An environmental Non-Governmental-Organisation in Istanbul
What are their methods and means of work, to affect the environmental policies and public of Turkey?
Author: Paulina Cederskär Supervisor: Hans Blomkvist
Word count: 11 277
Pages: 40
2 Table of content
1. Introduction ... 3
1.1 The problem ... 3
1.2 The purpose and research question ... 6
2. Previous research ... 7
2.1 Overview of NGOs ... 9
3. Method ... 10
3.1 Minor Field Study ... 10
3.2 Choice of organisation ... 11
3.3 Collecting data ... 11
3.4 Interview questions ... 14
4. Analysis ... 15
4.2 The volunteers and activism ... 17
4.3 Campaigns ... 19
4.4 Traditional and new media ... 21
4.5 The legal system ... 23
4.6 Is it possible for the NGO to make a policy change? ... 26
5. Conclusion ... 28
6. References ... 31
7. Appendix ... 35
7.1 Interview guide for volunteer and logistics coordinator ... 35
7.2 Interview guide for media and communications campaigners ... 36
7.3 Interview guide for legal campaigner... 37
7.4 Interview guide for renewable campaigner ... 38
7.5 Interview guide for head of support requisition ... 39
7.6 Interview guide for volunteers ... 40
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1. Introduction
When I was studying in Istanbul in the spring 2017 for my Erasmus, one thing struck me specifically while wandering the city and visiting the parks: the huge number of plastic bottles and trash covering the streets and lawns. I could see people leaving the newspapers behind, instead of throwing them in the garbage cans located only 2 meters away from them. Fast forwarding a few months later, as I was doing research about an environmental non-
governmental organisation (NGO), I noticed they had an active office located in Istanbul. As I was thinking back on my experience and what I had seen during my stay in Istanbul, I could not help but wonder how the environmental focus is in Turkey. What kind of environmental NGOs do they have? What are their methods and goals?
As I know many NGOs, primarily raising issues about human or women rights, have been shut down the last few years, I began to wonder what the situation looks like for NGOs raising issues regarding the environment and climate change. What do their relationship with the public and government look like? What are their methods for raising awareness and affecting the policies in Turkey?
1.1 The problem
I will now present some background information about the inspiration for my thesis subject, and why it is relevant for political science. It is primarily based on two issues, environmental and political issues. Firstly, I will highlight the current environmental issues in Turkey by presenting some controversies and their effect on the environment. This will be followed by an introduction of the political climate and its impact on the civil society. I will then conclude how these two aspects are relevant and important for this study.
To begin with, Turkey is a big country with a population of roughly 80 million people and is
ever growing. The forest and natural resources are under a lot of pressure due to a rapid
growth in energy use and demand, expanding infrastructure and transportation as well as
exploitation of agricultural lands (World Bank Group, 2017). It is a country in change, with a
government primarily focusing on economic development through large infrastructural
projects and by expanding their use of energy resources, as Turkeys primary energy supply
right now is imported oil and gas, according to a report from the International Energy Agency
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(2016, 25). Oil and natural gas cause many environmental problems as the operation of the power plants, extraction of the energy, leakage and transportation of the energy creates large emissions of greenhouse gases (Weisser 2007, 1550). It is safe to assume the operation as well as extraction cause damage on surrounding lands. In order to be more independent and have national based energy sources, the government is cooperating with Russia to build the ever first nuclear power plant Akkuyu in the city of Mersin (World Nuclear Association, 2018).
However, it has not gone unnoticed by protesting environmental activists. The people fear an accident similar to Fukushima, as they are aware of the damaging construction work as well as the high costs (Sahin 2016).
Another energy project of the government has been to increase the coal-fired power plants in Alpu, nearby the city of Eskişehir, which is a city in western Turkey with a majority of student and families. The plan is to build new coal power plants on agricultural lands. The country has large deposits of coal within its boarders, therefore the Turkish government considers coal to be a viable option for energy independence. However, the efficiency of coal is low while the environmental and health risks too high. It will cause pollution, require deforestation on agricultural lands, increase the risk of illnesses and early deaths as well as contamination of water (Katısöz 2018). The population as well as environmental activists know about the risks of the power plants which has resulted in multiple protests and actions to raise awareness (Hürriet Daily News 2018). Furthermore, the government is working on the world's largest airport. The goal was to finish it at the end of 2018 and is expected to be the busiest airport in the world, with flights to 350 destinations and a capacity of 200,000 passages daily (Street 2018). The project has met many protests and lawsuits, due to its deforestation and environmental damage. The city court did decide to suspend the project, however, as it had personal support from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling party AKP, the suspension was ignored. If the court would continue “creating obstacles to prevent us from serving the nation”, laws would be amended according to Erdoğan (Korkmaz 2014).
I will now present some political aspects that lay ground for my interest to my thesis topic.
Turkey is a republic with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as president since 2014. It is a country torn
between the more secular ideology of Kemalism and the ruling party’s AKP (Justice- and
development party) Islamic conservative politics. Since 2010, it has become more and more
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authoritarian (Dialeke & Holmertz 2016, 13). In the summer of 2016 there was an attempted military coup in Turkey, where the parliament and Intelligence Headquarters in the capital Ankara was attacked (ibid, 27). The result of this coup has had an immense affect on the civil society. Right after the coup, since the 21 of July 2016 until July 2018, the country was in a state of emergency, with the motivation of protecting the democracy from terrorism and threats. State of emergency means that the government can take required measurements quickly and rapidly towards anyone thought to be associated with the Islamic transnational social movement FETÖ (also known as the Gülen Movement), labelled a terrorist group by the Turkish authorities and accused of being behind the coup. Typically state of emergency has a duration period of 3 months, though it was constantly renewed and concurrent during my study (OHCHR 2018, 9).
