Ankara, February 2014

Over the past years, CSOs have been recognized as an indispensable part of democratization process by public organizations and other actors. However, definition of civil society and civil society organizations (CSO) are still absent from the relevant legislation and policy documents. One of the major obstacles to freedom of association in Turkey is that the legal framework only recognizes forms of association and foundation and no other forms of organised civil action are recognized as legal entities.