CVF 2022 Background

If we want change, we must be stronger!

The Sivil Sesler Festival, a gathering of civil society organizations from all corners of Turkey and across every field, is setting out once again after the long and difficult days of the pandemic. It is the festival of speaking and listening, thinking and moving, debating and laughing, imagining and playing, being together, growing stronger together — a festival of bringing side by side all that we have to change the world.

Sivil Sesler sets out to bring together those who want to heal the world. In civil society, each of us holds on to a different thread of life. The issues we take on are varied, but the will to mend them unites us and drives us to organize. Some of us work to improve access to rights for children on the streets, some to bring back the smell of tomatoes, some to end discrimination against people with disabilities or diverse conditions, some to tackle gender-based inequalities… others to protect a wetland, a neighborhood, a park, a historic or cultural site, to reshape the political or cultural climate we live in, to strengthen a community or a generation, a technology or a consumption habit.

We know that healing is difficult — that creating change in a world burdened by worsening political, economic, and social conditions is a great challenge. Yet in every struggle we also witness the immense power carried by our shared will and our voluntary organizing. Believing that to heal we must be strong, and to be strong we must organize, the Sivil Sesler Festival brings together all those who set out to heal the world. At the festival you will find panels, exhibitions, stands, games, performances, publications, and films — spaces to see, to learn from, and to be inspired by different experiences of healing.

Sivil Sesler also sets out to bring together those who want to beautify the world. We often experience civil society as a space of struggle — of coping with violations, fighting injustice, resisting with rightful determination. We are told that healing comes at a price. The language of “fighting the enemy” strips life of its beauty, joy, and color. Yet every effort to heal also has its own spirit, feeling, even a form, a color, a scent, a taste, an atmosphere. When a civil society organization takes on an issue, its effort to improve the world also creates a chance to beautify it, to make it more aesthetic. Achieving this is once again the product of collective effort and the skill of organizing. Believing that true creativity is making each other creative, the Sivil Sesler Festival brings together those who set out to beautify the world. The creativity of our collective organizing will meet audiences through talks, concerts, exhibitions, and workshops.

Sivil Sesler also sets out to bring together those who want to democratize the world. In today’s complex era, it is becoming harder for societies to shape their own destinies. With every crisis, deepening inequalities leave citizens disoriented, alienated from both their communities and politics itself. Civil organizations are therefore being called on — more often, more widely, and more urgently — to step in. Traditional political systems, unfortunately, do not yet have the institutions and culture to easily respond to this call. That is why civil society’s first step must be to claim a role in decision-making. Whether on the macro level or within the issues we come together to heal and beautify, having a say in decisions democratizes that very space, context, or community.

While negative examples in our country cannot be denied, there are also many positive ones — at both national and local levels — where decision-making has been shaped by civil society or even shared with it. The Sivil Sesler Festival is a platform for these experiences of participation, a space where organizations can share their journeys of changing society. And the festival is not only a meeting among CSOs themselves. It is open to all, designed to reach wider society. Both CSO representatives and individual participants can join the activities, visit CSO stands, and engage directly. Guests also include representatives of public institutions and international organizations that support civil society.

The pandemic created distance, three years have passed. But the hardest days are behind us. And now, finally, we meet again.

Bring your voice — the festival begins!