Following the coup, according to the OHCHR, 152,000 civil servants was dismissed, including judges and prosecutors, and 160 000 people was arrested, including teachers, academics, government staff etc. Thousands lost their jobs, their right to work and leave the country. The state of emergency surpassed its original purpose and impaired the human rights, freedom of expression and limited the civic space. Organisations with no apparent connection with FETÖ, nor terrorism, such as medical clinics and civil society organisations was shut down. 1,719 organisations of human rights, humanitarian foundations, lawyer's associations and NGOs along with 166 media outlets was also shut down. This includes publishing houses, newspapers, radio stations, news and television agencies, magazines and 100,000 websites blocked. These events in turn affect the NGOs, among many other media’s and organisations, to self-censorship in fear of the state (ibid, 2-3).
In conclusion, both the environmentally damaging infrastructural projects and political climate have a substantial impact on the environment and civil society. Therefore, an issue I consider need more focus is which possibilities are available for the people when the
government have other priorities. NGOs are therefore a possible way to spread awareness
about climate change and environmental issues. But what are the possibilities for an NGO to
do in order to affect the public and the environmental policies in Turkey? What are their
chosen methods for communication and work?
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1.2 The purpose and research question
In authoritarian or authoritarian-prone regimes a pattern can be noticed, where climate change is questioned, and environmental issues are not prioritised. Only to mention a few examples, President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to reverse 76 environmental rules, including those applied by the previous president Barack Obama to fight global warming (Popovich, Albeck-Ripka & Pierre-Louis 2018). Poland is violating the EU laws, by logging ancient forest (Berendt 2018) as well as constantly breaking EU limit of maximum air pollution (Teffer 2018). As Turkey is an authoritarian rule with similar issues, I can examine this global trend on a national level. In a time where focus on environmental and
sustainability issues are becoming more urgent, I care to learn what significance the
environmental NGO have for a more aware and green future. What do they consider the best methods for reaching both the public as well as politicians, to make a change? In order to explore what methods a NGO in these specific circumstances employ, I did volunteer work with an environmental NGO located in Istanbul, to study their work and methods for spreading their message. I examined the different tools and platforms they use in online- (media) and offline (activism and volunteer work) activities. Further, by learning more about the relationship between the NGO and the state, I hoped to understand whether and how that relationship affects their chosen methods. Climate change and political contexts are subjects I perceive as very relevant to the political science research and is where I want to contribute. I hope to explore the methods within an environmental organisation and its interaction with its political and environmental surroundings. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to study which methods an environmental NGO have in a specific political and environmental context in addition to their different areas of work, such as volunteering, activism, communication, campaigns, social media and legal work.
In conclusion, my thesis question goes as follows: As an environmental NGO in Istanbul,
what are their means of work and methods to affect the environmental policies and public in
Turkey?
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2. Previous research
There are general characteristics of NGOs, traditionally activism, raising awareness and campaigning, but also mobilising against environmental violators, monitoring of natural resources and providing community education. However, research shows that environmental NGOs are developing beyond their usual characteristics. With rising influence NGOs are being involved in both international and national policy making and implementation, natural resource protection as well as developing technical skills in order to provide scientific data (Jasanoff 1997, 579-580). As the NGO of my study is multinational, it is expected they have access to official sources of information and provide their own research to affect national and international agenda setting (ibid, 588). However, despite the possibilities available for
NGOs, there is also a lot of information describing boundaries and challenges. In authoritarian regimes, it is common to face obstacles within the legal system, mobilisation, media and activism as the state has the power to control the free expression of media platforms, organisations and civil society (Van Der Vet 2018, 304. Goh 2015, 878). As an example, in authoritarian China, Russia, Malaysia and Singapore the governments use media as a powerful way to control the outlet of information. The press systems also tend to be in the ruling party’s favour, where media outlets that are state-critical gets shut down, journalists are jailed and censorship executed (Abbott & Givens 2015, 455-456. Goh 2015, 878. Dai &
Spires 2018, 69). In Singapore the alternative media outlets are also often targets of critic from the ruling party of the country (Goh 2015, 891).
In preparation for the political and legal aspect of my thesis, I turned to previous research about environmental NGOs in authoritarian states, which provided important characteristics and information. Hande Paker et al. (2013) describes the interaction between several Civil Society Organisations (CSO, a synonym to NGO), state and financial donors in Turkey. Paker et al. describes complicated relationships between the state and CSOs, torn between
cooperation and conflict. As long as the CSO doesn’t contradict the priorities of the state there is a possibility for cooperation, but clashes, if the CSOs adopt a focus that is not in line with the states (ibid, 766). The relationship between the CSOs and state is sensitive and
fragmented, where the legal measures are meddled with and overturned by political actors,
making it harder to actually implement environmental regulations and laws (ibid, 769).
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Now I will present more detailed research that explores the legal aspects affecting the NGOs work. There are legal opportunity structures (LOS) that either enables or makes it harder for a NGOs to interact with the court and law. Lisa Vanhala presents in her article “Shaping the structure of Legal Opportunities: Environmental NGOs Bringing International Environmental Procedures Back Home” (2017) three different factors that constitutes part of the LOS, which are:
• The legal stock, meaning the existing body of law and constraints that affect how social movement organisations can articulate their claims in the courtroom.
• The standing rules that determine who can bring cases to the court.
• The rules on who bears the cost in litigation also shapes the availability of legal action. There are a few different systems of this, either each party is responsible of their own legal costs or as in English law, the losing party pays the prevailing party’s fees (Vanhala 2017, 112).
The Aarhus Convention, created to establish a number of rights of the public and adopted in EU, helped me formulate questions regarding the legal procedures for the NGO. In the Aarhus Convention there are three pillars of convention mentioned:
• Access, collection and dissemination of environmental information.
• Public participation in decisions on specific activities, concerning plans, programs and policies, during preparation of executive regulations.
• Access to justice (ibid, 114).
I got the opportunity to interview the legal campaigner working at the organisation and asked a numerous of questions based on Handes article and Vanhalas discussion about the LOS and the Aarhus Convention, with the ambition to create a bigger picture and understanding of the legal system in Turkey. The results will be presented further in section 4.5 The legal system, to discuss how the legal structures enables or complicates the NGOs methods.
