"Lume" Motivational Spot - Moldova 2010
"Lume" is a song everybody in Moldova knows by heart. The idea was to get Moldovans to get together and go out to vote on election day.
It was the most successful PA spot in Moldova.
To address the youth as well the song was produced as a hip-hop remix. The hip-hop version became number 1 in the national charts.
The Making Of - Moldova 2009
The video was produced to give an idea on how consuming the production of a 60 seconds TV spot can be.
Multi-media campaign - moldova 2009
An audio-visual summary of the multi-media campaign to motivate and inform voters prior to Aug. 2009 elections in Moldova.
The creative partner was TBWA/SMART.
An advertising agency run mostly by very talented women. They are very well networked in the country. I highly recommend this agency to anyone who plans similar projects in Moldova.
Info Spot Election Fraud - Kosovo 2012
One of the big issues regarding elections is how the election authorities and legal institutions handle reports of fraud, manipulations, irregularities and other criminal offences. During a wide-spread civic education campaign IFES/Kosovo subcontracted 6 Civil Society Organisations to deal with numerous election related issues. The organisation BIRN focused mainly on election fraud and produced this clip on how voters, who witnessed fraud, can file comlaints.
Making Of (2) - Moldova 2009
An other view on how work it is to produce a clip of less then a minute. What you see is just the recording. But before the clip is finalized it has to go through post-production, which usually takes about two more days.
'lume' hip-hop version - moldova 2010
This motivational clip gained big attention among young and older Moldovans. It's the hip-hop version of the very old song 'Lume' everybody in the country knows by heart. The lyrics are sung in Romanian and later on in Russian. Along with the clip, viewers were encouraged to produce and film their own version of the song. The best contribution was awarded to take part in a music video, which was produced later.
The song landed from 0 to number 1 of the Moldovan music charts. The artists were invited to numerous TV shows.
In addition ringtones were produced for free download on the Lume website. The number of downloads exceeded all expectations. On election day the ringtone could be heard nearly everytime a phone rang. Many central election committee members used the Lume ringtone.
Audio-Visual Summary - Lebanon 2009
This multi-media campaign was produced in close cooperation with the Minister of Interior of Lebanon, Ziad Baroud. It called for all voters to actively check their data on the voter's register. Without the correct data on the list the voter seems to be invisable and therefore not allowed to cast the vote on E Day.
Animated Info Spot - Lebanon 2009
This spot was produced to inform the voters on the procedures inside a polling station. Since the Electoral Law was modified prior to the elections, this spot should public awareness about the changes relevant to the voter. Unfortunately Interior Minister Ziad Barroud did not like the shape of the figueres ... so it was never aired.
Motivational Spot - Kosovo 2010
Prior to the Elections in Kosovo 2010 Ifes produced spots to motivate voters to participate and cast their ballots. The spots showed various persons out of every walk of life in Kosovo. Since the average age of the population is about 26 years, a cool rapper had to be one of the individuals.
All spots in 2010 were produced by Rrota, an advertiser in Prishtina.
Motivational Spot - Kosovo 2010
This clip brings all characters of the campaign together. Each character had something in his/her hands. The intellectual a newspaper, the student a ball pen, the rapper had headsets and the young man in love used his hands to emphasize his words. Putting all together they all create a rhythm.
Animated Info Spot - Kosovo 2010
The information given in this spot is on how to mark the ballot correctly.
Motivational Spot - Kosovo 2010
The housewife wishes free education for her children and healthcare for all... but first go out to vote.
Motivational Spot - Kosovo 2010
One more character in the Go-Out-And-Vote campaign in Kosovo 2010. She represents a student with many ideas...and again she gets interrupted and asked to go and vote first.
Animated Info Spot - Kosovo 2010
This spot aimed at guiding the voter through the voting procedures in a polling station.
Motivational Spot - Kosovo 2010
He represents the young man in love telling all the nice things he has planed for his girlfriend. At the end he gets interrupted in his sweet talk like all the other characters in this capaign and asked to go first to vote.
Motivational Spot - Kosovo 2010
He represents the interlectual in the campaign. He invisions a democratic and open society for Kosovo.
Motivational spot - moldova 2010
'lume' is a song nearly all moldovans grew up with and know its words by heart. It aimed at motivating voters to get out and vote on election day.
Animated Info Spot - Iraq 2010
The spot informed the Iraqi electorate on the importance to check and update the registration data on the voters list.
AFG
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Senior Communications Advisor, Kabul/Afghanistan (November 2013 – present)
Duties: Provide technical assistance to the newly established Independent Election Complaints Commission (IECC); Support the IECC in the planning, design and implementationof a voter education campaign to inform voters and candidates of all aspects of the electoral complaints process and how they can access it; Develope the capacity of IECC staff - via hands-on assistance, workshops and other trainings - to undertake regular, proactive reporting and dissemination of information on the electoral complaints process; Developing a user-friendly IECC website; Advice and assist the IECC Spokesperson and external relations staff on how to effectively provide information to all election stakeholders, such as media outlets, political parties, civil society organizations, donors and international community.
