Kurdish Library

Kurdish Foundation for Culture and Research

KÜRT-KAV
KURDISH FOUNDATION FOR CULTURE AND RESEARCH

§ 1 - In order to attain the goals specified below, a foundation named the KURDISH FOUNDATION FOR CULTURE AND RESEARCH was established by the persons listed in Appendix 1. The abbreviated name of the foundation shall be KÜRT-KAV. In the Bylaws it will be referred to as "the Foundation".

§ 2 - The Foundation's headquarters are in the district of Istanbul at the following address: Tarlabasi Bulvari, Corbaci Sokak No. 13, Taksim-Istanbul. The Foundation can change its address if the Executive Board so resolves. The Executive Board can, with the approval of the responsible authorities, establish branches of the Foundation within the country and abroad and appoint representatives of the Foundation.

§ 3 - Carrying out research on fundamental rights and freedoms, research and investigation in the areas of the Kurdish language, culture, and history, and activities contributing to the solution of health problems and the development of sports.

§ 4 - In order to attain its goals, the Foundation shall be active in the following areas:

a - It establishes institutions for education and instruction at all levels of schooling, such as pre-schools, primary schools, secondary schools, and college preparatory schools, as well as continuing professional education; it rents or buys such institutions, is a partner, administers them, or works together with already established institutions.

b - The Foundation implements courses, conferences, meetings, seminars, panel discussions, symposia, discussion meetings, and exhibitions, either independently or together with organizations and institutions which support them with expertise, money, or materials; or it participates in such activities that are carried out by other institutions.

c - It establishes institutes, centers for research and development, or similar institutions, and carries out a variety of scientific and academic tasks.

d - It produces publications of all kinds on topics within its area of interest, makes radio and television productions, participates in facilities and institutions that work in these areas, cooperates with them, or provides them with support.

e - It cooperates with facilities and institutions that are active in related areas and grants fellowships, both repayable and non-repayable, in the areas of education, instruction, research, and development.

f - It gives children and young people who are gifted in the areas of art, science, and culture the opportunity to receive training inside the country and abroad.

g - It supports artists, scientists, researchers, and persons active in similar areas, who deal with the Foundation's areas of interest; it organizes competitions and grants prizes.

h - It rents, establishes, and administers institutions and facilities that are appropriate for accommodation, leisure and recreation, and socio-cultural activities, as well as facilities for health and sports, old-age homes, kindergardens, youth camps, and women's shelters, and is active in all areas of tourism.

i - It produces short films and feature-length films on its areas of interest, produces sound cassettes and video cassettes, and distributes them.

j - It collects and keeps an archive of already written or yet to be written works on its areas of interest and establish libraries.

k - It carries out research on scientific subjects or appoints researchers and opens museums in order to preserve historical and cultural treasures.

l - It undertakes activities such as assistance to victims of all types of natural catastrophes, social conflicts, and wars.

§ 5 - In order to attain its goals, the Foundation is entitled and empowered in accordance with Article 46 of the Turkish Civil Code, except for the limits set by law, to own and use movable and immovable goods without limits on their amounts and values, in the form of donations or bequests or through purchase or lease; to sell, transfer, or sign over these goods, in compliance with the legal regulations that apply to the Foundation; to receive and spend Foundation revenues; use individual or combined immovable goods from the Foundation's assets or Foundation revenues once or several times for investments, on the condition that this does not contravene the Foundation's goals and accords in whole or part with the Foundation's goals; to receive future donations and buy bequests and to use movable and immovable goods and moneys acquired in other ways for maintenance, investment, and savings in order to increase the Foundation's revenues; to buy stocks, bills of exchange, finance shares, treasury bonds, investment funds, and other stocks and shares and to sell them at their genuine value if this is necessary for the Foundation; to cooperate with foundations inside the country whose activities are similar to those of the Foundation and, with the permission of the responsible authorities, with foundations abroad; to accept the support of local and foreign foundations and enter into agreements with them for the purpose of such support; to receive revenue from projects and every sort of Foundation activity that is in accordance with its goals; to make use of the rights that accrue to the Foundation from the usufruct, right of habitation, mortgages etc. and similar property rights related to immovable goods; to secure its movable and immovable goods, including mortgages, in every way by means of its current and future revenues for contracts to be entered into; to accept bank sureties; to enter into debts for the benefit of the Foundation's goals; to provide sureties and other guarantees in order to attain individual Foundation goals as listed above or the Foundation's goals as a whole; to take useful and necessary initiatives, to lay aside savings, to acquire property and enter into contracts, to enter into partnerships with persons and juridical persons and to cooperate with them. These competencies of the Foundation do not extend to the areas and goals that are prohibited by Law No. 903.

