International Relations

This article illuminates the role of international HNGOs in Turkey’s peacebuilding. Turkish HNGOs pursue low-level peacebuilding, focusing on interaction with grassroots, as opposed to the high-level peacebuilding of the state based on official interaction. Despite being independent, at times they become subsumed by the discourse, priorities and policies of the government and develop an interest in shaping official policies which carry the risk
of politicizing the aid. While some of their key features such as flexibility, absence of conditionality, ensuring sustainability, relying on private donations and pursuing advocacy follow the mainstream peacebuilding lines, others such as culture and religion as catalysts and representing and promoting Turkey abroad demonstrate a deviation. Although the institutional consolidation of these HNGOs as a sector remains a distant goal, they are not likely to disappear given the considerable societal and political will behind theirwork. Their success depends on building a comprehensive strategy with efficient coordination and cooperation in a pluralist environment.

The role of international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in peacebuilding has been on the political and scholarly agendas for the last two decades. However, the role of NGOs still needs to be discussed in line with the emergence of new trends and actors in the field. Recent years have also witnessed Turkey’s emergence as an influential actor in the field of humanitarian aid in which Turkish humanitarian
NGOs play a substantial role.

Health has been an issue at the forefront of human life since the emergence of mankind. It has been one of the benchmark issues of the twenty-first century, with major headlines ranging from strains of influenza to the Ebola outbreak. Because such problems have failed to be solved, this has resulted in the declining confidence of official health authorities to tackle them. As such, there has been a growing role for international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the
area of health aid.

Emad Shahin: Let us start with the concepts first. The first concept is what became known as 'Arab Spring.' Moving beyond clichés, what the region witnessed in 2011 is a massive wave of popular uprisings that reflected "People Power" that called for freedom, dignity and social justice. These demands were not welcome by the custodians of the old regime and some conservative regional and international powers that engineered a destabilization process in the transitioning countries and succeeded in turning the 'Spring' into a chilling 'Winter'. Nonetheless, a reassuring thing is that the driving causes behind the uprisings of 2011 are still there and indicate that we have not seen the end of these popular waves yet. Now, turning to your question, there are obviously certain things that the Arab Spring has achieved. The question now is 'to what extent these changes are really sustainable or permanent as the question raises and to what extent they are temporary.' I think the most important thing is the manifestation of people's power. The outpouring of hundreds of thousands and millions of Egyptians to the streets all united on one goal broke the cliché or stereotype about Arabs that they do not protest except for bread or when they are told to by their autocratic regimes. This time, however, people went against corruption, injustice and against autocratic and authoritarian regimes. They were seeking freedom, social justice, economic growth and prosperity, as well. These values go beyond the material things and point out to a new framework of governance. They are closely related to democracy, human rights, rule of law, and balanced and sustainable development. This was the power of the people. People can express themselves on the streets; express their demands in huge numbers; and in the end, can overpower repressive authorities. This was one element that we can summarize is self-determination, emancipation and popular sovereignty.