Moving on from the legal aspects to media and its importance for NGOs. New media has a
big importance for two-way communication, interaction with the public, searching for
funding, spreading awareness and sustaining the organisations image. The definition of new
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media is based on the article “Global activism and new media: A study of transnational
NGO’s online public relations” by Hyunjin Seo, Ji Young Kim and Sung-Un Yang. They are defining it as a “digital media that allow interactivity and interdependent distribution of information” (Seo, Kim & Yang 2009, 124-25). I will examine how the organisation manage new media, as I got the opportunity to interview staff responsible for the media outlet for the organisation.
In summary, my main usage of previous research has been to create questions and learn more about how an NGO operates in general in an authoritarian or authoritarian prone-setting, where certain traits are visible within media and legal work, for example. Turkey was in a state of emergency and is in a development from democracy towards a more authoritarian rule. My main contribution will be to describe which methods a non-governmental
organisation is using under an authoritarian rule, such as in Turkey, to affect the public and environmental policies. Moreover, the case of Turkey is especially interesting as the study was conducted during the state of emergency.
2.1 Overview of NGOs
To clarify what an NGO is and what purpose they serve, I will present some information about their general characteristics. The World Bank defines NGO as a non-governmental organisation or as non-for-profit organisation that is not a part of a government. Its origin is described with many theories, only to mention a few: it can be a reaction to the failure of the market or state, others describe it to be a provider of public goods in society with aim to satisfy the demand exceeding the median voter (Paul & Israel 1991, 3). The work of an NGO can be local, national or international, with a focus on a width of issue such as environmental protection, poverty alleviation, advocates in policies both in developing and developed countries. Especially in developing countries, NGOs has a bigger role where they interact with the governments (ibid, preface).
As NGOs usually have a greater knowledge and commitment to specific issues, in contrast with governments, they are also more likely to have better knowledge on how to adapt
projects and programs to the local conditions. NGOs have this as a complementary strength to
the state (ibid, 2). They further emphasis that external linkages are more important for NGOs
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located in developing countries than in developed countries. These linkages can be to
international donors or governments (ibid, 5). However, not all NGOs aim to collaborate with governments nor international donors for projects, yet NGOs are directly affected by their respective countries governments public policies, which can either strengthen or weaken the possibilities for NGOs. For example, policies can make procedures ineffective and create bureaucratic barriers. A tolerant social environment and political regime is vital for enabling autonomous and expressive NGOs (ibid, 15). NGOs working with volunteers often gather around shared norms and value-based motivation (ibid, 55). It differs from country to country to what extent the volunteers get involved with development, depending to what degree the legal framework guarantees freedom of association (ibid, 83). Looking back on history, many NGOs primarily worked on community levels, this has since developed to local, national and today international levels (ibid, 149).
3. Method
In this chapter I will present the Minor Field Study scholarship that made my study possible, the reason for choosing the NGO and which method I have chosen for collecting information and data. Further I will discuss what problems I had to be aware of during my research.
3.1 Minor Field Study
MFS and is a grant program, offered and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), which enabled this study (Statsvetenskapliga Institutionen).
The program I study at Uppsala University is the Oriental Studies Program, with a specific
focus on Turkey, the Turkish language, literature and history the first two years. For the third
and final year, the focus has been political science. As mentioned earlier I previously did my
Erasmus in Istanbul. I have experience of the city, culture, language and norms. As I also
consider going back to the country and engage myself further in the environmental issues,
Istanbul was the choice for me.
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3.2 Choice of organisation
My study is a descriptive qualitative study, where I aim to investigate the methods and work of the NGO and see how said methods are executed in the political and public contexts. To do this, I made my journey on the 15
thof April 2018 to the city where the NGO is based,
Istanbul. The NGO chosen for this thesis study will be kept anonymous, as it is a risk to research and discuss politics, if the opinion of the NGO differers from the state. I will therefore refer to it as “the NGO”, “the environmental NGO” or “the organisation”. The environmental NGO is an international environmental organisation, with offices located in Istanbul, Ankara and are starting an additional office in another city as well. The reasons for me choosing this organisation is due it’s independence from the state and their neutrality, meaning they are neither against nor with any politicians, only policies. This decreases the risks of its work being under direct affect of the government, regarding funding and focus issues. Many other organisations in Turkey get their funding from the state or other influential actors, in turn affecting the expressiveness and focuses of the organisation itself. The NGO of my choice is sustaining its activities with the help of donations from supporters, such as individuals, individual foundations and the international network of the organisation, making them independent from the state and corporations (Paker et al. 2013, 770). It is also preferable for my own role as a researcher, as a political standpoint of the organisation would affect possible questions and answers of the respondents and the analysis in a greater extent.
3.3 Collecting data
To learn and get an idea about how the work of the NGO is conducted, I contacted the organisation and presented my goal of conducting interviews with the staff, as well as taking part of their activities as an international volunteer. They accepted and welcomed my
participation. Upon arrival I quickly got to see the office, meet the staff and get involved with their plans and projects.
One of my methods was to conduct semi-structured interviews, with a prepared set of core questions with open endings, following Brounéus guidelines of in-depth interviewing.
Brounéus describes how in-depth interviewing offers a deeper insight, detail and perspective
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on a certain research question at a specific moment in time (Brounéus 2011, 130-131). For my research question, the timing is of most importance, as some environmental controversies and the state of emergency were concurrent to my visit. This in turns affects the methods and projects chosen. Brounéus mentions the challenges of gaining information in a conflict environment where, for example, political instability, elections, corruption and authoritarian rule is present (ibid, 134-135), which in my case, all are characteristics of Turkey. I found it difficult from time to time to read the social climate with the people I met. When talking with the staff or friends outside of the office, many, if not all, were very outspoken with their opinions on the current political events in Turkey. However, I still feared appearing blunt to ask certain questions during interviews, as I further believe being recorded on my phone during the interviews likely changes the atmosphere as well as me being a stranger to them.
Therefore, I experienced the ethical aspect to be ever challenging. Brounéus mentions several aspects that needs to be taken into account when collecting information:
• Potential dangers, is any information dangerous to seek or use?
• Security concerns, is there a security risk for the respondent to take part of an interview?
• When is the time right to ask certain questions?
• What does the interviewers have the right to ask?
• Who is it possible to approach? (ibid, 135).
