Eskişehir University Communication Faculty Student Bulletin Interview
January 26th 2006
Nazire Dedeman
Founder President of Umut Foundation
Individual armament is one of the main problems of Turkey. You are the Founding President and Board Chairman of Umut Foundation who shows sensitivity and performs works in face of this problem.
1-Why was Umut Foundation established?
Umut Foundation was established in 1993 by the Dedeman family in order to bring up the youth and the children who are the assurance of our future as modern people and good citizens who live far from weapons and violence, who solves its problems and disagreements with methods that dont involve violence, who can create peaceful environments, who believe in the rule of law and who has a developed justice sense.
2-Can I learn what do you think personally about weapon and individual armament?
The Foundations opinion and my personal opinion about individual armament are in parallel with each other. Besides, as an individual, if I wouldnt have the same opinion, I would have difficulties to internalize this kind of foundation and put my signature under its works.
3-Can I learn the importance of the seagulls forming your logo and the reason of choosing a seagull?
Actually as you know seagull is the symbol of peace. A foundation which the peace idea is such dominant, the reason the logo is a seagull is because the only aim of the Foundation is to assure peace. Besides obtaining peace, the aim of the Foundation is to render continuous peace, most importantly assure the development within peace and to bring up leaders toward this aim.
The youth found that the symbol of this demand was a seagull. According to them, seagull was the symbol of whiteness, pureness, innocence and hopefulness and it was the passion of being in peace with itself and the nature. Besides, seagull was the herald of good news and development. This was the symbol of the enthusiasm of liberty, self-realization and self-reliance.
However maybe what is the most important is the fact these four seagulls, situated in our foundations logo and challenging the limits of ascendance, are the symbols of our four children Berna, Umut, Onur and Önder, and of their expectations from us. Our effort is to spread those expectations to youth all over the world through flying sea gulls, make them adopt it; to make youth the hope of the World .
4-In Turkey, almost one out of three individual is carrying or possessing a weapon. Do you feel in safe among those people who carry or possess a weapon for security reasons?
Security is one of the main reasons of armament in Turkey. However, there is something unnoticed, violence produce violence. Therefore, the probability of the people possessing a weapon for security reasons to be hit by a weapon is higher compared to those who dont possess a weapon. Moreover, security, in other words the weapon available at home against the strangers for security reasons, poses a serious danger for our relatives living at home. According to a research, the use of the weapon available at home for the purpose of suicide is exactly 22 times more than the use of the weapon for security reasons
5-Could you give a little information about the works of Umut Foundation?
Umut Foundation has contributed to the strengthening and the protection of the Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and the Human Rights, to the achievement of world peace and justice with the activities it has hosted since its establishment in 1993 themed as International Individual Disarmament Symposium, First Balkan Conference, 1.-2.-3. Europe Conference of the Science and Art of Peace Reconciliation, Middle East Media Conference: Through Peace Environment, Training Seminar Concerning Law toward the Achievement and Strengthening of the Existence Conditions of the State of Law, The Reasons and Consequence of Individual armament in our Society.
Besides our publications and the works we have realized in the field of education, in order to draw attention to the individual armament problem and to inform our society about this issue, we are realizing, as a tradition, on September 28th Individual Disarmament Day, the activity The Walk of the Silent Shoes and also the award ceremony in which we declare the results of our award-wining and themed contests we organize during the course of the year.
A set of work we have started concerning individual armament problem is still continuing. In 2005, on September 24th-25th, we have made the Searching Meeting Individual armament Problem in Turkey: Solution Proposals with the cooperation of Istanbul Governorship and the contribution of Bahçeşehir University. The meeting is formed of Social Status, Law, Security and Media work groups and the application plan containing the solution proposals has been declared to the public opinion with an activity made at AKM (Atatürk Kültür Merkezi, Ataturk Cultural Center) on September 28th Individual Disarmament Day, after The Walk of the Silent Shoes.
In 2006, we started works in order to organize a documentary film contest themed as Individual armament: Accord a Right for Life
6-Armament has a lot of sub-reasons. How do you define these subheadings?
We are defining the reason of individual armament as prestige, strength, insecurity, lack of communication, backwardness, fear and anxiety, wrong education and fashion. According to a research of Bapam (Bakırköy Psikiyatri Tedavi ve Araştırma Merkezi, Psychiatry Treatment and Research Center); 35% of the people who applied for weapon license has given reasons like business risk, 23.6% as it should be present at home, 16.7% as curiosity hobby, 12.7% as hunting shooting, 5.5% as souvenir
7-Is there any works Umut Foundation has realized with different Non-Governmental Organizations and Associations? What is the aim of these works?
