Soros Institute Will Support Turkey in 2004

Hakan Altınay, the Turkish Director of the Open Society Institute, told that, they will provide a 1.7-million-dollar support for some Turkish foundations.

Soros told that; Everybody can apply to us for the support. We have some criteria. If the foundation fits our criteria, we will support it. We do not look over ideologically, so both the Islamic section and the Kemalists can apply to us.

He went on to say that; We financed 900 thousand dollars in 2002, 1.3 million dollars last year, and in 2004 this amount will be 1.7 million dollars. Our institute works in 60 countries. We are not a hidden institute, you can see our activities on the newspapers and we announce our annual reports.

The most important subject for us in Turkey, is EU and education. EU, especially, will be very important in 2004. We have some projects on this subject. For example, we are carrying out research on whether a migration will take place after Turkey’s membership to Europe. And according to our researches, a big migration will not happen.”