Ali İsmail’s Legacy Lives On: Young Artists Rise with EU Solidarity in the quake-struck Hatay province
The Young Artist Fund, run by the Ali Ismail Korkmaz Foundation (ALIKEV), is stimulating creative works that give voice to artists in Hatay Province.
It is supported by the European Union (EU) alongside the Civil Society Development Centre (STGM) through the Birlikte (Together) project.
ALIKEV, which has touched the lives of some 1,200 young people since its establishment, honours the memory of Ali İsmail Korkmaz, the 19-year-old university student from Hatay who tragically died in Eskişehir in 2013.
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Gürkan Korkmaz, founding board member of ALİKEV and brother of Ali İsmail
“Ali İsmail became a symbol not merely because of how he died, but because of how he lived,” says Gürkan Korkmaz, founding board member of ALİKEV and brother of Ali İsmail.
“He was only a teenager when he founded ‘Youth for Society’. Even then, he was organising visits to nursing homes and collecting books for village schools. The foundation was born not of grief alone, but of his vision.”
Guided by this vision, ALIKEV supports the social and cultural development of young people, providing them with material and spiritual support.
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Seyhan Yegin, a beneficiary of the Young Artist Fund
Testimony in pixels
One of those young people is Seyhan Yegin, a graphic design student at Hatay Mustafa Kemal University. He calmly recounts how he discovered digital art with the help of the Young Artist Fund.
“Until then, I was just drawing on my old laptop,” he says. “With the fund, I bought a graphic tablet and mouse. Suddenly, I had the tools to tell my story through digital art. We then held an exhibition in 2023 under the Young Artist Fund, the theme of which was ‘Testimony’. I contributed to it with my series ‘Déjà vu’. It's about reliving disaster, like Antakya being rebuilt seven times after earthquakes throughout its history due to a failure to learn from the past.”
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The “Testimony” exhibition was held in 2023
To begin exploring the exhibition, click here.
Making the invisible seen
Documentary filmmaker Mehmet Kuyumcu tells a parallel story: When he discovered the fund, he was working as a human rights defender at the Sivil Düşler (Civil Dreams) Association in Hatay, defending the rights of the Dom minority. He decided to make a documentary to tell their story and challenge prejudice against them.
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Mehmet Kuyumcu, a beneficiary of the Young Artist Fund
“Equipment rentals, editing costs, fieldwork — it all became possible. I would not have been able to become a documentary filmmaker today without this fund,” he says.
He is a persistent filmmaker. During the earthquake, most of the footage he had filmed was lost. However, he didn’t give up.
“With the EU-funded ‘Support to Rights’ project by Hafıza Merkezi (Memory Centre), I could restart and finish the film. This wasn’t just a project for me. It was a way to make the invisible seen.”
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The Hatay STGM office is housed in an old Antakya house that survived the 2023 earthquakes. It was founded as part of the Capacity of CSOs in Disaster Risk Management Project
Spaces of hope: helping to revive civil society in Hatay
ALIKEV was put to the test in the catastrophic 2023 earthquakes. Its headquarters in Hatay were destroyed.
Mr Korkmaz says: “With support from the EU’s Together (Birlikte) Programme by STGM, we secured a temporary base in Istanbul and resumed our work. That support was essential — not just for ALIKEV, but for hundreds of young people whose lives we continue to touch.”
ALIKEV also benefits from the Capacity of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Disaster Risk Management Project by STGM.
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Canan Aygün, STGM’s field coordinator in Hatay
“In crisis settings, civil society isn’t a luxury — it’s essential,” says Canan Aygün, STGM’s field coordinator in Hatay. “This project provides local CSOs with funding, platforms for collaboration, institutional support and physical space. The EU offers financial support for all projects by STGM, and STGM acts as an intermediary for this funding.”
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The Acting Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Türkiye, Jurgis Vilčinskas
The Acting Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Türkiye, Jurgis Vilčinskas, says: “In times of crisis, especially, we believe that young voices, artists, and local organisations are key to rebuilding not just cities but also hope. The EU stands firmly with Türkiye’s civil society.”
STGM’s Hatay office in Antakya has already hosted over 30 events for 40 CSOs, ranging from workshops to roundtables, including the premiere of Kuyumcu’s documentary. Organisations such as ALIKEV regularly use the space for work and youth training sessions.
