Ari Movement

The ARI Movement, founded in 1994, takes a four-pronged approach to building a strong Turkish civil society: To establish a new understanding of volunteerism for Turkish youth and encourage them to adopt the values of participatory democracy; To develop an informed civic voice through education and seminars; To assist in the formation of institutes as a vehicle for the creation and dissemination of information; and to encourage structural and intellectual change in the social and political arenas. As a non-partisan research and advocacy organization, ARI Movement was created on the civic society participatory model. We are working to for an improvement in the way the Turkish populace processes decisions and views government. The modern Turkish state inherited a weak civil society; one where citizens expected benefits from the state but never saw the need to put anything back in. Thus, in recognizing this weakness, we work to educate Turks on how to improve their society by democratic devices. We are in a sense training those who can and will serve as future agents of change.