FROM PAST TO PRESENT
November 4, 2024: ÇYDD General President Prof. Dr. Ayşe Yüksel received the “Honorary Award” from the Turkish Publishers Association for ÇYDD’s contribution to publishing life and reading culture in 2024.
October 19, 2024: ÇYDD General President Prof. Dr. Ayşe Yüksel received the “Fakir Baykurt Struggle Award” from the Education-Labor Union.
October 11, 2024: ÇYDD General President Prof. Dr. Ayşe Yüksel received the “Peace Path Mudanya Award” from the Mudanya Municipality.
August 24, 2024: The Great Offensive Afyon-Kocatepe 102nd Anniversary was celebrated in Afyon with ÇYDD Branch and Representatives and Youth.
August 6, 2024 Seydişehir-Konya Representative Office was opened.
April 16, 2024 Kelkit-Tokat Representative Office was opened.
March 23, 2024 ÇYDD Branches, Representative Offices and Youth met at Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial.
February 28, 2024 ÇYDD Datça-Muğla Representative Office opened.
February 21, 2024: THE ASSOCIATION FOR SUPPORTING CONTEMPORARY LIFE IS 35 YEARS OLD!
With 119 branches, 8 representatives, 23,000 members, thousands of donors and supporters in 52 provinces of our country, and an average of 25,000 students it grants scholarships to each year, it works voluntarily to reach the level of a modern country through contemporary education in line with Atatürk's revolution and principles.
2023, LABEP Re-established: LABEP-"Secular and Scientific Education Platform" was established by individuals and democratic mass organizations who oppose all initiatives and regulations that lead to a departure from secularism and scientificness in education. The Secular and Scientific Education Platform (LABEP), which was established in 2016 in order to protect, sustain and strengthen our Republic and to defend secular and scientific education against increasing threats, but suspended its activities in 2018, was re-established in 2023 by the coming together of 22 institutions.
June 2023, Samandağ ÇEM Opened: In order to support the recovery process of children and women living in the region by alleviating the effects of the earthquake, Samandağ Contemporary Activity Center started workshops with volunteer trainers of Contemporary Youth Center Unit.
February 2023: After 4 of our branches were physically damaged in the Kahramanmaraş earthquake and became unusable, our number of branches, which had reached 122, had to be reduced to 118.
February 2023: Following the earthquake disaster that occurred in Kahramanmaraş and caused great destruction in 11 provinces, 2 trucks of basic food and hygiene supplies and 4 trucks of various supplies (clothing, quilts, baby food, heaters, etc.) were delivered to the region in order to meet the needs of the local people. In addition, in order to support our students affected by the earthquake, disaster scholarships were given to ÇYDD scholarship students in the earthquake region so that they could meet their urgent needs.
September 2022: In addition to the scholarships received by our scholarship students who face housing problems, “housing scholarships” have begun to be given.
2022: On the 100th anniversary of the Great Offensive and Great Victory, when the Turkish army gained independence from the occupying forces in Anatolia, the “ÇYDD 100th Anniversary of the Great Victory Meeting” and the Victory March were held in Afyon.
2022, Lively Meetings: As a requirement of the technology age, mothers and fathers came together in a digital environment and training was given on parent-child communication.
2022: Our unforgettable General President Prof. Dr. Türkan Saylan’s dream of giving scholarships to 100 thousand girls has come true. A total of 104,915 high school girls were given scholarships.
2022, PERGEL: The ‘’Positive Adolescent Development Intervention Program’’ (PERGEL) was launched to support the social and emotional development of children in pre-adolescence.
2020, Contemporary Language Center: The Contemporary Language Center, where our scholarship university students work as volunteer instructors, has begun its work to help Contemporary Youth to access quality and effective foreign language education and develop their language skills.
2020, From High School to University Project: Our project, which we developed together with Sarıyer Academy, was launched with volunteer instructors to support high school seniors who receive scholarships from our association in their university entrance.
2020, Pebbles of Science: In order to contribute to the education of our middle school scholarship students, support is provided by organizing on-line workshops in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
2020, Young Starfish Project: This project, aimed at our high school students, supports students in gaining 21st century competencies and their personal development with regular online workshops designed differently for each class.
2020, Technology Support Project: It was initiated with the transition to distance education after the Covid-19 pandemic that affected the whole world, in order to enable students to Access technological products and to ensure that education continues healthily. With this project, 7424 computers have been delivered to students in need to date.
Ayşe Yüksel became the General President of ÇYDD on May 26, 2019. The 23rd Ordinary General Assembly of Çağdaş Yaşamı Destekleme Derneği (ÇYDD) was held on May 25-26 at the Sarıyer Yaşar Kemal Cultural Center. Prof. Dr. Ayşe YÜKSEL's list was selected to manage the association in the 2019-2021 period.
