New Civil Initiatives Founded During The Epidemic: Citizens’ Solidarity Network

Besides the civil society actors who have been working hard to fight Coronavirus, new civil initiatives that have been founded in the past few months also contribute to solidarity and collaboration. Citizens’ Solidarity Network, founded during the epidemic process is the latest of these initiatives…

Network members are made up of advocate citizens from various occupational groups, and their discomfort, solidarity motivations and experiences from the inequality caused by the outbreak have brought them together. Their purpose is not only to list or map the needs, but also to interpret the resulting picture and to show neglected areas to decision makers and to those who want to contribute to solidarity. Claiming that we need a new form of social association and solidarity, Citizens’ Solidarity Network is open to all kinds of contributions, support and cooperation…

You are very new, your website has been launched as of April 21. From what need did the Citizens’ Solidarity Network emerge? What is your difference from similar structures such as Needs Map?

The economic and social damage caused by the health effects of the epidemic as well as the effects of the measures taken are huge. We are going through a process where people continue to work in non-compulsory business lines, where employers dismiss their employees or where the employees are forced to take unpaid leaves, poor people lose their livelihood and go beyond the limit of hunger, vulnerable groups not making their voices heard despite their needs and the worst, where healthcare workers lose their lives because of lack of equipment.

Against all these difficult conditions, we started out by believing that if anyone has the opportunity, ability and capacity to support someone, they should be included in the process. We considered being in solidarity for increasing demands and needs as a citizen’s right. Solidarity is both vital for those who are in a difficult situation in this process and for those who are uncomfortable with this state. The first thing we think we can do at this point is to try to make the needs visible and increase their accessibility by gathering valuable support and solidarity from each other across the country.

However, we have developed this not over listing or mapping, but by interpreting the resulting table and by speaking on it with the aim of showing the lacking areas both to policy makers and to the ones who act with solidarity. Positions that are only taken on the basis of an helping culture are a reflex in solving the essential needs within the scope of human rights, but unfortunately it is not enough. For this reason, we think that instead of taking uncertain steps, it is necessary to establish a comprehensive pattern of sustainability and draw attention here.

Who are you? Who do you consist of? How do you sustain yourself financially?

We consist of people who advocate that something should be done for groups that have been affected by the epidemic measures and who have been ignored since the beginning of the epidemic. We are people from various professions who advocate in different fields such as human rights, children’s rights, women’s rights, refugee rights and urban rights. We draw our strength from our experiences on these different areas. For this reason, our only resource is our discomfort from inequality, our motivation for solidarity and our personal experience and skills. For this, we do not need any financial support within the scope of the content and method we have designed, we all voluntarily work.

How do you define yourself? 

We are a civil initiative that aims to make invisible people, groups and needs visible and contribute to the spread of the culture of solidarity.

 “We Need New Forms of Social Relations and Solidarity” 

Towards what are you trying to lead citizens with the slogan of “See the need, look out for the citizen and grow solidarity”? What do you want them to do?

Various support packages have been announced, most of them economic, but they are still far away from covering all people and groups affected by the pandemic. Groups such as peddlers, homeworkers, wage workers, precariats, recycling workers, Romani people, refugees or homeless people are already living on the poverty line. These segments should be included by both economic and social policies. We criticize this social structure which is not inclusive. We need a new form of social association and solidarity. What we mean is a social order and form of engagement where citizens observe each other and the rights of each other, where no one is left behind, and where solidarity with people in need will be established. This is exactly where we call people to.

You’ve stated: “There is no solidarity or any support mechanisms in 25 provinces. Fragile groups: Romanis, refugees, homeless people, those who become impoverished due to pandemics cannot access support. NGOs are working against violence against women.” How did you retrieve this data and how long did it take?

We obtained the data for Citizens’ Solidarity Network Map (Yurttaş Dayanışma Ağı Haritası) in different ways and methods such as reviewing the websites of the relevant ministries and non-governmental organizations, following the announced circulars and press conferences, exchanging ideas with experts on Turkish Employment Agency and Foundations of Social Help and Solidarity supports, and media and social media scanning. We have been following the process for about 1 month for this purpose and we continue to compile the data.

How will you keep your data updated? How do your human resources and financial resources make it possible to maintain this? 

We also prepared a form to keep the data up to date. Via this Support and Solidarity Information Form (Destek ve Dayanışma Bilgi Formu) which is an online document, people can share information of their supports or solidarity that is not in the system, or they may warn us to correct the wrong or missing information. In this way, we will be able to produce maps of different scales and themes within the Citizens’ Solidarity Network Map which we hope to develop day by day. The main resource that will make this work sustainable is the strength we receive from each other and from the culture of solidarity as we have tried to express before. We do not need financial support for the content we create.

“We see all kinds of solidarity as our shareholder”

Do you cooperate with civil society actors, public institutions or local governments? Do you work with local solidarity networks?

Yes, we aim to cooperate with local government components and civil initiatives, but we cannot say that we have a concrete partnership yet. We see all kinds of solidarity as our shareholder. We try to share the materials we produce in a way that can be used by anyone with similar concerns. We would like to ensure solidarity networks to take action in the needy local areas. We think that we can do this by growing solidarity. If everyone contributes, we can overcome this process. For this reason, we care about solidarity networks as well as citizens to support and look out for each other.

Will you only be active during the days of Corona? Do you have a goal to establish a sustainable structure?

Our current focus is on the epidemic. However, we think that we need citizen solidarity not only in these days, but at any time and everywhere. Because socio-economic conditions and the quality of the developed policies for the invisible segments of the society should also be considered before the epidemic and the epidemic measures had aggravated these conditions and have brought the necessity of producing structural solutions forward. We wish to continue our citizens’ solidarity by updating our content with the developments after the epidemic.

How can citizens and institutions reach you and contribute?

Individuals can contribute to our work by adding information about the support and solidarity that are not included in the Citizens’ Solidarity Network Map through the Support and Solidarity Information Form (Destek ve Dayanışma Bilgi Formu) we created or by updating the information they find incorrect. But more importantly, we think that organizing new relationships, new structures, new forms of solidarity among these empty areas will be the most important contribution, as it reveals areas where the map support mechanism or solidarity practice has not yet been developed.

Individuals, groups or institutions can reach us via our e-mail, website or our social media accounts below. We are open to all kinds of contributions, support and cooperation.

Citizen’s Journal: Open Media for Citizens’ Suggestions and Opinions

Is there anything you would like to add?

As Citizens’ Solidarity Network, we try to raise awareness not only with our mapping studies, but also with the findings and demands we have revealed by interpreting this map and its content. For this, we have a media called the Citizen’s Journal (Yurttaş Güncesi) on our website. Here we will compile news from our network of solidarity, from Turkey and from the World, and we will try to make citizen demands and make good examples from home / abroad visible. We also intend to have thematic interviews with people and experts working in these areas. Therefore, everyone can develop suggestions and content contributions on any topic they think will be beneficial in this media. Such feedbacks will make us very happy.

Is there any messages you would like to convey? 

Our message is as we’ve stated before: “See the need, look out for the citizen, grow the solidarity.”