Since 2004 Security Sector Programs have been carried out in Turkey, mainly aiming at reshaping civil-military relations and expanding civilian means of control. In accompanying documents to the reform efforts financed by the EU and implemented with the involvement of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), gender aspects and the inclusion of local women's organisations are attributed a vital role in the process. This is, on the one hand, due to the fact that women are exposed to a large insecurity in consequence of their socially ascribed roles and therefore have different security needs than men. On the other hand, male actors indeed still dominate the security sector.
In PRIF Study No. 28 "Sicherheitssektorreform und Gender in der Türkei. Perspektiven lokaler Frauenorganisationen", Stephanie Reckhaus analyzes how female rights activists perceive their own role in the SSR process. Which understanding of security the women take as a basis for their remarks, and how they evaluate the statements made by the Turkish government and international organisations in favour of gender sensitive reforms, is examined by the author by use of interviews conducted during a research stay in Turkey.
Stephanie Reckhaus studied ethnology, political science and geography at the University of Mainz and is currently a project assistant with the project "Cultural Effects of Global Norm Transmission for SSR".
Sabine Mannitz (Head of the Research Group "The Cultural Dynamics of Political Globalisation") and Stephanie Reckhaus present their research findings under the title "Competing Gender-Perspectives in Security Sector Reforms in Turkey" at the "8th Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA) Annual Congress: Human Security, Conflict Management, Security Sector Reform and Local Democratization" at the Institute of South East Asian Affairs & Faculty of Law, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai (Thailand), 19.09.-20.09.2014.
This PRIF Study is available at Nomos publishing house.