These questions also came to be discussed at the office, as I from time to time was asked about my purpose there, how I will portray the organisation in my thesis and what kind of question am I asking. I took note that most of the staff members seemed relaxed about my presence and questions, whereas some appeared to be more cautions of my reasons. Another discussion brought up was whether or not I could use their names in the thesis, or whether to leave them anonymous due to the current political sensitivity. As I can understand the concerns for security, I followed their wishes and agree that caution is the better option.
Worth mentioning was the difference in perception of time and planning. At several occasions
the planned meetings were cancelled last minute, people showed up late or kept me waiting
between 30 min up to more than an hour. It is considered normal, however making it hard
sometimes to plan my week and work. I do not mean generalise however, as many meetings
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also went perfectly well, people were kindly offering to help and contribute to my thesis work.
I conducted eight semi-structured interviews with the staff of the organisation which also enabled to re-ask questions and clarify if a question was not understood, due to some level of language barrier between me, the staff and volunteers. Most of the staff members spoke very good English, whilst most of the volunteers had a bit more of a struggle. However, with some cooperation and me knowing some Turkish, we could understand each other and have good interviews. I interviewed staff members with different areas of expertise to get a variety of perspective on the questions, such as:
• Volunteer coordinator
• Logistics coordinator
• Two digital engagement campaigners
• Legal campaigner
• Traditional media
• Climate and energy campaigner
• Head of support requisition
It also gave me the opportunity to go deeper into the subjects I read about in previous
research, as it covered volunteer, media, legal and campaign matters. Worth mentioning is
that the interview with head of support requisition mostly tapped into financial question. In
the end I did not use this material as it was redundant for the research question. I further
conducted three semi-structured interviews with volunteers, mostly to verify whether the
volunteers and staff had a similar perspective on their communication. However, the number
of total respondents were limited to the organisation as I kept it within one specific office of
the organisation. To find volunteers with good English was hard as well, most of them mainly
knew Turkish which limited my possible respondents. The volunteers I interviewed had only
been with the organisation for one to two months, thus disabling in-depth information about
the relationship between organisation and volunteers, yet enough for the purpose of the
interviews.
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I was aware that I might not get all of the information I was hoping or seeking to find, due to the political sensitivity in the country. I am further aware that the answers given during the interviews may or may not be completely exhaustive due to caution or unwillingness to discuss some issues in detail or predetermined answers, which in turn can come to affect the analysis. If this should be the case, I both respect and understand it. Due to this, I informed before the interviews that it is anonymous and no personal information will be mentioned.
Further I emphasised that the purpose of the interviews was solely for my thesis work and if wanted, I could answer and talk about other questions or concerns that might appear.
As a complement to the interviews I also participated as an international volunteer to observe and take part of their work in practice, as some points and details can be missed during
interviews or only be experienced through activities. This means I joined for volunteer work in another city, worked in their warehouse, took part in an environment festival as well as some other chores. I will describe my observations in more detail as an international volunteer and the results of the interviews in the section 4. Analysis.
3.4 Interview questions
As the respondents have different areas of expertise, the interview guides vary with questions tailored for each person's field of work. For more details see section 7. Appendix. The warm- up questions and finishing questions were practically the same for all the respondents as they are simpler and more personal, asking what their job at the organisation was, for how long they had been working for the organisation and why they chose it. For the finishing questions I asked them what they believe for future methods of organisation and what issue they would like to focus on next.
The main interview questions focused mostly on what methods and tools they used for their work, which were the most effective, what disadvantages and advantages they had
respectively. The core questions, common for all the interviews, no matter of field, was for example:
• What methods would you say are the most effective for the organisation?
• Are there any advantages or disadvantages with said methods?
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• Has your job as campaigner (or other) been affected by the attempted coup and following state of emergency?
• Which methods are you using to affect the environmental policies?
There were some answers to be expected regarding methods. Paker et al. mentions that the main methods used by the NGO was projects with backing of scientific data and support from the state. When cooperation with the state failed, they turned to methods such as activism, legal action and protests (Paker et al. 2013, 766). It was interesting to learn from the interviews whether the same methods were still applied.
Previous research has further shown that environmental NGOs have developed beyond their usual characteristics of activism and raising awareness. NGOs are starting to get involved with both international and national policy making and implementation, developing technical skills and providing scientific data (Jasanoff 1997, 579). Moreover, NGOs frequently research and present information about environmental issues, provide community education, monitor and protect natural resources and mobilise against environmental violators (ibid, p, 590). As the NGO of my study is multinational, it is expected they have access to official sources of information, provide their own research and affect national and international agenda setting, according to Jasanoff’s study (ibid, 588).
4. Analysis
As my method of analysis, I will begin by presenting the observations to give an idea what it was like working with the organisation and how their practical work is. For the interviews, I have transcribed the recordings and compared the answers of the respondents with my own observations. The answers, quotes and information has been placed in different categories. I present which methods the NGO appears to focus on and which factors that come to affect them, such as the state of emergency, political context, media and legal structures. By further comparing my material to previous research I will be able to observe differences and
similarities of methods within NGOs in authoritarian regimes.
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4.1 Observations
In this section I will describe my observations made during the two months in Istanbul as an interviewer and international volunteer. I will describe the general characteristics and observations of the meetings, methods and work.
As mentioned briefly, I joined the organisation for a volunteer-trip to another city to raise awareness about the coal power plants that are planned to be built on agricultural land, and what consequences it will have on the people, air, environment and health. This experience gave an insight on how they interact with staff and locals. In preparation for the event there was a meeting with all the volunteers, consisting of information about the organisation, the NGOs previous and upcoming work, current campaigns and working methods. In order to strengthen the relationship with the volunteers, they organised a dinner where they payed for all expenses (only vegetarian food is allowed, the volunteer coordinator emphasised). During the event, communication between volunteers and staff was through Whatsapp to arrange meetings, mobilise the volunteers and discuss upcoming events. At the day of the event volunteers where provided with vests with the organisations logo on it and brochures and reports consisting of information about the coal power plants, health risks and an
encouragement to sign a petition against the project. In agreement with the interviews, I can confirm that the organisation focus to emphasise interest in the public’s health and renewable energy alternatives, rather than as a faulty decision of the state.