The Traditional Contemporary Youth 10th Anıtkabir Meeting was held on November 3, 2018. Approximately 2,000 students attended the meeting.
On July 22-29, 2018, the Türkel Minibaş 13th Youth Summer Camp was held at Uşak Ulubey Cam Kanyon Camp Area. 116 young people from 58 branches attended the camp.
On May 19, 2018, the Türkan Saylan Commemoration and 8th Türkan Saylan Art and Science Awards Ceremony was held at İş Sanat. Prof. Dr. Oktay Algın received an award in the Science category, and Bünyamin Bozkuş received an award in the Art category for his story book Cennetin Kenar Mahallesi. After the Award Ceremony, İDOB Artist Burcu Soysev gave a vocal recital accompanied by Pianist Fügen Yiğitgil. The program was presented by State Theater Actor Orhan Kurtuldu.
On May 4-5-6, 2018, the 21st Türkan Saylan Youth Congress was held in the Seferihisar district of İzmir. The main title of the congress was “Contemporary Youth is Looking for Ways of Effective Communication in Increasing Social Awareness!”
On April 21-22, 2018, the 10th Türkan Saylan Children’s Festival was hosted by the Silivri branch. More than 1000 children from the Silivri local, 108 children from the branches on the first day and 62 children on the second day, participated in the festival.
On April 6, 2018, the 12th Contemporary Life Republic Award was given to Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı. Following the ceremony, a musical recital by Melis Sökmen and her Orchestra took place. The program was presented by Theater Artist Gülsen Tuncer.
On March 31, 2018, the Traditional Contemporary Youth 12th Çanakkale Martyrs’ Memorial Meeting was held.
On March 24, 2018, the Water Rights Platform representative Dr. The documentary "Bottled Life" was shown with the presentation of Özdaş Özbay.
February 27, 2018 Columnists and reporters came together to share the journey of ÇYDD, which continues with new projects in its 29th year of establishment.
On February 8, 2018, the speakers at the panel titled "Channel İstanbul Facts" were M.A. Architect Mücella Yapıcı, Orhan Bursalı, Prof. Dr. Zerrin Bayraktar.
In 2018, the Contemporary Life Feza - Ceyhan Demir Çalıkuşu Contemporary Activity Center was opened in İzmir / Karabağlar.
On December 16, 2017, the Traditional Contemporary Youth 9th Anıtkabir Meeting and Republic Summit was held. The speakers of the Republic Summit were Prof. Dr. İbrahim KABOĞLU and Prof. Dr. Mustafa SARI. 2,000 students attended the event.
The panel titled Understanding Atatürk held on November 10, 2017 was moderated by Prof. Dr. Necla Arat. The speakers of the panel were Prof. Dr. Ümit Kocasakal, Prof. Dr. Süheyl Batum, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Barış Doster.
On November 4, 2017, a panel titled “Climate Change and Our Future” was organized by the Environment Unit. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Barış Karapınar, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sevil Acar and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selma Cerit Mazlum participated in the panel as speakers.
On July 17-23, 2017, the Türkel Minibaş 13th Youth Summer Camp was held in the Köroğlu Dağ Evleri camp area of Kıbrıscık district of Bolu. 124 people attended the camp, including 109 young people from 41 different branches, 9 instructors and 6 ÇGMB Board members.
On May 18, 2017, the Türkan Saylan Commemoration and 7th Türkan Saylan Art and Science Award was held at İş Sanat. Arife Kalender won the story award in the art category with her work "Dört İsmail Bir Leyla" and Mehmet Fırat Pürselim won with his work "Akılsız Sokrates". Presenter and journalist İrfan Değirmenci presented the program. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Emine Eren Koçak was deemed appropriate for the science award. After the ceremony, the Boğaziçi Youth Choir gave a concert.
On May 13-14, 2017, the 9th Türkan Saylan Children's Festival was hosted by the Uşak Branch and on May 27-28, the Ayvalık Branch.
On May 5-6-7, 2017, the 20th Türkan Saylan Youth Congress was held in Istanbul. The main title of the congress was "Cooperation of Local Governments and NGOs in the Development of Society and Democracy".
On April 5, 2017, the 11th Çağdaş Yaşam Republic Award Ceremony was held at the Yaşar Kemal Cultural Center of the Sarıyer Municipality and the award was given to Prof. Dr. Ümit Kocasakal. After the award was presented, a concert by Pianist Şevki Karayel was watched. The program was presented by Altan Erkekli.
