Türkiye Türkiye Edremit Round Table with Mayor and Representatives of...

« Edremit » takes part in the European Local Democracy Week - a paneuropean event coordinated by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe - as « Partner city »

Round Table with Mayor and Representatives of Youth Branches of different national Political Parties

Edremit
From 17/10/2018 to 17/10/2018
In order to foster dialogue and consultation we organised a round table inviting two representatives of the youth sections of each political party in Edremit: CHP, AKP, MHP, ?Y? PARTY and SAADET Party. The round table, moderated by our Mayor was meant to establish a democratic debate about the Congress principles and the ELDW 2018 theme. This activity can be considered as the most significative one of the all European Local Democracy Week 2018 of Edremit. For the first time in our city and maybe in all Turkey, young representatives of different political parties sat around and talked about the principles and values of the Council of Europe and the Congress. The event has a special importance considering that in Turkish system, local policies discussions and decisions are always too much politicised and sometimes there is the risk to lose sight of the “citizen dimension”. The European Local Democracy Week gives to us the chance to put the citizens at the centre of all policies, giving to them the right input to participate opening new and old channels of dialogue, involving them in the perspective of a real direct democracy idea. For two hours these young and clever politicians despite their all extremely different political ideologies, discussed about values like Participatory Democracy, Consultation, Direct Democracy and Commitment. Our Mayor had the role of simple moderator of the discussion, introducing different themes and ideas to talk about, giving to the participants all the space they needed. To the surprise of many of the participants, left, right and nationalist parties’ representatives agreed on several issues, in particular those ones regarding activities and policies fostering citizens’ participation. Some of them were familiar with those terms, other learned them for the first time, but the result didn’t change; because they reached a higher level of consciousness and awareness not only about constructive dialogue mechanisms but also about Europe and Council of Europe’s values. They understood how it is possible to realise a more participatory model of local governance as politician and also as young citizen. At the end of the Round Table, the representative of all parties in accord with our Mayor, decided to meet regularly every month in order to discuss about issues regarding Edremit youngsters’ problems, especially about drugs.
In order to foster dialogue and consultation we organised a round table inviting two representatives of the youth sections of each political party in Edremit: CHP, AKP, MHP, ?Y? PARTY and SAADET Party. The round table, moderated by our Mayor was meant to establish a democratic debate about the Congress principles and the ELDW 2018 theme. This activity can be considered as the most significative one of the all European Local Democracy Week 2018 of Edremit. For the first time in our city and maybe in all Turkey, young representatives of different political parties sat around and talked about the principles and values of the Council of Europe and the Congress. The event has a special importance considering that in Turkish system, local policies discussions and decisions are always too much politicised and sometimes there is the risk to lose sight of the “citizen dimension”. The European Local Democracy Week gives to us the chance to put the citizens at the centre of all policies, giving to them the right input to participate opening new and old channels of dialogue, involving them in the perspective of a real direct democracy idea. For two hours these young and clever politicians forgot their all extremely different political ideologies and discussed about values like Participatory Democracy, Consultation, Direct Democracy and Commitment. Our Mayor had the role of simple moderator of the discussion introducing different themes and ideas to talk about, giving to the participants all the space they needed. To the surprise of many of the participants, left, right and nationalist parties’ representatives agreed on several issues, in particular those ones regarding activities and policies fostering citizens’ participation. Some of them were familiar with those terms, other learned them for the first time, but the result didn’t change; because they reached a higher level of consciousness and awareness not only about constructive dialogue mechanisms but also about Europe and Council of Europe’s values. They understood how it is possible to realise a more participatory model of local governance as politician and also as young citizen. At the end of the Round Table, the representative of all parties in accord with our Mayor decided to meet regularly every month in order to discuss about issues regarding Edremit youngsters’ problems, especially about drugs.
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