The role of humanitarian NGOs in Turkey's peacebuilding

Official URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/finp20/current#.VHtcqouF5Gz

This article illuminates the role of humanitarian NGOs in Turkey’s peacebuilding. Turkish humanitarian NGOs pursue low-level peacebuilding, focusing on interaction with grassroots, as opposed to the high-level peacebuilding of the state based on official interaction. Their key features are the pursuit of a normative approach; flexibility; the absence of conditionality; sustainability; private rather than official funding; religious and cultural values; and the tendency to promote Turkey abroad without a genuine nationalist agenda. Although the institutional consolidation of these NGOs as a sector remains a distant goal, they are not likely to disappear given the considerable societal and political will behind their work. Their success depends on building a comprehensive strategy with efficient coordination and cooperation in a pluralist environment.