University of Groningen International Relations and Organisations Bachelor placement LBA000B10

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University of Groningen

International Relations and Organisations

Bachelor placement LBA000B10

Internship report 06.02.2018

Internship Organisation

IHD, Insan Hakları Derneği / HRA, Human Rights Association

Evliya Celebi Mahallesi, Cukurlu Cesme Sk., 34433 Beyoglu/Istanbul, Turkey Gülseren Yoleri

Internship Period 06.11.2017 - 06.01.2018

Full time, 30h weekly

Supervisor Sprik H.M. Email: h.m.sprik@rug.nl Intern S2732459 Eduard Korostelev Star Numanstraat 71B 9714JK Groningen Email: e.korostelev@student.rug.nl Confidential

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In the final year of my Bachelors degree programme in International Relations, I have decided to take on an internship abroad lasting for two months. An IRIO Bachelor placement is an opportunity for students to gain practical work experience while using the acquired knowledge from their stud-ies. This report is based on my experiences during an internship at the Istanbul branch of the Insan Hakları Derneği / Human Rights Association (later referred to as IHD / HRA) during the period be-tween 06.11.2017 and 06.01.2018.

Before the actual internship could start, there were some steps to follow up with. The first being the most challenging one: finding a suitable placement. There were several important criteria in view of the decision to complete the internship. One of such was that I wanted to broaden my horizons and test the skills I have gained in international relations on a practical level. For this, I have decided to search for an internship abroad. In my own experience, I have realised that I learn the most by putting myself out of my comfort zone, consequently I was excited about going on a search for a placement in a unfamiliar environment. After making use of my network of contacts I was left with a handful of choices, from which the position in the human rights organization in Turkey was the most attractive to me. By contacting the responsible contact person, Ms Yoleri, for the internship in Turkey, assistance with the application and contact with potential employers was arranged. After submitting the application to the organization, a promise was made by the later employer, the IHD, which was held by a written agreement from 06.11.2017 to 06.01.2018. The two-month internship was accordingly completed at the Human Rights Association / IHD in Istanbul.

1.1 Motivation and expectations from the placement

Turkey is a fascinating country with a rich history and a unique position, between Europe and the Middle East. With its current political stance and recent media coverage, it finds itself in the centre of international affairs. Istanbul as the major city between two continents in particular, receives special attention. It was long before taking on my placement, that I have found the situation of Tur-key and especially Istanbul to be very attractive to observe. Thus, when it came down to choosing the location for my placement I was most certain of going to the city of two continents.

During my study years in the University of Groningen, I have developed a high interest in the topics of human rights, rule of law and Europeanization. Certainly, Istanbul seems like a perfect place to study and experience all these fields, specifically when working in the sphere of human rights. Moreover, I have found it important to get closer to a different culture and religion and sensitive myself to another part of the world. But the decisive impetus was my ambition and desire to work in

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a civil society organization after my studies and, accordingly, to decide based on the experience gained during the internship whether this area of involvement truly corresponds with my interests. Furthermore I hoped to get a more clear view on how my next career steps should look like.

Therefore, an important incentive was to do the internship in a political institution with a humanitar-ian focus, to test my own suitability for specific professions in that field. Due to the current, precari-ous situation in Turkey with regards to human rights violations, I hoped to get an insight into the work process of a non-governmental organization. I wanted to observe the drastic cases of human rights violations which were not evident to me living in Europe in such proportions. Accordingly, I have expected a strong learning effect and hoped that the experience gained would help me de-cide if I can imagine working in similar organizations or in this field of international affairs in the fu-ture.

In addition, I have tried to find common political ground with my previous internship experience in Ukraine. So, I was primarily concerned with Turkeys current politics direction and the new social movements responses coming from the side of the opponents.

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2. The Placement

The IHD / HRA is the largest human rights organzation in Turkey and consists of 29 branches and 1

3 representative offices with its headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara. The primary objective of IHD is enforcing and realizing human rights in Turkey.

Founded in 1986, the organization operates independently of any political party or government and is particularly dedicated to the work against torture, the death penalty and fascism . The Human 2

Rights Association has a long history of protecting the universal human rights within the Turkish international border and beyond.

