Reviewing Turkish Administrative Structure and Matching it with EU Counterparts
Under this activity a functional review of the Turkish and various countries’ administrative structures will be analyzed to identify inter-agency cooperation and accountability lines to counter various aspects of radicalization and FTF threat. This activity has as its final objective to enhance inter-agency cooperation among relevant Turkish institutions/bodies and establish networks with EU Member States’ counterparts.
Identifying Legal Regulations Pertaining to FTF
Under this activity, a legal review of Turkey’s efforts to address radicalization and FTF challenges with an eye on a comparison with various EU and non-EU countries and international organizations will be conducted. Weaknesses along with good practices and effective legal measures will be identified.
Identifying Coverage of the FTFs and Radicalization in Turkish Media
Existing frames of reference in regard to radicalization and FTF in Turkish media will be analysed in order to identify the political discourse and general public’s level of awareness about FTF challenge which will provide an assessment of Turkish media’s reporting on radicalization and violent extremism.
Assessing the Role of Women in Fighting Radicalization
The primary objective is to explore the possibilities of building a gender-sensitive approach for countering and preventing violent extremism, as an alternative and complement to “malestream” efforts that have dominated the field and practice. The research will seek to offer an insight into:
- How radicalization and violent extremism is conceived by WNGOs, academics and policy-makers in Turkish civil society,
- What sort of perspectives these actors adopt vis-a-vis countering and preventing violent extremism,
- Whether they have embarked on gender-specific programmes to reach out women that suffer from post-radicalization trauma and provide institutional support for rehabilitation and resilience of women,
- What kind of tools, instruments and resources they have to do so,
- How they themselves evaluate past and present efforts to cope with the challenges of countering radicalization and violent extremism,
- What kind of durable and viable institutional mechanisms and approaches can be built up for the future.
Social Media Study on FTFs in Turkey
Social media occupies a major role in propaganda strategy of radical and violent extremist narratives as well as raising financial support and even planning and giving training on future terrorist attacks. Therefore, a closer look at how extremists use social media, including several social media channels, will help both identify the specifics of their propaganda and narrative and also pave the way for effective counter-strategies.
Under this activity, researchers will conduct social media-based research, by constantly
Conducting Public Attitudes Surveys and Interviews
This research module seeks to map the public attitudes on CVE and PVE, with a view for contributing to the efforts toward countering radicalization and violent extremism in Turkey. This will be achieved through surveys and interviews on the target group of society, in particular, youth and the reeves (Mukhtars).
Training Forum for NGOs and Project Seed Funding
Based on the conclusions from various modules of the research component, a training programme will be designed. The objective of this training programme is to increase the capacity of NGOs to cope with the challenges of violent extremism and encourage them to design their own projects in these areas. As part of this incentive mechanism, seed funding will be provided to selected participants to carry out FTF and VE-related projects they design.
Seminars for the Reeves (Mukhtars)
Based on the research component and outputs received from the previous stages, seminars will be designed for the reeves which are expected to have a multiplier effect in terms of raising public awareness regarding CVE&PVE challenges.
Visual Content Competition
A competition among key fine arts faculties in Turkey will be organized where young participants share their visual content to raise awareness about or contribute to the capability to fight CVE&PVE issues as well as FTFs. Therefore, counter-narratives, several key short clips about particular responses to specific abuses of religious concepts by ISIL, visual content about the difficulties posed by returned FTFs or people affected by VE, recordings from P2P challenges, NGO forum and workshops can be visually polished and transformed into important visual library for counter-messaging and awareness raising.
International Conference
The international conference is the most important visibility-related component of the project where all the outcomes of the activities carried out will be culminated with the aim of presenting the results of all the previous activities to policy makers and law makers in the framework of an international conference to be organized at the end of the project. The conference will also bring together high-level participants together with an interdisciplinary focus. It is expected to make a significant impact in terms of disseminating the overall results and conclusions of the project. Besides, it will have the potential to act as the first of a series of conferences in the coming years bringing together researchers, practitioners and policy-makers on the subject from all over the world
“Improving Effectiveness of Measures to Tackle the Foreign Terrorist Fighters and Radicalization Threat”
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