I could observe that the response from the locals were mainly positive, whilst others took distance. I believe this is common no matter of location or organisation. With permission, a big banner was hung in the park. It could only to put up after the mayor had given his speech, as it was not preferred to be shown on TV or in photos for the newspapers. This confirms the unwillingness to show any ideas that are not in line with the government’s standpoint in traditional media, which will be discussed in greater detail in section 4.4 Traditional and new media.
The following weeks I spent a lot of time in the office in order to conduct interviews with the
staff, who were very welcoming and helpful. The office was filled with regular expected
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chores: meetings, research, e-mailing and such. Besides the office, I visited their warehouse, as mentioned earlier. It was filled with various materials and equipment that could be useful.
To welcome new volunteers, the NGO had an introduction meeting to show the office, meet staff and discuss ideas for an upcoming environmental festival. During the presentation everyone who wished could ask questions and brainstormed slogans for the banners. After the meeting everyone was invited to a park to spend time together. The organisation focuses on creating a good relationship with the volunteers, to get them involved, mobilised and motivated. The organisation has workshops for volunteers to learn how to do activism and have courses to learn more about their non-violence policy, unfortunatly I did not have the possibility to take part in either of them.
In preparations for the environmental festival I, in company with other volunteers, took part in the warehouse to prepare materials. At the festival the organisations stand was decorated with banners, brochures, magazines, information sheets and petition papers. The petition was promoting instalment of solar panels on the buildings that were going to be restored in the area, ideally to make it a part of the law. To demonstrate the power of the solar panels they were playing music from speakers run by solar panels. These methods shows how the
organisation focuses on an informative and positive way to display renewable energy sources as a good alternative. In similarity to the coal power plant project, the response was mainly positive when the volunteers approached the people. At a few times I would notice people being displeased with the organisation’s presence; one of the volunteers told me they had been called terrorists. This is a claim I have heard happening from time to time.
4.2 The volunteers and activism
The NGOs activities and work depend to great extent on their volunteer activity. Their
primary work is to help with logistics, cleaning, preparing and painting banners and signs,
gather petitions, raise awareness, mobilise people and assist at events and festivals. As they
represent the organisation when interacting with people, the organisation has briefings and
trainings before events in order to inform the volunteers of what to say and how to act.
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When I came to Istanbul, I was informed that they just recently started their volunteer
operation again, as they had a volunteer boycott due to disagreements regarding the choice of the new volunteer coordinator. Therefore, the volunteer activity had been understated for some time. The capacity for maintaining a organised group of volunteers is substandard at the moment, due to financial reasons. Volunteering is defined as an offline-activity, meaning it is an activity not conducted through media. Volunteer activities are described as followed by a respondent; “I think it is more expensive than online organisation, because online platforms it is really easy to reach thousands of people in a couple of days. But for volunteer operations, to form a group of twenty or fifty people, well organised and well working volunteer group, you have to spend months. You have to spend lots of money and invest a lot.” (Interview 1).
Non-violence activism and communication is another aspect that defines the organisation and is their signature internationally. Direct activism and communication are applied when no other way to reach the decision- and policy makers or the legal mechanisms is not working.
Direct action could be to climb a chimney and put up a banner, while direct communication could be to attend a public meeting and ask questions directly to the public authorities
(Interview 5). These methods were align with previous research by Paker et al., however, due to the state of emergency there are now some contradictions. The extent of activism and volunteer activities has changed due to caution: “We have this condition in the country, state of emergency, so under this condition you cannot take to much risks. You cannot organise big public event, organise actions, go to a power plant and climb its chimney. You cannot do that kind of thing as the risk is too high.” (Interview 1). Another respondent discussed the
constrained activism:” It’s not just our safety, it’s the volunteer’s safety also. Activist’s safety also. So, I can’t say “climb up the ministry of energy and then put solar panels on it” because I’m afraid they might get shot down, because it’s the state of emergency.” (Interview 7).
However, in May 2018, the organisation performed their very first activism since the state of
emergency started back in the summer of 2016. A banner was put in a river located in a city
where nuclear-power plants are planned to be built. The response from the audience was
positive, who exclaimed their support, saying they want to see more activism in the future. In
general, the response from the public varies, whilst many are very supportive, others are
suspicious as it is foreign. Being an international environmental organisation, they hear many
conspiracy theories and claims (Interview 6). Other offline-activities and events that have
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been affected are those requiring permissions from government offices, municipalities, the police force and governor offices. A respondent describes: “Info-stools in festivals or in big squares, we don’t do that a lot lately because of state of emergency in Turkey. Because it is not easy to get permissions, so what we do is always permitted activities. No risky activities”
(Interview 2). The NGO have stumbled into trouble with getting port permission when conducting a solar power campaign by doing a ship-tour along the coast. It was not an illegal act, but due to the state of emergency there was another kind of limitation, fear. It was a risk giving permission to an organisation that is known for their standpoint against coal and nuclear power. People didn’t want to risk getting on the wrong terms with the government.
4.3 Campaigns
The NGOs campaigns needs to follow the international environment agenda, when working with local issues. The agenda topics can be climate change, food and plastic issues. They often cooperate with other national and local NGOs as they take the locals problems and wishes into consideration. In preparation for campaigns they look at the consequences of the environmental issues and travels to the fields to examine the issue and to meet the locals.
They recognise what the problem is, photograph and document it, and then brings it to national and international attention. To create the campaigns, they have many different components in mind that now will be presented.
Firstly, in order to truly affect the public, the issue needs to feel personal and real. Whether it is through face to face communication with the public or real stories collected from the locals affected. A respondent describes: “Nowadays in the 21th century age, social media is very important and in social media the images with real people, in the real moment, in the real place it works much better.” (Interview 2). The volunteers interviewed explained that before joining the organisation, face to face communication made a big difference in how they felt about NGO and the issue presented.
Secondly, the organisation from time to time cooperate with key influentials or celebrities.
Before the Gezi Park protests in 2013, the organisation cooperated with a famous Turkish pop
singer on a campaign about the arctic. Thanks to the cooperation, the campaign received a lot
of attention in a short period of time and reached more than 40 000 000 people.
