A case study of civicness: Reflections on the story of the Turkish Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly

ABSTRACT This short commentary provides a personal account of the history of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly of Turkey by its founder. The story is about a group of activists/intellectuals who developed a civic strategy for addressing conflicts, in the Balkans, the Middle East and in Turkey itself. It reflects on the contrast between civic activism, which involves direct political engagement and agency, and what might be called NGO advocacy, which involves writing and promoting reports on, say, human rights abuses in other places.