This past year has been a tough one in Turkey; I have come back from Sweden and re-settled in Istanbul, however the year has been marked with explosions, attacks, deaths, house raids and a general downfall. In the first half of the year I had to cancel most of the activities I had been organising due to these events. Since the June 2015 elections, there have been a total of 18 explosions/attacks in Turkey, which left hundreds of dead and over a thousand wounded. With these, came a social reservation when fewer and fewer people wanted to participate -let alone organise- events and trainings; which made it an even harder year.
While the explosions and attacks had targeted the civil society at a great length, the cherry on top of it all was the July 15 coup after which the pressure has grown exponentially across the country, and stress levels have risen in society, economy and governance. It has become a challenge operating in civil initiatives with the arrests and imprisonment of journalists, academics, activists and even the members of parliaments.
This year, the main accomplishments have been that I started writing for Katoikos.eu, restarted Today Talks -political/social discussion meetings at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, and organised Youth Internet Governance Forum II in Istanbul as part of Turkey Europe Foundation.
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