The branch office in Istanbul is considered one of the biggest and strategically most important of-fices in the country. Fortunately, I was able to engage in this branch and got to know various de-partments, included within this office. Namely, there were a total of four departments within this branch, which I will describe in the following.

Among other things, one department deals with administrative tasks, such as accepting and for-warding applications from people with ill-treatment and discrimination experiences while another deals with the legal support of the applicants. A third area of work is devoted to research and is working on the accumulation of incidents and the preparation or writing of reports, which illuminate in different ways the human rights violations in Turkey. A fourth area is dedicated to campaigning and the organization of meetings, conferences and demonstrations.

Given that the IHD is financed solely by private sponsors and not by the government, a maximum of six permanent employees are employed, and another large number of employees are working on a voluntary basis.

Mostly sociologists, social scientists, lawyers and psychologists are employed by the IHD and nu-merous other professional groups are among the volunteers. Furthermore a so called control cen-tre exists, which again is responsible for the organization of demonstrations, meetings, press con-ferences, preparation and publication of reports, as well as the defence or assistance of applicants and seekers of help.

For its remarkable activities in the past 30 years, IHD has been awarded numerous prizes such as the Bruno Krensky Human Rights Prize in 1991 and the Partners Award by the Human Rights Law

Anne Duncker, “Menschrechtsorganisationen in der Türkei,” (Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2009). 1

"History of Human Rights Association (IHD),” Human Rights Association IHD, accessed February 04, 2018. http://

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Group in 1995 . Nonetheless the organisation is subjected to incredible pressures in its work and 3

struggles. Since 17 July 1986, the very day the organization was founded, 23 administrators and members have been killed. Until today the IHD is forced to carry out activities in big risk of investi-gation and court cases. While on the other hand, particularly after the coup d'état but also before the political authorities were strict on limiting and even closing down the many existing NGOs working in the area of human rights protection. Thus, only in November 2016, the regime shut down nearly 400 of such NGOs in Turkey, citing a fight against terrorism . 4

"History of Human Rights Association (IHD),” Human Rights Association IHD, accessed February 04, 2018. http://

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ihd.org.tr/en/index.php/2008/03/13/history-of-human-rights-associaton-ihd/.

"Turkey fires 15,000, shuts 375 NGOs in latest coup purge,” Arab News, accessed February 04, 2018. http://

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3. Performing tasks and personal development

Since the beginning of my internship in November, I have noticed that my position in the Human Rights Association is both lucky and critical at the same time. On the one hand the current at-mosphere in Turkey gave me a unique opportunity to gain experiences I might not have the chance of gaining again. While on the other hand I knew that by doing so, I will have to leave the comfort zone I am used to and challenge myself to adopt to the developments of the situation. To put things into perspective, let me recall my first week of the internship.

After a great welcome by my local supervisor and head of the Istanbul branch, Ms Yoleri, I was in-troduced to the office and my new colleagues. Immediately after that I was given time to adapt to my regular working area and was assigned several responsibilities, which I would have to take on a daily basis. Some of them included the analysis and scheduling of clients records, applications for human rights violations, the results of the trials, and general assistance with research, as well as assisting with filing applications when new cases were submitted.

On my fourth day of work, the 9th of November, I witnessed the arrest of Öztürk Türkdogan the President of IHD. Türkdogan was imprisoned for an indefinite time period, for demonstrating with other colleagues in front of the Human Rights Statue in Ankara . According to several sources an 5

arrest of this kind has never taken place in the whole history of the organisation and therefore im-mediate action was taken. Consequently a meeting with the EuroMed Rights representatives and the International Federation for Human Rights was organised. In this meeting, strategies were made and some of the invited guests (HR defenders, journalists, IHD members etc.) were given place and stage to share their stories. The central topic of this meeting was Human Rights viola-tions during the detention, at which point IHD members stressed that humiliation, insults, beatings, threats, sexual harassment and restrictions on food and drink account to be the most frequent vio-lations, which is in line with my experiences during the internship.

Due to the speciality of the event and a force majeure situation in general I was asked to care for, assist and translate for the infamous HR expert Michel Tubiana in the process of the meeting. A task in which I proved myself from the beginning and was asked to assist with, in the further course of the internship. This situation as well as, many of this kind teaches me spontaneity, efficiency, professionalism and adaptability.

