The Turkey Antenna of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network organized conflict resolution and mediation training for women in Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, and Mardin. The mediation training included participants from universities, local governments, and women from non-governmental organizations. In the 2.5-day training, participants took seminars a conflict resolution and mediation, as well as negotiation methods and nonviolent communication techniques with a gender perspective. The Mediation program, supported by a theoretical approach as well as interactive applications and simulations, aimed at training women to gain knowledge and skills in conflict resolution and mediation.
The member of Turkey Antenna of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network Prof. Ayşe Betül Çelik, trained 75 women in three different provinces with the collaboration of the Mediterranean Women's Mediators Network Turkey, Sabancı University, and İstanbul Policy Center. According to Çelik, “the training held in Diyarbakir, Gaziantep and Mardin, aimed to help women gain the knowledge and equipment to work actively for the peaceful transformation of local conflicts. The participating women, selected from non-governmental organizations, political parties and trade unions in these provinces, completed the training on the sources, consequences of conflicts, methods of peaceful intervention, and in particular on the theoretical and practical methods on negotiation and mediation.”
Çelik believes that participating women have developed a new approach in their view and transforming conflicts, and hope women empowered by these skills will work more actively in peace-building. According to Çelik “the seminars received a great deal of attention. Therefore, we will continue it in the next term!”
