Greetings fellow Rotarians and guests!
Welcome to the Rotary E-Club of One World!
Dear Fellow OWR Members,
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with family, friends and all loved ones!! I just cannot forget the taste of the pumpkin pies I had when I lived in the US...oh my!!
Last week I have mentioned that I was studying for an exam, well that is over. The exam was for a relatively new dispute resolution system that is now being implemented in Turkey – mediation. I realize that while this is not entirely new to some of you, most Turkish people had not even heard of it until about 7 years ago. The new legislation is so that, for most types of legal conflict, if you wish to litigate a lawsuit in Turkey, you will be forced to go through mediation first. I was very dubious about this new system, mostly for the reason that it would limit an individual’s right to be heard before a judicial court. But requirement is in place for only a limited period of time, up until the time Turkish people will grow accustomed to the new system. You see, we are usually hot-headed, short-tempered, Mediterranean people, I really did not think our culture is used to negotiating. But while preparing for the exam I actually did realize, this new system is also a possibility for the people to learn to grow empathy, settle differences, work the conflict and not the parties to the conflict. This actually is a peace project! It made me very happy to see that in my profession I am actually working to become part of a peace-building, conflict-resolving system even if stipulated directly by the government. Well, let’s just hope that I passed.
This past Saturday we had the pleasure of hosting Savi Bhim, our District Governor, for one of the zoom meetings of our club. Savi shared her envision of Rotary with us, which I am sure you will like to hear about in the video below. Thank you for attending this meeting.
Have a happy weekend.
Yours in Rotary,
Ozlem
Ozlem