Many of the clients of the IHD were often refugees and people taken under police custody or peo-ple in custody. Accordingly, the organization has made it its goal to represent these peopeo-ple and to

"Turkey fires 15,000, shuts 375 NGOs in latest coup purge,” Arab News, accessed February 04, 2018. http://

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make their voices loud and clear. For this, weekly special events were organised every Saturday, such as the demonstration on the rights of prisoners and the so called ´Mothers of the prisoners´ protest. The planning of such was left to the control centre, where I was happy to assist, since any other activities involved in the implementation of this events might have had ended adversely for myself. Contrary to its international commitments, Turkey largely hinders the opportunity to demonstrate and is ready to punish for not obeying.

Generally speaking, there were several situations in which I had felt uncomfortable, such as when I would be advised not to speak English in certain places or when I would be pushed away by the police force at the demonstration or when state security would start filming me, for standing in one spot for longer than five minutes and observing the protest. Nonetheless, there was no situation, where I felt unsafe or similar, mostly thanks to the good care taking of my colleagues.

Another activity during my internship was of a rather theoretical character. In the big majority of my time I was busy assisting the IHD in its current publications some of which addressed the anti-ter-rorist repression in Turkey, a topic that needs to be handled with particular care. Among other rule of law violations Turkeys regime is going through at the moment, the freedom of speech and asso-ciation are the most threatening to this work. Especially since the coup d’état, experts dealing with such topics, have been in danger of being harassed, sometimes held in police custody and even imprisoned.

In addition, I took on many administrative and organizational tasks, such as the preparation of Eng-lish press releases for illegitimate arrests, the mediation between the German Embassy and IHD, mediation between IHD and foreign journalists and the preparation and compilation of press lists or list of contacts to be notified in case of arrests or human rights violations. These activities were im-plemented after numerous arrests took place, on my fourth working day described in the previous section for example.

As has been mentioned already, my tasks also included translation work between the following languages: German-English, French-English, as well as accompanying clients to public offices, conferences or embassies. Additionally I have found it interesting to participate in on-going confer-ences, the inside of which gave me a great perspective on the public relations of the organization. One of such has been the highlight of my placement experience.

Kicking of on the International Human Rights Day on the 10th of December, during the whole week Human Rights talks, films, forums and discussions were held. In cooperation with the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, it was a big challenge and a big success to have realised the Human Rights Week in such a style. Financing and planning of the last days has been particularly difficult. But the results of the event made us proud.

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The final event of the 9th Human Rights Week in Istanbul, took place as part of a debate on the issue of torture. Notable speakers such as the General Secretary of the HRFT Dr. Metin Bakkalci and Prof. Dr. Sebnem Korur Fincanci took part in the discussion, stressing the Turkish Constitution and the prohibition of torture in the country. Although everyone in the end agrees that torture is practised, especially on those being under arrest, police custody and detentions, it is very unfortu-nate, that even if judicial action applies (police and the military are often protected by impunity reg-ulations) against the offenders, it rarely results in convictions .6

In summary I have experienced the situation in Turkey to be quite tense. As previously mentioned there were various situations I have been confronted with, which didn’t feel comfortable. Even in casual talks some of my companions would advice me to pay attention to my choice of words or expressed content in public and this on a daily basis, outside of the working environment. Howev-er, I have done my best to integrate and understand the difficult time the country is going through, as well as to learn as much as I could from the involvement.

Pau. Peres-Sales, "Combating Torture and other Ill-Treatment. A Manual for Action. London. 2016 By Amnesty In

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4. Working conditions

The working atmosphere at the IHD was extremely pleasant. My colleagues, always friendly and helpful, were ready to teach me everything they knew. Thus, I could get the full inside picture on all aspects which I couldn’t find time to work on. Moreover, it was the personal approach to me, which I have appreciated most. During my placement, I could always feel as part of the team and if there were decisions made, I was regularly included in the talk.

