Galata Fotoğrafhanesi and the Photography Foundation in Turkey organized the “The Photographer Children of Soma Workshop” in Elmadere village, following the great Soma mine disaster, in order to provide support to children during the difficult process they faced, help them express themselves using photography and to help alleviate the trauma the children suffered to a certain extent. The workshop aimed to teach the children to take photographs, look, see and understand collectively.
The Palestinian non-governmental association, ADDAMEER [Arabic for ‘conscience’], provides support for Palestinian political prisoners held in Israel and Palestine prisons. According to statistics, more than 200 prisoners are detained without charge in Israel military prisons under the legal status “administrative detainee”. Some detainees have gone on hunger strike. ADDAMEER continues to defend human dignity against the collective punishment carried out against Palestinians following the incident involving the disappearance of 3 Israeli settlers on June 12, 2014.
Ta’ayush [Arabic for ‘living together’] was established in 2000 by a group of Palestinians and Jews to end the Israeli occupation and to achieve full civil equality through daily non-violent direct-action. Ta’ayush works to prevent settlers, supported by the Israeli army, from displacing villagers, and Ta’ayush activists accompany Palestinian shepherds as they use their right to passage. Many groups in the West Bank first seek help with Ta’ayush in times of emergency, as the group seeks to establish the foundations of coexistence.
The Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety in Azerbaijan was founded in 2006, on World Press Freedom Day, against governmental restrictions on freedom of expression and press freedom. The institute works to transform the culture of impunity regarding violence against journalists, and monitors the safety of journalists. The reports of the institute help draw the attention of the international public to problems surrounding press freedom in Azerbaijan.
The Kazova workers in Turkey occupied their workplace when their factory was closed and they were fired without compensation, and continued production. The first order they received was a set of football jerseys for the game between Cuba and the Basque Country National Football Team. The Kazova workers went on to open their own store under the name Resist!Kazova Jumpers and Culture where their independent products are on sale.
During the game between AEK Athens and AC Triglia Rafinas in Greece on 16 March 2013, the AEK supporters’ group Original 21 unfurled a banner. Featuring Alexandros Grigoropoulos and Berkin Elvan, victims of police violence on both sides of the Aegean Sea, the banner reminded all that football was not only about competition, but also solidarity.
A group of citizens in Japan prepared a video in Turkish, expressing the shame they felt of the Prime Minister of Japan regarding their government’s sale of a nuclear power station to Turkey. In the video, those who experienced the Fukushima nuclear disaster warn Turkey about the potential disaster that the nuclear power plant planned for Turkey may bring.
Founded in 1996 in response to the government’s repression of demonstrations, the Viasna Human Rights Centre in Belarus provides assistance to political prisoners and their families. The Centre has been subjected to various arbitrary acts of pressure such as the blockage of their web site and the annulment of their official status; the arrest of the centre’s president, Ales Bialiatski, placed the centre on the international human rights agenda. The group secured the release of Bialiatski, and continues to work for the release of all political prisoners in Belarus.
The Earth Tables in Turkey were first organized along İstiklal Street in Istanbul, immediately after the Gezi Park Resistance in 2013, during the month of Ramadan, in protest of luxurious iftar banquets organized at five-star hotels. There was also a call for Earth Tables during the month of Ramadan in 2014 without flags, banners and sponsors. Despite police attacks, people united against exploitation and oppression along the floor tables they created themselves.
Bytes for All from Pakistan works for freedom of expression and for the prevention of gender-based violence on the internet both in Pakistan and across the world. With their Take Back the Tech campaign which observed hate speech on social media, the group declared 11 February 2014 ‘The Day We Fight Back’ for the right to privacy on the internet, and also opposes the Pakistan government’s attempts at censoring SMS texts.
From September 1, 2013 on, over 2 weeks, in Bucharest and in many other cities in Romania a great number of people in Romania protested against the bill that would give the go-ahead to the Rosia Montana Project, a gold and silver mining project in the mountainous Rosia Montana area. Since it was an open-pit mine project, it would desertify the surrounding area, and since it planned to use the gold cyanidation technique, it would cause a natural disaster, and destroy the ancient Roman mining tunnels, yet as a result of the reaction of people who protested, in June 2014, the law was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies of the Romanian Parliament.
“Querer no ver”, or “not wanting to see” was the name of the action organized by activists who gathered in Santiago on the 40th anniversary of the military coup led by General Pinochet carried out on September 10, 1973. The group chose a simple but effective method of action, and represented the 1210 people who were forcibly disappeared during and after the coup with 1210 people, and came together along the busiest street of the capital and then lied down on the pavement to form a human chain. The demonstrators lay on the ground face-up for 11 minutes, reminding those who continued going about their daily life of what it meant to live under military dictatorship.
The movement that was initiated under the name Oy ve Ötesi/Votes and Beyond in order to find independent polling clerks for the 2014 local elections in Turkey because pro-government election rigging has been widespread, became an association in April 2014. The volunteers, who wanted the voting process, an elemental part of democratic life, to take place in a proper manner, acted as witness to the voting process, the opening, counting and transportation of the polls. The volunteers of Oy ve Ötesi/Votes and Beyond were also active during the Presidential elections; even slept on ballot sacks, and helped the voice of all to be heard.
The July 21 Association in Italy is committed to the protection of the rights of the Roma and Sinti communities in Italy, and conducts activities to raise awareness regarding discrimination against these communities. The association refuses financial support from Italian public institutions in order to retain its freedom of expression, and carries out a struggle against the displacement of the Roma and Sinti communities who are forced to live under precarious conditions; and by observing and documenting discriminatory discourse in the media, paves the way for coexistence.
In April 2014, the municipality sent a bulldozer to a small park in the Murat neighbourhood of Edirne, the idea was to demolish the park and turn it into a cafe. However, 75-year old Kıymet Peker, a resident of the neighbourhood, pulled her chair into the path of the bulldozer and started sitting there. And she refused to budge until she received the word of the mayor that the park would remain a park. Aunty Kıymet says she wants to see her grandchildren play in the park, and her name is now also the name of the park she defended.
