something feels off. the frameworks we’ve relied on to make sense of the world no longer seem to hold. we’re in the middle of a shift, not quite here, not quite there, caught somewhere between what was and what’s coming. in this space, we can do more than just watch the distance grow.
the let’s close the gap forum brings together rights-based civil society actors from across turkey to ask the hard questions: what’s driving these gaps, why do they persist, and what would it actually take to close them.
the forum takes its rhythm from those who gather within it. over three days, participants move together—naming the gaps and working through the knots towards what comes next. rather than watching from the sidelines, participants take ownership of the gaps they identify and work to fill them.
reception
networking reception with welcome from the EU delegation to türkiye and the sivil düşün team
19.00panel and discussion
the bonds that once felt solid are loosening. the tension between reality, systems, technology, and our values keeps growing. we increasingly find ourselves in a world defined by widening gaps, and what we've known so far isn't enough to understand or bridge. together, we ask: how do we tell what's real? why does the distance between us and the decision-makers who shape our lives keep growing? how do we rebuild trust between civil society and the public? and how do we navigate technologies that amplify some voices while distorting others?
keynote speakers
Prof. Dr. Seda Demiralp
Orhan Şener Deliormanlı
moderator
Fulden Ergen
10.00open mic session
one microphone, many stories. participants respond to a single question: what would your younger self, ten years ago, never have imagined about your life today?
no polished narratives—just lived experience. the stage belongs to those who have faced widening gaps and tried, in their own ways, to close them or build something back.
facilitator
Lara Özlen
13.30scenario studio
participants come together to think collectively about widening distances and imagine what futures may still be within reach. they begin from the shared understanding that these gaps didn't appear overnight, and won't close overnight. what matters is the work of bridging them, together. through collaborative scenario-building, they test assumptions and think through alternative paths, pushing beyond the obvious. their scenarios become a tool that opens space to consider what could happen while things are still unfolding.
moderator
Didem Tekeli
facilitators
Bahri Telli
Berfin Azdal
Uğur Cuya
15.30open space
having explored future scenarios for closing the gaps, participants, participants consider practical next steps, find answers to questions and discuss ways they can support each other.
using open space methodology, the session creates provides a marketplace of questions and solutions.
facilitator
Derya Tombuloğlu
10.00reflection session
a closing space to reflect together, making sense of what unfolded across the forum.
facilitators
sivil düşün key experts Dilek Ertükel, Emre Gür and Yeşim Gözde Ersoy
11.30125 civil society actors come together, activists and representatives of organisations, initiatives, platforms, communities, and networks, each carrying a different struggle, a different story, from across the country’s provinces and across diverse rights fields. they are joined by others who shape the wider landscape: representatives of the european union delegation to türkiye, donor organisations, EU member states, and the sivil düşün team.
she listens to the emotions beating at the heart of politics.
she places data and intuition, analysis and feeling side by side.
she asks not only how society thinks, but how it feels.
she stretches the boundaries of academia toward the public sphere.
her perspective calls politics toward a more human ground.
tbc
tbc
through words, she seeks to make the unseen visible.
she writes at the intersection of gender, memory, and culture.
years in civil society have deepened her voice.
she brings the popular and the political into the same frame.
her narrative calls out to what lingers in the gaps.
she builds invisible connections between people through stories.
she transforms lived experience from civil society into a clear, shared language.
she unravels complexity, often telling it again in a new way.
she believes trust takes root through narrative.
her work is to help people hear one another again.
he carries a journey shaped within fragile moments.
he has worked in disasters and conflicts, in the most difficult of times.
he builds bridges between humanitarian response and long-term change.
he holds equality, protection, and solidarity together in one frame.
his work is to keep the urgent and the enduring in the same breath.
a researcher walking in the footsteps of memory.
she translates the silent layers of the past into the language of today.
she sees peace as a space where remembering together becomes possible.
with communities, she moves through a slow and attentive process of learning.
her question is simple, yet deep: how do we remember together?
he builds stories beyond the frame of the camera.
he brings cities, nature, and people into the same shot.
he opens a space for us to confront what we see.
his work reminds us of the world’s fragile limits.
his storytelling is both witness and invitation.
a strategist standing at the very centre of change.
she accompanies institutions in the moments they find their direction.
she opens pathways that turn thought into action, intention into transformation.
bringing different worlds together, she shapes a new language.
for her, transformation is not a destination, but a path to be walked.