On March 26, 2017, a documentary prepared by the Water Rights Campaign was screened and a conversation was held with Umut Kocagöz at the Şişli Municipality Nazım Hikmet Cultural Center.
On March 25, 2017, the Traditional Contemporary Youth 11th Çanakkale Martyrs’ Memorial Meeting was held.
In 2017, Tınaztepe Foundation Contemporary Activity Center was opened in İzmit.
In 2017, Kâzime - Emin Aytekin Contemporary Activity Center was opened in Ankara.
In 2017, Dr. Canan And Contemporary Activity Center was opened in Istanbul/Ataşehir.
In 2017, İbrahim - Hatun Genç Contemporary Activity Center was opened in Trabzon.
On March 25, 2017, the Traditional Contemporary Youth 11th Çanakkale Martyrs’ Memorial Meeting was held.
On December 3, 2016, the 8th Anıtkabir Meeting of Contemporary Youth and the Zülfü Livaneli - Ferhat Livaneli Concert took place in Ankara. Before the concert, Prof. Dr. Aysel Çelikel, Youth Unit Facilitator Altuğ Özşekerci and Çankaya Mayor Alper Taşdelen gave speeches.
On May 27, 2016, Fazıl Say gave a concert at TİM Show Center to support our”You Can Light a Candle too” university scholarship project.
On May 18, 2016, the 6th Türkan Saylan Commemoration and Art and Science Awards ceremony was held at İş Sanat. It was decided that starting from 2016, the Türkan Saylan art award would be given continuously in the field of storytelling; and in the field of science, in cooperation with the Science Academy and the Association for Supporting Contemporary Life, one person among the candidates who applied to BAGEP in the field of health sciences would be given the “Türkan Saylan Science Award” in addition to the BAGEP award.
In 2016, the Art award was given to Göksu’s work “Late Kiss” and Melike Belkıs Aydın’s work “Pink Red”; The Science award was given to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yalçın Solak. The program was presented by Ali İhsan Varol. Gülsin Onay gave a piano recital after the award ceremony.
The 19th Türkan Saylan Youth Congress was held in Nevşehir, Cappadocia on May 6-7-8. 173 young people attended the congress. The main title of the congress was “Our Foreign Policy, Asylum Seekers and Refugees”.
The 8th Türkan Saylan Children’s Festival was organized on April 30-May 1, 2016 hosted by the Alanya Branch. 350 children attended the events.
A protest action was held in Sinop on April 25, 2016 regarding the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
On April 10, 2016, the 10th Contemporary Life Republic Award ceremony was held at Kadir Has University. The Republic Award was given to Prof. Dr. Doğan Kuban. Theater Artist Gülsen Tuncer presented the program. After the ceremony, a panel was held on the subjects of New Constitution, Secularism, and Presidential System. The speakers of the panel, moderated by Prof. Dr. Aysel Çelikel, were Prof. Dr. Naz Çavuşoğlu, Prof. Dr. Necmi Yüzbaşıoğlu, Prof. Dr. Oktay Uygun and Prof. Dr. Sultan Uzeltürk. At the end of the meeting, a booklet containing the panel speeches was distributed to the guests.
On March 27, 2016, the Traditional Contemporary Youth 10th Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial Meeting was held. Approximately 2,000 students attended the meeting.
Following the trip organized to Istrancalar and Longoz Forests on World Water Day on March 26, 2016, with the cooperation of Kaynarca Municipality and Dayko, the panel was held with Aydın Karakoç, Prof. Dr. A. Halim Orta, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Füsun Ekmekyapar and Av. Bülent Kaçar as the speakers.
The award ceremony and the opening of the photo exhibition of the "Crimes Committed Against the City / Coming with the Crowd" photo contest organized with Fotopya in March 2016 were held at the Photography Department of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.
On January 24, 2016, the Uğur Mumcu and Democracy Martyrs Commemoration event was held at the Akatlar Cultural Center. Prof. Dr. Aysel Çelikel and Journalist Can Ataklı gave speeches at the event, and the Contemporary Theater Group gave a performance.
In 2016, Uşak Contemporary Activity Center was opened.
In 2016, Teacher Zeynep Günöz Contemporary Activity Center was opened in İzmir/Buca.
In 2016, Dila Kurt in Çanakkale.
In 2016, Türkan Saylan Contemporary Activity Center was opened in İzmir/Çeşme.
In 2016, Av. Şule Nazlıoğlu Contemporary Activity Center was opened in İzmir/Torbalı.