My supervisor Ms Yoleri constantly encouraged me in my independence, which contributed to the joy of working. One of the key advantages in this context was that I was given a lot of freedom of choice in the task design. It was open to me to decide where I would want to get involved and what I am most interested in. Furthermore, the workforce was very inclusive, including different age groups, a fair gender ratio, physically handicapped people and many different occupations and de-grees of education.

Apart from that, I was assigned my own office where I would usually work for six hours a day, five times a week. Additionally I would attend some events on the weekend on a voluntary basis, which also account for a few hours weekly. The internship was unpaid.

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5. Placement within an IRIO Bachelor

From my personal perspective, I would indefinitely say that my placements was directly within the field of IRIO and helped me in my consideration of choosing the Human Rights field as my focus for the following study years. There were many challenging tasks I had to accomplish within my placement. Some of which had a direct link to what I have already learned in my IRIO studies in theory, for instance the handling of legal frameworks and international agreements. Turkey is going through very tense times, in particular for someone with an international relations background. Through my internship and life in the country I came to realise how the rise of the authoritarianism is damaging the existing rule of law. Now, I have a better and wider understanding for Turkey’s po-litical future, which it seemingly is planning without the previous ambitions for the European Union membership. I came to a better understanding of the internal affairs of the country, as well am I able to grasp its ideas for the international arena. From my experience I have seen a new side and definition of transparency, corruption and democratic rule. Now I know how international legal framework can be ignored and a propaganda terrorism installed instead.

Moreover, working for a Human Rights organisation has also changed my perspective of them. I have so much respect for the people, dedicating their lives to the fight for human rights. Their self-sacrifice for the good cause fascinates me and I am sure I would not appreciate their work so much, if I had not experienced what it really looks like first hand. My colleague was diagnosed with contusion of the spine, which has ended in a vertebral fracture, after his arrest. Likewise, the fe-male employees I spoke to were often victims of physical abuse and sexual harassment of police and guards. Over 15,000 people have been dismissed from their positions after the July 2016 failed coup. This all could be seen as a consequence of fighting for democracy and basic human rights.

The IRIO studies have provided me with the necessary tools to complete my placement and I am convinced that the practical experience has become irreplaceable for the success in my career path. So, I cannot wait to get involved in a field where I am able to do more practical work in In-ternational Relations, eventually in the sphere of human rights.

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6. Reflection and conclusion

During my 2-month internship in Istanbul I was hoping to take on a broad range of tasks, gain new skills and challenge myself in various fields. Looking back, I can say that these expectations have been fulfilled. My internship offered me a deep insight into the structures of different work process-es, through which I was sensitized especially for work during crisis situations. In addition, all my expectations were met and I have gotten a realistic insight into the work of political processes. By working on challenging tasks for the Human Rights Association I was able to enhance my prob-lem-solving and analytical abilities. The force majeure situation in my first week of work pushed me into action where I had the chance to present my skills and act professionally while the planning of the Human Rights Week has challenged my creative thinking and flexibility. This type of work has helped me a lot in my professional orientation and I am glad to have gained experience that ties in with my studies.

In light of the gained experiences, I am more confident in the Master track I want to pursue and am seriously considering to focus on the Human Rights sphere in the future.

In summary, the internship made clear to me that the practical application is not sufficiently consid-ered during the study and that theoretical constructs are difficult to apply in practice without experi-ence, one reason of why I would describe my internship time as challenging. Nonetheless, both my practical and theoretical knowledge of Human Rights highly improved in the process and I am now well prepared to take on my Masters in the University of Groningen.

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References

Duncker, Anne. Menschrechtsorganisationen in der Türkei. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2009.

Human Rights Association IHD (website). “History of Human Rights Association (IHD)." http:// ihd.org.tr/en/index.php/2008/03/13/history-of-human-rights-associaton-ihd/.

Presse, Agence France (website). "Turkey fires 15,000, shuts 375 NGOs in latest coup purge." Arab News. http://www.arabnews.com/node/1014091/middle-east.

Peres-Sales, Pau. "Combating Torture and other Ill-Treatment. A Manual for Action. London. 2016 By Amnesty International." Torture Journal 27, no. 2 (October 10, 2017).

University of Groningen International Relations and Organisations Bachelor placement LBA000B10