§ 6 - The assets brought in by the Foundation's founders amount to 300,000,000 TL.

§ 7 - Organs of the Foundation:

a - General Assembly

b - General Assembly of the founding members

c - Executive Board

d - Examiners' Commission

§ 8 - The General Assembly is the highest decision-making organ of the Foundation. The General Assembly consists of the General Assembly of the founding members and the totality of members who have joined the Foundation after its establishment. (Anyone who supports the Foundation's goals may become a member, regardless of language, religion, race, skin color, or gender, if the Foundation's Executive Board accepts the membership and the General Assembly approves.) A General Assembly is held at least once a year. The main duties of General Assembly are:

a - It elects the members of the Executive Board.

b - It elects the members of the Examiners' Commission.

c - It observes, assesses, and supervises the work of the Foundation. It approves the procedures of the institutions connected with the Foundation and reaches decisions concerning questions put on the agenda by the Executive Board.

d - It amends or supplements the Bylaws.

e - It approves or rejects the applications of prospective members that are proposed by the Executive Board.

The General Assembly can convene regular or extraordinary meetings. The regular General Assemblies take place every year in March. Moreover, the General Assembly meets for extraordinary meetings if either the Executive Board or 1/3 of the members or the simple majority of the founding members so move. The date and place of the meeting and its agenda must be communicated to the members in writing or by means of a public announcement.

If no more than half of the members are present at the first General Assembly, decisions will by made at the following meeting by a majority of the members present. The General Assembly will be chaired by a Chairperson and two Secretaries. The results will be recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

§ 9 - The General Assembly of the founding members, i.e. the founding members who are signatories of these Bylaws, will bring into being the General Assembly of the Foundation.

The General Assembly of the founding members can remove the Executive Board from office until an extraordinary meeting is held, if the latter contravenes the goals of the Foundation. An interim Executive Board can be appointed until a new Executive Board is elected.

§ 10 - The Foundation's Executive Board consists of 11 main members and 11 substitute members. It is elected by the General Assembly for two years. The Executive Board acts in accordance with the Bylaws and the resolutions of the General Assembly. Seven of the eleven members of the Executive Board shall be founding members; the same applies to the substitute members of the Executive Board.

The Executive Board elects a Chairperson and a Deputy Chairperson from among its members. The Chairperson is also the President of the Foundation. In the case of the Chairperson's death or resignation, the Deputy Chairperson will take over his/her position.

The Executive Board has the following tasks:

a - It works to implement the Foundation's goals, increase the Foundation's assets, and expand the Foundation's possibilities.

b - It manages the business affairs of the Foundation in accordance with the Bylaws and the resolutions of the General Assembly.

c - It works out instructions and procedures in accordance with the Foundations's guidelines.

d - It creates institutions to carry out the Foundation's work and business in accordance with the Foundation's goals and puts them into operation; it provides the necessary funds so that they can carry out their tasks.

In accordance with the Foundation's goals, these institutions are bound to follow the Executive Board's instructions, and to a certain degree they also have an advisory function with regard to the Executive Board.

e - The Executive Board passes its resolutions by a simple majority of votes cast. In the case of the death or resignation of a member of the Executive Board, he/she will be replaced by one of the subsitute Executive Board members.

f - If a member who contravenes the Foundation's discipline or goals is to lose his/her membership, the Executive Board presents a proposal to this effect to the General Assembly.

g - The Executive Board is juridically responsible in trials and court procedures in the Foundation's favor or to its detriment, and observes their progress.

h - It accepts all kinds of support and donations that are compatible with the Foundation's purpose and makes investments in order to increase the Foundation's revenue.

i - In order to properly provide the Foundation's services and attain the Foundation's goals, the Executive Board has full jurisdiction to act in a way that it considers useful or necessary in all its procedures, on the condition that its actions take place within the framework of the Law on Foundations and do not contravene the Foundation's goals.