On November 10, 2015, a panel titled Remembering and Understanding Atatürk was held at the Kozyatağı Culture Center with the contribution of the Contemporary Life Youth Unit. The speakers of the panel moderated by Prof. Dr. Aysel Çelikel were Altan Öymen, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şaduman Halıcı and Levent Üzümcü.
On October 2, 2015, The case heard by the 12th High Criminal Court against our Association's three directors, Prof. Dr. Filiz Meriçli, Prof. Dr. Ayşe Yüksel and Attorney Nur Gerçel ended with acquittal; the plot was revealed; justice came, albeit late.
The Türkel Minibaş 10th Youth Summer Camp was held in İzmir Selçuk between July 9-15, 2015.
In 2015, the Mercedes - Benz Türk Contemporary Activity Center. was opened in Aksaray.
In 2015, the Cumhuriyet Contemporary Activity Center was opened in İzmir.
In 2015, the Association for Supporting Contemporary Life Fehamet - Ali Kemal Sabuncugil Contemporary Activity Center was opened in Ayvalık.
On June 24-25-26, 2015, 10 thousand children living in the center and villages of Diyadin district of Ağrı were presented with books in memory of 12-year-old Ebru Yalçın, who took her own life because she was identified as a book thief.
On May 18, 2015, the 5th Türkan Saylan Art and Science Awards ceremony was held at İş Sanat. In the field of science, the work of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hatice Şimşek Keskin in the field of Public Health was deemed worthy of the award. Erendiz Atasü's "Kızıl Kale" and Behçet Çelik's "Kaldığımız Yer" were deemed worthy of the Art Award. Theater Artist Gülsen Tuncer presented the program. Following the award ceremony, Cihat Aşkın and Mehru Ensari performed a recital called Miniatures.
On May 15, 2015, the Traditional Contemporary Youth 9th Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial Meeting was held. Approximately 1,500 students attended the meeting.
On May 2-3, 2015, the 7th Türkan Saylan Children's Festival was hosted by the Burdur Branch. Along with the hall activities and workshops, 300 children attended various activities.
On April 30, 2015 and December 8, 2015, Sultani Piano Quartet organized "Bridges - We Build Among the Youth" concerts. The income from the concerts given by Prof. Arın Alagün and Galatasaray High School students was donated to the Association.
On April 10, 2015, the 9th Contemporary Life Republic Award Ceremony was given to Prof. Dr. Nermin Abadan Unat at the Akatlar Cultural Center. Following the ceremony, a musical recital called Naki Ataman's World Tour was held. The program was presented by Theater Artist Gülsen Tuncer.
April 4, 2015 “The Istanbul Adventure of Migratory Birds” was brought to the agenda with a panel held at the Sarıyer Municipality Culture Center and bird watching in Garipçe Village. Prof. Dr. Ünal Akkemik, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zeynel Arslangündoğdu and Akdoğan Özkan spoke at the panel.
On March 3, 2015, the “Reality of Turkey’s Democracy” panel was held at the Caddebostan Cultural Center. The speakers of the panel, moderated by Prof. Dr. Aysel Çelikel, were Prof. Dr. Necla Arat, Müjdat Gezen, Prof. Dr. Ümit Kocasakal, Yılmaz Özdil, and Msc. Architect Mücella Yapıcı.
On March 3, 2015, a press release was made announcing to the public that the lawsuits we filed regarding the approximately 4 million lira tax penalties assessed against ÇYDD and accrued to our Association had been won.
The 7th Anıtkabir Meeting of the Traditional Contemporary Youth was held on February 28, 2015.
Internal audits began with seven pilot branches in December 2014. In the study, which aimed to increase the efficiency of all branches of the Association, volunteer members received training and became auditors. Since November 2014, the inspectors have been visiting all branches and supporting them to become a stronger ÇYDD.
In November 2014, a “No to Nuclear Power Plant!” protest was held in Mersin Akkuyu. A panel was held, moderated by Oktay Demirkan, with Prof. Dr. Tanay Sıdkı Uyar, MP Dr. Aytuğ Atıcı, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Öznur Özden and Sebahat Aslan as speakers.
On November 4, 2014, Prof. Dr. Aysel Çelikel gave a speech before the panel titled “Secular Education and Compulsory Religious Courses” where the ECHR’s decisions on the subject were discussed. The speakers of the panel moderated by Prof. Dr. Ümit Kocasakal were Prof. Dr. İzzettin Doğan, Prof. Dr. Alpar Sevgen and former ECHR judge Rıza Türmen.
On October 2, 2014, the 25th anniversary of the foundation of ÇYDD was celebrated at the Caddebostan Cultural Center. At the event, the ÇYDD 25th anniversary documentary was shown and the Boğaziçi Youth Choir gave a concert.