There are collective works made in the past. At present we dont have any project we are conducting with other Non-Governmental Association but we have activities in order to be involved in a set of collective projects. In the past, we did the Educational Project I am a Human-I am an Individual-I am a Citizen with Education Volunteers Foundation of Turkey and The International Individual armament Symposium with Istanbul Bar Association and Open Society Institute. Moreover, with the leadership of Umut Foundation, work commissions against individual armament have been established in every city within the scope of bar associations and we have done commission works examining the law number 6136 about firearms and knives and other tools and the toy regulation with the support of the Unions of Bars of Turkey.
Furthermore, within the time we have continued our works, we have got the supports of local governments and we have seen that they were in a tendency to support Non-Governmental Organizations. By this time, we have worked with local governments such as Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Kadıköy Municipal, Şişli Municipal, Şanlıurfa Governorship and Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality, Viranşehir District Governorship, Beyoğlu Mayoralty.
With all these works, it is aimed at preparing the necessary infrastructure to bring up modern people, complete individuals who believe in the rule of law, who solve disagreements with peaceful means and who have a developed justice sense.
8-Solving disagreements by use of a weapon and showing every emotional state by use of a weapon are associated with lack of education. However, in Turkey lot of educated people possess a weapon, even use it. Dont you think it would be a good example for uneducated people if first educated people listen to the disarmament calls and leave their weapons?
Weapon is a symbol of prestige to most people of our society; the law presents the acquisition of weapon as a right to citizens. There are people who use this right as well as conscious individuals who dont. The uneducated people under the influence of backward subcultures consider the acquisition of a weapon as a prestige against people who choose not to own a weapon and the citizens who arent aware respect those people while theyve got a weapon.
As you have noticed there is here a difference between a person and an individual. Individual is the person who takes decisions by his own in front of us and, who has adopted whether national whether supra national law and modern judgment style while taking these decisions. Thats why educations that will turn people to individual are very important for our Foundation. This is what we are aiming while we are developing and implementing projects with other NGOs and local governments.
If we have to come back to your question, yes, maybe those people are above a specific level in terms of education level but in terms of being an individual, it seems that unfortunately they do not have the same education concept as us. But we believe that they will have the same education concept as us with the pressure of the public opinion and within the culture of consensus we are trying to form .People who are above a specific cultural level will give away their weapons as they become an individual, and they will understand that they will still be respected with other characters and that they have to be respected in any case.
9-You emphasized that Umut Foundation wants continuity in peace and not to reach peace; is it possible to remove disagreements with dialogue instead of with weapons, in other words to realize peace and render it permanent?
Although we are known as a Foundation based on Individual Disarmaments, the aim of the Foundations establishment is to bring up our youth, who are the safeguard of the future, as democratic individuals who have adopted the rule of law, who are sensitive to the environment and the humanity, who prefer peaceful means in resolving disagreements and who have awareness of citizenship.
Of course, the basic duty goes to the families and parents. Mothers and fathers should teach to their children first of all that they can resolve their problems by peaceful means and not by conflicting. The youth should not get the idea that they will be strong while they use force, but should internalize the opinion that being peaceful is the necessity of being a human.
The newcomer generations will see that all kind of problem will be resolved by peaceful means as this consensus culture obtains a place in the society. Our hope is toward a 21st Century that will be a century of peaceful consensus, not a century of wars
10-What is the importance of the Individual Armament problem in Turkey: Solution Proposals searching meetings?
The importance and the seriousness of Umut Foundations individual disarmament works which is insistently continuing have been recognized once again through these searching meetings. Finally our politicians attention has been centered on this issue.
For the first time a Prime Minister has emphasized the importance of this issue in our country and announced that required works will be done to take measures. The circular about The Shooting by Weapons sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to all the citys governorships, question resolutions and law proposals prepared about this issue by some of our deputies indicate that serious works will be made.
In the searching meetings we have made, after an extremely long and exhausting work, experts and Scientifics from different discipline searched the answer for the question how can individual disarmament be assured; and a Final Declaration constituted of their proposals came out.
As Umut Foundation, our duty is to be the follower of the realization of the proposals taking place in this declaration. We expect our politicians and deputies will continue to be concerned and the works about this issue to be started.
