An online workshop was held by The Turkey Antenna of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network on October 29, 2020, with the presentations of Prof. Ayşe Betül Çelik, Assoc. Prof. Esra Çuhadar, Aşiyan Süleymanoğlu, Birsen Atakan, and Ayşe Gökkan.
In the first session Prof. Ayşe Betül Çelik started her presentation titled Dialogue and Problem Solving by explaining the basic concepts of conflict resolution in the workshop held online over the zoom platform due to the epidemic conditions. After defining third-party roles in the mediation process, she focused on methods for dialogue development. She also detailed the ARIA dialogue methodology and completed its presentation with examples.
In the same session, Assoc. Prof. Esra Çuhadar stated that the renewed conflicts after 2010 have increased and this indicator shows that the solutions do not focus on the root causes of the issues in her presentation titled Comprehensiveness in Peace Processes. She also underlined that good governance in peace processes could not eliminate causes without fulfilling basic needs and interests. According to Çuhadar, the United Nations and the World Bank reports underline the importance of comprehensiveness and state that an approach based on basic human needs is needed in solution processes. At the end of her presentation, Çuhadar explained how comprehensiveness can be implemented with examples from around the world.
In the second session of the online workshop, Aşiyan Süleymanoğlu shared his experiences on mediation law. He talked about the journey of mediation's connection with the legal system that started in America, and also mentioned the practices in different countries including Turkey.
Besides, the mediator and lawyer Birsen Atakan explained how women are affected by the mediation process and how a better system could be possible. According to Atakan, the security of both mediator women and other actors should be ensured and the platforms where women can freely express their needs should be opened.
In the last part, Ayşe Gökkan shared her experiences on organized mediation in the field. She described her work on creating a new social contract for the place of women in society through processes in which different identities come together. She also stated that with the work involving women, they focus on what can be done before facing crises.