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Unfortunately, during the campaign the protests broke out and it had to cancel. The NGO have worked with different national celebrities in campaigns as it quickly reaches a broad audience and is effective for spreading the message (Interview 4).
Thirdly, in addition to the personal touch and the occasional work with celebrities, research and scientific facts are of great importance, as emphasised by previous research. The campaigns are created with cooperation of a professional solar organisation and other countries publications providing data and information, available as they are an international organisation. IEA, the International Energy Agency, was also mentioned as an important source of information. By presenting numbers and statistics about expected consequences of environmentally harmful project, the campaigns are regarded as more trustworthy which increases the effect.
By spreading awareness and information through the campaigns, the NGO wish to rebut some misconceptions. A respondent responsible for campaign work used renewable energy as an example to explain. Renewable energy is the current focus for the NGO, as it is at its early developing stages in Turkey. Solar energy is thought to be very expensive and inefficient, therefore the NGO wants to shed some new light on the possibilities of the energy source. It can be very useful both for individuals and families as it can be managed easily and is a cheaper option in the rural areas. The organisation has previously worked with locals to teach and inform them how to install and generate solar power themselves. Previous research suggests that volunteer-dependent NGOs are more prone to teach people how to advocate in their own behalf, rather than criticise the state or shaping government policy (Hsu, Hsu &
Hasmath 2016, 1175). The NGO encouraged locals to learn more and voice their opinions on
different projects. Throughout their work the organisation emphasises the health risks,
possible alternatives and solutions in their campaigns, rather then criticising the regime’s
project plans: “For example, if we say solarise your building because its good for the climate,
it doesn’t get very far…so we mostly, our coal campaigns we refer to health, air pollution
health and in our solar. It is more about generating your own income.” The respondent
continues: “We always push for solutions instead. So, they made an advertisement for
nuclear, we say why not turn solar?” (Interview 7).
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4.4 Traditional and new media
There are two types of media, traditional and new. Traditional media refers to tv-channels, newspapers and radio. In Turkey, the government has a big influence on the traditional media, as most channels and newspapers are owned by pro-government companies. As mentioned earlier, authoritarian regimes or regimes with authoritarian tendencies, use media as a powerful way to control the information flow. The press systems are usually working in the ruling party’s favour, where media outlets that are state-critical gets censored, shut down and its journalists jailed (Abbott & Givens 2015, 455-456. Goh 2015, 878. Dai et.al 2018, 69).
The NGO of this study is politically neutral; however it was confirmed that any critic towards policies or projects of the government do get censored. The NGO expressed it is hard for the organisation to get any air-time as their campaigns are often related with issues that are politically sensitive. For example, fossil fuels are considered a politically charged subject, especially coal and nuclear energy. News highlighting the negative affects of the energy sources will not get any air-time, as it is considered a message against the economic development of the country which is of high priority of the government. In contrary, if the organisation were to have a campaign about plastics, it would not be as sensitive, as plastics is a universal problem and not considered a political issue.
Furthermore, they face the issue of censorship, especially when it comes to newspapers. As one respondent describes: “We give them, for example some exclusive content to journalists for mainstream newspaper and journalist say “okey it’s very good news, I like it” but then he couldn’t publish it due to censorship. Of course, it’s very common.” Due to auto-censorship, the journalist knows he or she will not be able to publish the content and do not want to take the risk of having a conflict with the state. If the journalist still tried to publish the content, censorship can get in the way, this meaning the boss will not approve the content to be published. However, this do not stop the NGO from running campaigns about energy. They have learnt to adapt their approach and framing of the issue. As mentioned earlier, they present the health risks and alternative options instead of criticising the state. Regarding press and censorship, a respondent said: “But regarding communications it is much more
pessimistic, because there is no free press in the country now. So, I don’t know we will reach
the public when there is no free press. When you make activities against coal power plants,
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more than half of the press will not cover your story, because they will consider that act as against the government and they will not take any risk.” (Interview 1).
New media refers to the websites of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram mostly. Facebook and Instagram are frequently used for campaigns, raising awareness and gather petitions while Twitter is heavily used for spreading information and getting people’s attention. The
organisation sometimes plans “Twitter-storms”, meaning that they aim to get their hashtag on the top-trending list. By sending a request to a list of influencers and celebrities to post the hashtag at the exact same time, the hashtag will get more exposure.
Their main communication tools are Whatsapp and e-mail. E-mail is mainly used to inform the volunteers of campaigns, upcoming events and petitions, while Whatsapp is their tool for daily communication, plannings and meetings. To reference back to the previous research done by Seo, Kim and Yang, I asked whether new media is important in terms of two-way communication, interaction with the public, searching for funding, spreading awareness and sustaining the image of the organisation. The conclusive answer I got was “all of them”.
Neither of the components are singled out as being the prime-focus. They are all equally considered. The use of new media also enables to get past the issue of censorship, however the government have previously blocked access to websites, such as Twitter and Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is still not available in Turkey. New media is getting more important for the organisation, as it is still harder to conduct censorship in the same way as with traditional media. Using alternative media platforms enables discussions, news, information sharing of a wider variety of parties and sources and is usually a place for people to challenge
authoritarian regimes (Goh 2015, 879-880).
However, they are still cautious: “But the organisation is also careful of what we are saying.
Not only in social media but everywhere. So, try we are not doing auto censorship basically,
we say what we want to say. But we say it in a less strong way, so it is the same for the social
media tools as well, so we say what are we going to say but we say it in a less bold way…the
government has never stop us publish, sharing any post or did never come on to us for saying
something on social media or any news channel. But it can be.” (Interview 1).
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4.5 The legal system
In authoritarian regimes, it is common to face obstacles within the legal system. The four most common obstacles are unfair trials, quickly changing regulations, personal risks for participating in activism and repressive legislation towards civil society organisations. Judges tend to be biased depending whether a case is politically sensitive or mundane, judging in the favour of the government. Successful legal mobilisation, media attention and political
lobbying further appears to be rare in authoritarian regimes, as the governments have power over the networks and media. The civil society, activism and media are commonly impacted in authoritarian regimes, including Russia, Hungary and Turkey (Van Der Vet 2018, 304- 305). China is another example of a country where lawyers and activists have been detained and NGOs repressed (Dai & Spires 2018, 69).
