the Athens earthquake proved invaluable. Our organisations were
awarded with Abdi İpekçi Peace and Friendship Peace Prize. Many ceremonies
were organised here, in Greece, in Germany by the Turkish Associations and in
New York at a summit of the UN where Mr. George A. Papandreou and Mr. İsmail
Cem presented the award to AKUT and EMAK representatives.
At his reception of our team in Athens, President of the Hellenic Republic
Constantinos Stephanopoulos said, “We shall always remember you with
friendship”. We are also grateful for the support that Greece immediately
extended to us during and after Marmara Earthquake. Moreover, today we are
very much happy to see that Sakarya University and AEGEE-Sakarya plays a
leading role for development of further collaboration in potential areas.
AKUT continues its efforts for collaboration with Greek counterparts. The most
significant one is our joint project with Samaritans Corps, which has been
financed by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This cooperation has been
active since November 1999. It covers experience sharing, joint trainings and
exercises. Within the scope of the joint project, both teams came together
in Greece and Turkey several times. The last activity was organised in Patras
in 2001. Following the trainings, an exercise was conducted. Responding to
the request of the Samaritans Greek Air Forces supported this activity with
two helicopters and a team of soldiers. It was a remarkable day not for our
collaboration, but also because the date was September 11 th , 2001. Currently
we expect to get a set of technical rescue equipment. Then there will be
another session of training and hopefully another exercise in Turkey and we
will keep up good work.
We believe furthering of NGO potential is essential for social capacity building.
The formation of numerous organisations after the earthquake-following the
foot-steps of AKUT- is a perfect reflection of this fact.
Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de L’Europe
With all these developments, we gradually gained a new vision and diversified
our activities in order to outreach all segments of our society. To name a
few, our Seminar Group gave seminars on earthquake to more than 50 000
people from public & private institutions throughout Turkey. We provided CERT
Trainings (Community Emergency Response Team) for about 500 people. This
year we recently launched a special training program called Young AKUT for the
kids between 9-12 age and provided training for more than one hundred kids.
In conclusion, we have seen very clearly that individuals take the initiative
particularly when there are good models around. If the governments
appreciate the efforts of NGOs working voluntarily for the good of
the public
establish the local & legal framework suitable for the birth, growth
and efficiency of NGOs via local & international connections
provide support on national and international platforms
help maximising social awareness and encourages for more activity
from inside the society spontaneously the synergy of this cycle
would bring invaluable benefits for the whole global community.
BAHAR RUMELILI
www.akut.org.tr
Meaningful change in Turkish-Greek relations depends upon a broader and
more general transformation in both Turkey and Greece in the prevalent
ideas and beliefs about international relations and foreign policy making.
Through our power over ideas, academics, the media, NGOs, social movements
and we have vital roles to play in enabling this transformation.
WHAT WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE SHOULD NOT BE A ‘COLD PEACE’,
where war with the other is considered as always a legitimate option for
foreign policy, though not a realistic one. In a ’cold peace’ situation, the
definition of national interest in relation to “the Other” does not change.
However, the political elite in both countries comes to understand and
perceive the international political environment in such a way that does not
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