Co-Directors
She graduated from the Faculty of Law at Marmara University. Since her university years, she has been actively involved in the struggle for human rights. She contributed to the founding processes and activities of several civil society organizations such as the Human Rights Association (İHD), the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV), and the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, taking on various leadership roles in some of them. At different times, she conducted fieldwork focusing on issues such as women’s rights, violations of the right to life, freedom of expression, impunity, and the judiciary’s approach to these matters. She has contributed to several published books and reports on these topics. She is one of the founding members of Hafıza Merkezi and currently serves as its Director of Programs.
She graduated from the Philosophy Department of Galatasaray University. She received her master’s degree from the Cultural Studies Program at Sabancı University. Between 2010 and 2016, she worked at Sabancı University’s Gender and Women’s Studies Center as a program assistant and coordinator for the Purple Certificate Program, carried out within the scope of the United Nations Joint Programme on “Protecting and Promoting the Human Rights of Women and Girls.” From 2016 to 2019, she served as a program manager in the Education Programs Department at TEGV. Since April 2019, she has been working at Hafıza Merkezi as the Capacity Development Coordinator for the Support to Rights Program, and since 2020, she has also held the position of Project and Resource Development Coordinator at the same organization.
Memory and Peace Studies
Noémi Lévy-Aksu received her Ph.D in history from the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in 2010. From 2010 to 2017, she was an assistant professor at Boğaziçi University, Department of History and authored a number of academic publications. She received a British Academy fellowship to conduct her research on regimes of exception in Turkey at Birbeck College, School of Law, betwen 2016 and 2018. She completed a Graduate Diploma in Law in London in 2018 and contributed to the legal work of the Democratic Progress Institute and the Redress Trust in 2018-2019. In 2019-2020, she was a fellow of the Stiftung Mercator re:constitution project and she coordinated a capacity-building program led by the Centre for Democracy and Peace Research’ın (CDPR) to strengthen Solidarity Academies in Turkey. She joined Hafıza Merkezi’s team in June 2020.
Derya completed her undergraduate education at Dicle University's Faculty of Literature. After working as a project coordinator in the European Union projects office of Diyarbakır Chamber of Commerce and Industry for 3 years in 2008, she worked at Diyarbakır Art Center, the Diyarbakır branch of Anadolu Kültür, between 2011-2013. Between 2013 and 2022, Bozarslan worked at Anadolu Kültür's Istanbul office, where she focused on Kurdish literature and language studies, children's books, children's rights and refugees, children living in conflict and war zones, creating project content and programs, developing projects, carrying out logistical fieldwork, and preparing all written and financial reports. Since 2023, she has been working on children's rights violations in Hafıza Merkezi's Memory and Peace program.
Legal Studies
She graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Law in 2012. Beside practicing law, she has been practicing in the area of human rights at Lawyers for Freedom Association (ÖHD), Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) and the Human Rights Association (İHD). She has been a member of the Istanbul Bar Association since 2013.
She received her Bachelor of Law from Cyprus International University. Following her studies, she voluntarily and professionally took part in various civil society organizations’ work in the field of human rights. She interned for the Media Legal Defence Initiative in 2022. She has been a board member of the Foundation for Society and Legal Studies (TOHAV) since 2021. After having worked at the Association for Monitoring Equal Rights between 2019 and 2022, she joined the team at Hafıza Merkezi in February 2023. She has been a member of the Istanbul Bar Association since 2018.
She graduated from Koç University Law School and earned her master’s degree from the London School of Economics. During her studies, she completed traineeships at various non-governmental organisations and the European Court of Human Rights. After having worked as a legal counsel, she joined the team at Hafıza Merkezi in June 2022. She has been a member of the Istanbul Bar Association since 2020.
Supporting Human Rights Defenders and Organizations
Born in 1978 in Ankara. She has graduated from Communication Faculty of Ankara University, and has experience in journalism and publication work, as well as in academy and civil society through her involvement in a number of research and EU funded projects. Since 2015 she is a member of the Hafıza Merkezi‘s Dissemination and Advocacy Program. Today she’s working as project officer in Supporting Human Rights Defenders or Organizations program of Hafıza Merkezi.
Received her B.A. from Galatasaray University Sociology Department and her M.A. from Sabancı University Cultural Studies Program and Galatasaray University Sociology Department. Between 2016- 2021 she worked as the program coordinator at Hrant Dink Foundation’s Asulis Discourse, Dialogue, Democracy Laboratory. She is currently working as the finance coordinator of the Haklara Destek (Support to Rights) program at Hafıza Merkezi.
Murat Çelikkan has been working as a journalist for the past 45 years in various positions as reporter, editor, columnist and chief executive editor. Çelikkan has been an active member of the Human Rights Movement. He was a founding member and has been on the boards of the Human Rights Association, Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Amnesty International and Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. He has worked on projects related to the Kurdish problem and media ethics, freedom of speech and assembly, refugees, identity politics, shrinking çivil space and peace.. He is currently an advisor to Hafıza Merkezi in İstanbul and Antenna in Berlin. He is also the producer of two feature films and the documentary Buka Barane. He has received the Civil Rights Defender of the Year 2018 Award and the 2018 International Hrant Dink Award.
Graduate of METU Business Administration. For many years, she worked in various positions in the field of information technology. As of February 2019, she works as a project manager/field coordinator at the Haklara Destek Programme at Hafıza Merkezi.
He joined Hafıza Merkezi in 2014 and currently works as the communication director. Focuses on the potential of human rights communication on changing attitudes and behaviors. His interests include hope-based communication, storytelling, interdisciplinary and creative collaborations. He holds a BA in Social and Political Sciences from Sabancı University and an MA in Human Rights Theory and Practice from the University of Essex. He has worked as a volunteer and professional in various non-profit organizations such as Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, Istanbul Bilgi University European Union Institute, Europa Nostra Turkey office, and Soldiers' Rights Initiative.
She completed her undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Law at Istanbul University in 2015. She earned her master’s degree in Germany at the University of Bonn, where she conducted research on freedom of expression within the field of criminal law. During this period, she worked as an assistant on a children’s rights project in Kenya. She also supported the translation of legal texts from German and English into Turkish. In Istanbul, she served as a project coordinator at the Equal Rights Monitoring Association, working on the “Access to Justice” project supported by the European Union Delegation to Türkiye. She has been a member of the Istanbul Bar Association since 2020. In February 2023, she joined the Hafıza Merkezi team.
She graduated from the Department of Business Administration at Gazi University and Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations at Anadolu University. She has experience in financial and administrative works and she has been a certified public accountant since 2015. In order to support woman solidarity and being a part of feminist struggle, she has worked for Mor Çatı Women’s Shelter’s secreteria. After that she joined to Hafıza Merkezi in 2020.