When Turkey was a serious candidate country for joining the EU, they had to adapt their environmental legislations to match the standard. However, in later years the government has liberalised the energy market and made it bigger to generate more money and energy, to meet the increasing populations demand. As a result, the environmental legislation has been
affected. The Ministry of Energy now has more power and influence than the Ministry of Environment. When direct-actions do not work to stop an environmentally harmful project, the organisation takes legal action and tries to prevent the threat towards the environment legislations and regulations.
I was given an example of a regulation created in the 1930s, protecting olive trees. It is stated that the trees can not be cut or harmed for energy or industrial construction. The government has tried to change this regulation as well as building a coal power plant in the fields.
However, thanks to good mobilisation and work under the leadership of the organisation and
other environmental movements, it was prevented. The respondent emphasised that the threat
is always present, and the government keeps trying to amend the laws, in similarity with other
authoritarian regimes where regulations are quickly changing for their own benefit.
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4.5.1 The Legal Opportunity Structure
To reference back to the article and questions inspired by Lisa Vanhala, I will now present the Legal Opportunity Structures in Turkey. Firstly, the legal stock, the first aspect of the LOS, in Turkey is closely linked to the democratic climate and civic space. The democratic climate has not developed in later years due to the state of emergency, thus impacting the civil society: “It is less likely to have an influence on the public authorities about a change or becoming a part of the decision making or policy making procedures is very hard” (Interview 5). The direct communication and action opportunities has been removed. The legal work and courts have also been affected as thousands of judges were laid off, due to suspicion of involvement with the terrorist-labeled organisation FETÖ. The result is an overload of work for the courts, longer deliberation time to reach decisions, thus making it harder for an NGO to interact with the court. Van der Vet claims in his article that authoritarian regimes harass opponents through lengthy court procedures and therefore delay the work of state opponents, including Turkey as an example (Van der Vet 2018, 330). This is a plausible underlying reason of firing the judges.
The standing rules, the second aspect of the LOS, regulating who can mobilise the law has developed over the years. The respondent explained that NGOs were not allowed to open legal cases outside of the city where the organisation is based, until two-three years ago. For example, if the organisation operates in Istanbul, they cannot open a legal case towards a project located in Ankara, as it was thought to lack relevance for an organisation located elsewhere. This can be considered a repressive regulation towards NGOs. However, it has changed, and the organisation is able to open a legal case for any project in Turkey. This enables the organisation to expand their work and chances to affect different projects.
The regulations and system for the court costs, the third aspect of the LOS, have both
enabling and disabling characteristics. The largest cost is not to open a court case but rather
for the court to get field and committee experts about environmental issues, as the judges are
not experts themselves on the area. It is a cost that has to be payed by whoever wants to open
a court case: private person or organisation. If the person can not afford the costs, they can get
it covered by the government. However, if the case is lost, one has to repay the money to the
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government. If the case is won, the payment remains responsibility of the state. This disables private persons to open a court case as there is a risk of high costs if the case is lost.
4.5.2 The Aarhus Convention
So, what about the three pillars of the Aarhus convention? The respondent explains that when it comes to availability of information, it is not always easy to get hold of the information needed to create a court case. To learn more details about the projects, the organisation examines the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), available on the Ministry of
Environments website. The EIA contains information about where the project is planned and the possible environmental consequences of a project, positive and negative. The EIA is applied by companies or state, to ensure they have considered the consequences of a project.
Paker et al. discuss some issues with legal measures (including the Environmental Impact Assessment) in her article, where it is described as merely a formality, rather than being taken seriously. This makes it hard to implement regulations, laws and court decisions (Paker et al.
2013, 769). The respondent describes that the Ministry of Environment misconduct on this topic, as they do not publish the final version of the EIA, despite the obligation to do so. This could mean that the EIA is still not properly executed. EIA is very important for the final decisions on projects, as the projects change the environment and people’s lives. To get hold on further information about permits and licences regarding removal of forestry, construction plans, agricultural and protection status, it is not available to the public. The lawyers need to apply, as a part of a law association, private person or as the NGO, to an institution to get further information about the projects and wait for their response.
The respondent continues to describe some legal system issues, again in agreement with the problems presented in Paker et al’s article. “In the laws and regulations there are sometimes gaps, and investors often, they are getting benefits from these gaps. And if they have this opportunity it is hard for you to win the case. And actually, in the last 10 years I would say, there are some legal amendments happening. Government is amending some laws and
regulations for the benefit of the investors, energy constructing investments. Because they say we are developing country.” These amendments enable investors to get by agricultural
protection laws, as they get permits from the Ministry of Agriculture, enabling the projects.
This leads the NGO to open several more cases as they want to challenge the removal of laws
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and special legal permits. The problems with the EIA, access to information, legal
amendments and special treatment of pro-government companies makes it harder for the public to take part of information, policy decisions and activities.
What about justice and personal risks for the lawyers? A respondent explained that there are many human rights violations in the country where the democratic space is getting smaller and people spend jail time without convictions (Interview 1). However, whether it is dangerous for a lawyer to participate in activism, I can not with certainty claim. As it is dangerous for anyone in the country to do activism or express criticism, I would however presume it is risky for lawyers and advocates as well. When I asked how the respondent’s work had been affected by the state of emergency, no information about personal experiences was brought up. This can be due to the respondent not wanting to discuss personal feelings on the topic or not finding it relevant to my question. Since many lawyers have been laid off or jailed the last few years, I can imagine the subject is sensitive.
4.6 Is it possible for the NGO to make a policy change?
Yes and no. To some extent the NGO do have chances of affecting the policies and court decisions, but it is dependent on many factors and timing. When I asked which components that are needed in order to win a court case, the respondent emphasised a combination of legal arguments, scientific data, expert’s opinions, good mobilisation and media coverage.
