4th Regional Network Meeting in Ankara, on March 12-15

Kaos GL, the coordinator of the Regional Network Against Homophobia, will host the 4th Meeting on 12-15 March in Ankara with the participation of organizations from the Middle East, Caucasia and the Balkans.

 

The first two regional network meetings took place in Ankara in 2011 and 2012 by Kaos GL. The third meeting was hosted in Croatia during the 10th Queer Zagreb Festival on April 23-30, 2012.

 

The 4^th Meeting will take place in Ankara and host the theme “Media” with an introduction to next meeting’s theme “Cyber and Physical Security in the Region”. The 4^th Meeting will take place between the dates of 12-15 March, 2012. 

In May 2011, 21 LGBT organizations from the Balkans, Middle East and Caucasia have met in Ankara to establish closer cooperation on advocacy and promotion of LGBT rights in the region. This initial meeting has shown the strong similarities in the roots of homophobia in different cultural parts of the region. The meeting has also showed high motivation for cross-regional collaboration of LGBT organizations who are dealing with similar scope of the problems. Queer Zagreb, together with its partner Kaos GL from Ankara, has committed to work on development on the regional LGBT network of organizations that will in the following period start to work on development of common projects.

 

Network at the moment has a vision to function as a platform of mutual learning and supporting with new ambition for formalizing. It aims to create a solidarity shelter for the regional organizations living under homophobic, transphobic, nationalist and sexist policies. Joint supports will be developed and bilateral and multilateral cooperations between organizations will be defined encouraged based on organizations profiles.

 

During the 4^th Meeting in Ankara, “Media” will be the main theme. Discussions around media, how we can use media for stronger networks, opportunities and risks around it will take place. Transferring the knowledge between member organizations on media will be the key principle of the meeting. 

 

The two main guests of the media experiences panel will be Myrvete Bajrami from “Kosovo 2.0 Magazine” in Kosovo and Khouloud from “Arken for Minorities” in Tunisia.

 

In every Regional Network Meeting, there is a special emphasis and space given to feminist lesbian work. Along with other experiences, two of the main presentations of the panel will be “Digital Lesbian Stories” by Kaos GL and “Butch Please” project by Karla Horvat Crnogaj from the Croatian organization Queer Zagreb.

 

On March 15^th, there will be a Regional Network football match where 17 countries will play football in solidarity with Halil İbrahim Dinçdağ, Turkish referee fired by the Turkish Football Federation due to his sexual orientation. 

 

During the “Sports Against Discriminations Forum”, FARE Executive Director Piara Powar and Zeljko Blace from qSPORT will be speaking on advocacy for non-discrimination within sports, in particular football.

 

The 4th Meeting will also be the host of an exhibition from Tunisia. Tunisian LGBTs will bring their LGBT thematic photography exhibition to be shown for the first time in Ankara.

 

The Regional Network meetings will continue with sub-regional meetings. The next meeting’s theme will be “Cyber and Physical Security in the Region”.

 

The list of participants will be finalized with those who show interest in the meetings by replying to each call. Priority will be given to the existing members, with chances of further participation if extra budget is available. Those who are interested in taking active part in the network shall e-mail: