Greenpeace Directors visit Damanhur

Saturday February 5, 2011

Uygar Ozesmi, General Director of Mediterranean Greenpeace (Turkey, Israel and Lebanon) and his wife Oya Aynan, a journalist, came for a brief visit to Damanhur to contact the Federation in order to explore future collaborations. Both Uygar and Oya are active in promoting ecovillages in Turkey, and they came to Italy to visit the most developed ecovillages. Our two guests have a very ambitious project, to unite all the people and movements that believe in changing the world and work for it, creating a parallel organization to the United Nations, which can become an interlocutor for the UN.

During their visit to Damanhur, we had a brief interview with Uygar and Oya about their experiences regarding ecovillages and Greenpeace...

What are the points in common amongst the ecovillages that you encounter?

A serious commitment to the Earth, the desire to do something useful, and naturally, working for peace.

How do you place Damanhur in all this?

Damanhur is very well-known in the world. We heard about it 15 years ago and it was already offering itself as an alternative counter-current realty, involved in world peace and establishing a closer relationship with nature. It is very involved in the network of ecovillages (GEN), the President of which we got to know five years ago, for projects presented to the United Nations. Fundamentally, we need to create a network that connects all these organizations that work for peace. We would like to see some of these communities in Italy. What we see at Damanhur is a story that has been successful. You have created something that works. There are many other communities in the world that don't work so well. They need help to function and grow. Today, there are many people in Turkey who are trying to form communities, with solutions that involve land, alternative energy, organic agriculture, but they do not find solutions about living together, or managing the economy. The difference is that Damanhur has tried it and succeeded.

Greenpeace generally relates to individuals, not groups. How are you intending to establish relationships with ecovillages?

This is a mistaken concept. We work with groups if there is an adherence to our ideals. The difficulty with other groups is that Greenpeace has become a structure that seems to absorb everything else, sometimes "obscuring" other participants in various initiatives.

In this moment, the world is in crisis and we must unite based on core values, beyond the philosophical convictions of each single group. We need to create an alternative force to the current power structures.

The United Nations is working for peace, but they are not protecting the Earth.