Our members

Kırkayak Kültür, since its establishment in 2011, organizes social, cultural and art activities to help empower socially and culturally disadvantaged groups at risk, and to integrate society in dialogue and solidarity to end prejudices and discrimination against these groups. Besides, Kırkayak Kültür carries out social, cultural and art activities; studies on humanitarian issues caused by political and social circumstances in the Middle East in addition to existing issues as immigration, being a refugee, disadvantaged groups and cultures, also findings are presented to people nationwide and worldwide.

Kırkayak Kültür currently hosts its studies in two separate locations in Gaziantep: “Kırkayak Kültür Art Center" and "Kırkayak Kültür - Center for Migration and Cultural Studies".

‘Refugee Rights Turkey’ is an independent human rights organization based in Istanbul, which provides legal information and assistance services to asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants, organizes trainings and generates reference materials for lawyers and NGO workers, and advocates for improvements in Turkey’s legislation and policy concerning the legal protection of refugees and migrants in line with international standards. From 2005 to 2015, the organization existed by the name of ‘Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly – Refugee Advocacy and Support Program’ (HCA-RASP). As of March 2015 it was formally transitioned into a new organizational framework and rebranded ‘Refugee Rights Turkey’. It remains a leading civil society voice on refugee and migrant protection issues in Turkey and internationally.

Yeşim Mutlu is an independent advocate and researcher based in Turkey. She was awarded her B.A., M.A. and PhD from the Sociology Department in the Middle East Technical University. Her research interests include conflict-induced internal displacement, (arbitrary) revocation of citizenship, statelessness, human rights, gender and security, children's right and secondary trauma. Besides her academic studies, for more than ten years, she has worked, either as a consultant or as a researcher, in research projects conducted by national and international organizations on various subjects, many of focusing on disadvantaged groups. Among  others, in 2015, she was awarded a research grant by Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Turkey and conducted the research on Syrian children's risk of statelessness in Turkey. She was also awarded another research grant by Turkey’s Centre for Prison Studies in 2018, and wrote the report about stateless persons in Turkish prisons. She is currently working for awareness raising about (the risk of) statelessness in Turkey and creating the website haymat-loss.info.