11-How efficient the solution proposals in these meetings can be in Turkey? Is it possible to make scientific works about the solution proposals and to include the youth within these works? (Such as University cooperation)
If you like lets run an eye over the decisions we took on the final declaration of the searching meetings themed as Individual Armament Problem in Turkey: Solution Proposals which is realized in September 2005. It was possible to attain to a wide base and to an applicable consensus because there were representatives from all kind of opinion in the work groups in which experts were involved.
According to the social conditions report, we have reached to the conclusion: In order to prevent armaments and to resolve problem areas; we should develop and put immediately into practice education models which will use comprehensive researches containing social values, cultural elements and the reasons of arming as a base, which will create a change in attitude, behavior and language in all parts of the society, which will aim at the methods of resolving problem without the use of violence, at the human rights and at the peace culture.
The Media Work Group, which will probably interest you more, has come with the result: the fact that the violence and individual armament image in the media is huge and stunning and that the reactions showed by the viewers-readers-listeners to these images are so low and inefficient that it can be considered not even existing; has shown that the media and violence relation should be handle in terms of democratic culture.
I especially ask to new journalists and harbinger candidates to be sensitive about this issue now and in the future as well. You will accomplish a very important mission in terms of our Foundation if in the tasks you are going to be involved in the future you pay a bit more attention to the manner the violence is presented to the public opinion by the media and emphasize nothing will be achieved by committing violence.
About the cooperation of making research with universities, we have got their support in several researches. Besides, as a foundation, we are supporting these researches and researchers that are such as a pathfinder for us. Our main priority is to attract attention of the public opinion and the politicians to the individual disarmament issue just as a necessity of being a human. Thats why I think it is important to make the academic researches become implemented in the public opinion.
12-Do you think that supervising works against individual armament problems and the laws concerning the issue are enough?
In our opinion, the concrete steps taken by the law-maker in this issue arent enough. The concerning law and its directives should be immediately reconstituted in a clear and resultant way.
In our opinion, if driving a vehicle while you are drunk is forbidden, then possessing a weapon should be forbidden too. If you should have traffic insurance while buying a vehicle for damages you may give to others and yourself, then a more comprehensive assurance policy should be done while buying a firearm. Since dementia events are seen too much after the age of 60, as a minimum age limit has been brought to the acquisition of weapon, a maximum age limit should also be brought. We have shared our opinions with the Security General Directorate and our works are continuing. Moreover, the determinations of Umut Foundation have attracted attention of many NGOs in the world concerned in this issue and they have started activities for a law amendment. We have offered a contemporary draft of The Firearms Law to the law-maker after the study we have made with the Union of Bar of Turkey concerning the restructure and the improvement of the 6136 numbered law to todays condition.
In addition, we are supporting the proposals made by our deputies concerning the firearms law as information and document supplier.
13-You know that a default prayer (namaz) is performed at the funeral only for a mafia leader character that has lost its life by getting shot in a series broadcasted in television. Besides subheadings such as the lack of education, economic troubles and culture revealing the elements of social violence, can the agenda formed and the violence exposed especially by the media have a negative influence in the use of weapon and the resort to violence?
The violence messages that take place in this kind of series and even in advertisements and news are given very unconsciously. As articulated in our final declaration of our searching meeting media study group, In the society conscience, violence is legitimated and encouraged
Particularly the children whose identity is not formed yet, the youths take the characters who commit violence and/but who are respected as an example. Thus, it should be thought twice or thrice while creating this kind of images and heroes who would influence the new generation, if necessary help should be received from pedagogues and social psychologists. Maybe we should try to prevent those who are below a specific age limitation to watch this kind of programs. But it should not be forgotten that this kind of supervisions could be made only by the parents of the children and this is why it is very important to raise awareness of the parents in this issue.
14-What is your point of view to the Turkish Media in this sense?
Umut Foundation is continuing its campaign about individual disarmament since its establishment in 1993. Our biggest supporters of this campaign are citizens who are sensitive and responsible on the issue. However, the media became aware of the importance of the issue and are not leaving us alone. The media is transmitting our messages to people and is playing a crucial role in raising awareness of the people about this problem.
Finally, what would you like to say to the people who are not hurt yet due to individual armament problem and who are not aware of this problem or who are pretending not to see it?
We believe that parents are the biggest educators and therefore in our opinion, the most important message to give to mothers and fathers is to bring up their children in a reconciliatory and peaceful environment. They should teach their children the rule of law beginning from small ages. The children should be purified from violent images appearing mostly in the media and from toys expressing violence.