Representatives of the Coordination Group, Communication Group, and Internal Audit Group came together for a three-day meeting marathon in Antalya from February 24-26, 2017, to establish the new institutional structure of the Checks and Balances Network and to define the duties and responsibilities among the groups. Müjgan Suver, representing the Marmara Group Foundation within the Checks and Balances Network, was elected to the Coordination Group as the representative of the Judicial Reform Group. At the meeting in Antalya, Müjgan Suver, Şakir Gürel, and Gamze Pamuk were selected as representatives of the Checks and Balances Network.

Requests from members of the Checks and Balances Network, Turkey’s changing political environment, the increase in the number of network members, members’ desire to contribute more by incorporating their own areas of expertise into network activities, and the goals of creating greater impact, increasing participation, and jointly protecting the rule of law have necessitated changes in the network’s structure. The network has completed its growth and development phase and aims to create greater impact. A new structural model has been developed to enable all members to participate in different decision-making mechanisms and to be more involved in activities.

In this model, instead of structural working groups such as relations with decision-makers, localization and expansion, and media relations, strategic reform groups capable of preparing policy proposals on checks and balances and institutional reforms have been established. The Coordination Group from the old structure has been retained, but structures where decisions are shared, such as the internal evaluation group, communication group, and editorial team, have been created to support, guide, and share the authority of the Coordination Group. Thus, instead of a single decision-making mechanism, a new system has been established in which responsibilities are shared and actors supervise each other, befitting the values advocated by the Checks and Balances Network.