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Oğuzhan Göktolga & Hasan Batar
This project aims at preventing the propagation of terrorist incidents and racist move-
ments in the world and contributing to create mutual sharing and cooperation against
racism and terrorism.
Another project conducted by the Youth Assembly is “
what do
a pencil, an eraser,
sharpener, change?
” spread by the ÖSYM (Student Selection and Placement Center)
throughout Turkey. With this project, pencils, erasers and sharpeners which were given to
the students who enter the examinations of ÖSYM, were picked up after the exams from
the students and were sent to economically disadvantageous students in Southeastern
Anatolia.
4.2.3. Malatya City Council Youth Assembly’s Activities in the Context of Political
Participation
There does not exist a commonly accepted definition of political participation among
political scientists. In order to achieve political participation in the local sense, attention,
care, knowledge and action must be in harmony and it is largely civil society organiza-
tions that can provide this effect on local people (Üste, 2005: 52).
The youth councils established under the City Councils and acting on the basis of volun-
teerism are also the leading elements of the civil society in local level. Malatya City Coun-
cil Youth Assembly has conducted activities related to political participation and it has
been working to support active participation in decision-making processes so that young
people can reflect their views on local, national, international policy making processes in
different time periods.
In this context, a campaign was launched to lower the age to be a deputy from the age of
30 to 25. The name of the campaign initiated in 2006 was
“I Want to Be Elected”
. The
project initiated under the leadership of National Youth Parliament. In Malatya prior to the
2007 general elections, the representatives of political parties as well as non-governmen-
tal organizations were visited to seek support for the bill of law aiming at lowering the age
from 30 to 25 years old. As a result of strong cooperation, the Turkish Grand National
Assembly accepted the amendment of the Constitution on 8 October 2006 lowering the
age to be a deputy, from 30 to 25.
4.2.4. Malatya City Council Youth Assembly’s Activities Realted to Cultural Context
Culture has a history dating back to the creation of mankind. Culture is a concept that
needs to be examined together with how people reproduce their lives; what and how indi-
viduals do and how s/he comprise of his culture and culture is about how you understand
the world and how you locate yourself in life (Akdağ, 2008: 227).
Related to cultural context, Malatya City Council Youth Assembly passed the project of
“Nature’s Rhythm”
funded by State Planning Organization (DPT) in order to understand
the different cultural structures in the world and to provide a network among people in
different cultures. A total of 28 participants from Turkey, the Netherlands, Romania and
Germany were given the opportunity to share their different musical cultures in an inter-
cultural learning environment through platforms created within the project.
