To contribute to Turkish municipalities' effort to make cities friendlier for disadvantaged groups, like the disabled and senior citizens, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI) of Sweden's Lund University has agreed to work on a Humanitarian Cities Project with the Union of Turkish World Municipalities (TDBB).

TDBB head İbrahim Karaosmanoğlu underlined the RWI's work on human rights and said such projects would contribute to Turkey's development and sustaining peace.

RWI President Morten Kjaerum stated he was happy since the project would address problems of the most vulnerable groups in society. "We need to have more participatory societies to create a more inclusive environment for everyone," he said.

Speaking to Daily Sabah, RWI Turkey Program Chief Advisor and lecturer at Lund University İlhami Alkan Olsson said: "With this agreement, the parties will focus on five groups and improve their lives in cities. These groups include elderly people, persons with disabilities, children, women and migrants/refugees.

"To begin with, 10 municipalities under different political parties will work for three years with at least two of the above-mentioned groups and elevate the life of these people to internationally recognized city standards."

On the targets of this project, Olsson said: "One of the foremost aims of the project is to create or develop institutional mechanisms that support people's involvement in the decision making processes."

He underlined that some of the problems could easily be overcome and only required attention. "In many places, elderly people do not use the parks, simply because there are no toilets. Nobody asked them what they really wanted and what they really needed."

Olsson thought that academic institutions must be involved in this kind of projects. "There are only two sociologists working with senior citizen's rights in the whole country. We really hope that by the end of this period, there will be at least 20 academicians working, writing, teaching and researching elderly people's rights," he said.

Meanwhile, the agreement is also important in terms of demonstrating Turkish institutions' ability and willingness to maintain cooperation with their European partners at a time when ties between some European countries and Turkey remain strained. It will also overturn rumors and doubts over the future of the Turkish-European relationship.

"The protocol is significant in many ways, not least for providing hope that there is still room for cooperation between Turkey and a European institution. I think this protocol signals a will to learn from each other and that humans, as well as human rights, are our common grounds and interests," said Olsson, adding: "The project aspires to use human rights not only as a discourse but a concrete will to improve people's lives and promote cooperation between academia, municipalities, nongovernmental organization, business and other relevant actors both nationally and internationally. We want to include all and not leave anybody outside. It is that simple. I see this will in both partners. They are not afraid of differences, they want to show that to cooperate to improve real-life conditions for ordinary people with respect and support vulnerable groups' lives and rights in cities bear great importance, and we can do that together."

"Everybody can learn and inspire from good examples, and the parties of this protocol hope to inspire people with whom we have a lot in common, and we can live and support each other," he concluded.