By presenting legal arguments, such as which protective laws and regulations that would be broken due to a project, it can be stopped. An example of this was the olive trees mentioned in section 4.5 The legal system, but I was given another example as well about the law of urgent appropriation. If demanded by the Ministry of Energy, the cabinets can use someone’s land for energy projects, without giving information nor notification. However, in the law it is stated that urgent appropriation can only be used during times of war, state of emergency or extra ordinary circumstances. The NGO has previously opened court cases against misuse of the urgent appropriation law and won.
When presenting detailed data created by scientists and doctors, a stronger case can be built.
To have acknowledged experts witness to the risks of a project, the case is more trustworthy
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for the judges who are not environmental experts. Locals and doctors are also sometimes used as witnesses to explain how their lives are affected or to present different health risks.
Mobilisation and media were stated to be difficult to conduct freely in previous research, however the answers I got suggests the NGO are capable to go around the difficulties somewhat. Mobilisation is created through media, both traditional and new. By showing the local stories and health risks, it is easier to draw attention to the event, getting media
coverage, public support and in the end, mobilise the people. Mobilisation against a project, enable the public to participate in decisions and policies with hopes of cancelling projects. It sends a united message of genuine concerns and objections to the courts, which in
combination with the media attention, increases the chances of a fair trial. However, if the locals are supporting the projects, for example by favouring the job opportunities that comes with a coal fired power plant, the courts will have more distance to the objections and judge in the favour of the project. It appears that the organisation can use media in favour of
mobilising the people by finding a good way to frame the issue and avoid complications with the state.
However, no matter how strong the case is, if the project is very endorsed by the government or pro-government companies, it is hard to access information and win. Such as the project to build the nuclear power plants Akuyyu in the city of Mersin. Many organisations, individuals and institutions opened court cases in 2015 against the plans but did not win. As the case became a subject of political actors and discourse, it was highly sensitive. The political priorities affected the legal processes to great extent. In similarity to previous research, the Turkish courts are subject to manipulation and/or are biased. A respondent describes: “Real effect to change policies, we did not change any policies the last 4-5 years I can say. I cannot say that. The government doesn’t listen, doesn’t care. We are really really really in a dead end to make serious policy changes. We are only capable of making small changes.” (Interview 1). The respondents further explained that communication or any kind of contact with the government is close to non-existent. This suggests two things. Firstly, the state is becoming more closed to influence or communication with the civil society. Secondly, in contrast to Jasanoff’s study suggesting NGOs are being more involved with policy making procedures, NGOs impact on policies on a national level seems to be minimal. Nonetheless, the
organisation still tries. “So, on the other hand, sometimes you are working on, legally working
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on a project which has been invested by very pro-government companies or pro-government industry and then sometimes the decisions are very much politically motivated”. The
respondent explains: “But, so I still believe, maybe because I’m a lawyer, and I still believe that sometimes maybe you are taking a court case, not for winning but for taking it to history”
(Interview 5).
5. Conclusion
NGOs have many workings methods, no matter of location or focus area. Raising awareness, activism, campaigning, gathering scientific data, monitoring, protecting natural resources, mobilising against environmental violators as well as affecting international and national policy making, only to mention a few. However, in an authoritarian regime the opportunities are limited due to many aspects. Often the contrasting priorities of the state and NGOs, pro- government courts and companies, censorship, safety risks of workers and volunteers are standing in the way of a freely operating NGO.
In the case of Turkey, the boundaries were increased even more due to the state of emergency.
Before the state of emergency, the environmental NGO turned to activism, direct action, legal action and protests if they couldn’t reach decision- and policymakers or if the legal
mechanisms didn’t work. However, they have had to adapt their approach further since the civic space, legal rights and freedom of expression has become more restricted. One might think that the possibilities for this environmental NGO to have an impact in Turkey are very slim, however they have made adjustments. These adjustments can be adopted by other NGOs in Turkey as well as in other authoritarian regimes, in order to conduct work under similar restrictions.
By shifting focus from activism and direct actions, the NGO has adopted more refined
methods to avoid safety risks and conflicts with the state. Through more communication-
based work such as campaigning, taking part in festivals and touring they are spreading
awareness and highlighting problems. By avoiding operative actions, they decrease the risk of
challenging the government which in many cases can lead to imprisonment.
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The government in Turkey, in common with many other authoritarian states, have the power to control the traditional media platforms. In addition to frequently shutting down any state- critic agencies and outlets, most channels and newspapers are owned by pro-government companies. In response, the environmental NGO focuses more on new media and framing.
Through new media platforms the organisation run campaigns, raise awareness, mobilise volunteers and gather petitions in an effective way. In other authoritarian countries as well, new media has become a space for discussion and a place to find alternative sources of information, as it is harder to apply censorship in that forum. When it comes to framing, they emphasise scientific data, the health of the public and alternatives to the regime’s
environmentally harmful projects, rather than directly criticising the regime. For example they suggest solar power and its benefits in comparison to fossil fuels. With this kind of framing, they can avoid being called out as enemies of the state. Those who object the governments ideas and projects, usually gets criticised of being against the country’s growth and
development. This angle and way of framing sensitive problems, can be adopted in other regions having similar boundaries.
There are also many problems within the legal system: unfair trials, rapidly changing regulations, personal risks for participating in activism and repressive regulations towards NGOs. In Turkey the government frequently tries to change and weaken environmental legislations, in favour of a more liberalised energy market and projects. Investors find loopholes and get special permits and amendments to go around protective laws, using the state of emergency as a motivation. This is causing a constant fight for the organisation. If a court case has a strong connection with the government, it will be judged in favour of the state, regardless of scientific facts, protests and work made by NGOs or private persons.
However, sometimes their efforts do make small changes, but the components and timing
needs to be perfect. Moreover, the case needs to address an issue, insensitive enough to have a
chance of justice in court in combination with expert opinions, scientific research, petitions,
media attention and good mobilisation. The organisation continuously open court cases, even
if it is a lost case from the start, to show that they tried and to have made a statement.
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If an NGO tailor their work and methods to their political and environmental surroundings, they can both reach the public and affect the environmental policies. To what extent, is highly individual to region and focus-area. The environmental NGO of this study have set an
example on how to work with the limitations they operate within, and still stay true to their
purpose and ultimate goal: to fight for the environment and a greener future.
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