The Executive Board meets once a month. Extraordinary meetings of the Executive Board are convened by a 2/3 majority of the members. At the Executive Board meetings, resolutions are made concerning the topics for the sake of which the meeting was convened.

§ 11 - At its first meeting the Executive Board will elect a Secretary General of the Foundation. The Foundation's officials and administrators as well as its personnel are bound to follow the instructions of the Secretary General. The Secretary General's tasks include making the preparations for the Executive Board meetings and implementing its resolutions.

The Secretary General is responsible to the Executive Board. He/she participates in its meetings. He/she is not entitled to vote.

If the Secretary General is simultaneously a member of the Executive Board, he/she can receive a salary on account of his/her function as Secretary General and is entitled to vote.

§ 12 - The Examiners' Commission monitors the Foundation's activities and communicates the results to the General Assembly in the form of a report. If it deems it necessary, it can convene an extraordinary meeting through a unanimous resolution; at this meeting it will present its reasons and the results of its examinations.

The Examiners' Commission is elected by the General Assembly every two years. It consists of three members and three substitute members. In the case of the the death or resignation of a member of the Examiners' Commission, a substitute member takes his/her place in accordance with a predetermined order of precedence. Two of the main members and two of the substitute members of the Examiners' Commission must be founding members.

§ 13 - If the Foundation's members so wish, they can give donations in their own name and create scholarships through interest-bearing investments. They can also donate appropriate immovable property in their own names for the purposes of the Foundation.

§ 14 - The work of the Foundation's founding commission, the elected members of the Executive Board, and the Examiners' Commission is voluntary. The Foundation reimburses only travel expenses and expenses that have been paid out for the Foundation.

However, if members of the Executive Board, individually or as a team, perform tasks on a full-time basis for the Foundation or institutions connected with it, which lie outside their activities as Executive Board members, they can be reimbursed for these activities. The areas of responsibility and the reimbursements will be determined by the Executive Board.

BUSINESS YEAR:

§ 15 - The business year is the calendar year.

§ 16 - The Foundation documents are the documents regarding resolutions of the Executive Board and the account books or bookkeeping records.

§ 17 - The Foundation's officials must use 20% of the Foundation's annual gross revenues to cover running costs and expenditures as well as for investments whose purpose is to increase the Foundation's assets. The remaining 80% must be used to further the purposes of the Foundation.

§ 18 - In the instructional area to be set up by the Foundation, at least 10% of the capacity must be used to support gifted but destitute students; in the health area, at least 10% of the services and bed capacity must be used for destitute sick people.

§ 19 - The Bylaws can be amended if necessary. To do so, the amendment must be proposed by the Executive Board and initially approved by 2/3 of the founding members. The approved text of the proposed amendment must be presented to the General Assembly, which can pass the amendment with at least 2/3 of the votes cast.

To dissolve the Foundation, the same procedure is required as with amendments of the Bylaws. If the Foundation is dissolved, the Foundation's assets can be transferred to another foundation which pursues similar goals.

§ 20 - The Foundation will become active directly after it becomes legally valid through registration in accordance with Article 74 of the Turkish Civil Code as revised by Law No. 903.

§ 21 - The founders of the Foundation are listed below.

Preliminary § 1 - The Foundation's first Executive Board consists of the persons whose names are listed below.

Preliminary § 2 - The persons who are appointed to carry out all activities that are necessary to register this Foundation are:

1 - Mehmet Celal BAYKARA, lawyer, Istanbul Bar Association
Beyoglu V.D. 1549530010

2 - Ercan SEZGIN, lawyer, Istanbul Bar Association
Kocamustafapasa V.D. 7689540012

3 - Tülay GEYIK, lawyer, Konya Bar Association
Mevlana V.D. 59631

18-07-2000