ARM
I was invited by the German Foreign Ministery to be short-term election observer in Armenia.
It was the first time for me to participate in an Election Observation Mission.
All the years before I was occupied in Technical Assistance with the UN or IFES.
KOS
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Civic Education and Public Outreach Specialist, Pristine/Kosovo (August 26, 2012 – November 10, 2012)
Duties: Identify the civic and voter education needs in Kosovo, and the ways in which these needs can be met in the future throughout the electoral cycle.
Identify the key objectives for civic and voter education activities through the electoral cycle.
Identify groups of voters who may require targeted civic and voter education activities in order to educate and mobilize their participation.
Write a plan for the conduct of civic and voter education in Kosovo, incorporating the role of the Central Election Committee (CEC), civil society, political parties and the media.
Develop key messages in relation to the constitutional and electoral reform processes, as well as key issues related to voters’ understand of the electoral process and perceptions of the CEC.
Identify and work with sub-awardees (Civic Society Organizations) contracted to deliver civic education campaigns to define and refine messages and civic education materials to be used.
Coordinate more then 1200 civic education events to various target groups, such as Youth, Women, Minorities, Blind and Visually Impaired.
Review the initial conduct of civic education campaigns by sub-awardees and advise on potential improvements.
Organize press conferences to raise campaign awareness throughout the country.
MLD
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Civic Education and Public Outreach Specialist, Chisinau/Moldova (October 2010)
Duties: Provide technical support to the Central Election Committee of Moldova in development and implementation of an effective and sustainable voter education/ public outreach and media campaign for the Parliamentary Elections on November 28, 2010.
Assist in the development of public outreach products for the electoral events.
Assist in writing technical specifications for the sub-contracting of Voter Education material development and take part in the review of proposals.
Coordinate the IFES-funded activities between the CEC and IFES subcontractor.
Review the content, impact and quality of the public outreach components prepared by the IFES subcontractor.
KOS
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Civic Education and Public Outreach Specialist, Pristine/Kosovo (November – December 2010)
Duties: Provide technical support to the Central Election Committee of Kosovo (CEC) in development and implementation of an effective and sustainable voter education/ public outreach and media campaign for the Snap Parliamentary Elections on December 12, 2010;
Assist in the development of public outreach products for the electoral events;
Coordinate the IFES-funded activities between the CEC and IFES subcontractor;
Review the content, impact and quality of the public outreach components prepared by the IFES subcontractor;
Acted as a non-voting member of the CEC’s Approval Commission and provided the members with advice on how to develop and implement a nationwide Public Outreach Campaign including all ethnic minorities in Kosovo;
Provided hands-on assistance to the CEC’s External Relations Department in order to improve the capacity of its management as well as of its staff members in dealing with the media.
IRQ
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Media and Public Outreach Specialist, Baghdad/Iraq (September 2009 – July 2010)
Duties: Advise the Iraqi High Electoral Commission (IHEC) on planning, design and implementation of voter education/public information strategies and campaigns for the March 7, 2010 Counsel of Representatives Elections and future electoral projects – governorate, municipal elections, constitutional and Kurdistan referenda and/or other electoral events;
Advise and assist the IHEC in coordination with other organizations involved in the public outreach campaigns, including media, CSO, international donor community and other electoral stakeholders;
Provide advice to the IHEC on institutional design, structure, objectives and areas of responsibilities, particularly of the Public Outreach Division at HQ and GEO levels;
Assist the IHEC in designing a short-term operational plan and timeline for anticipated electoral projects, as needed;
Review the content, impact and quality of the media outreach products.
Advise the IHEC on governorate/municipal election public outreach strategy and plan; in coordination with Public Outreach Division management draft a timetable for upcoming electoral events;
Draft and discuss with the IHEC proposals for an optimal Public Outreach Division structure and recruitment of qualified staff, ToRs and areas of responsibility and quality assurance of the division’s work.
LBN
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Media and Outreach Specialist, Beirut/Lebanon (February-May 2009)
Duties: Draft a Polling Station Handbook for the Lebanese Ministry of Interior to support and facilitate the training of polling officials and their work on Election Day.
Develop a procedurally and information-based public and media campaign for the Lebanese Ministry of Interior and Municipalities to inform 3.2 million eligible voters to check their registration data.
The campaign included the development of creative ideas and concepts of a TV, radio and newspaper advertisements, as well as 250.000 flyers, 500.000 SMS text and 1.8 million email messages.
Liaise and negotiate with state-owned and independent media outlets to secure the most favorable schedules and costs for broadcasting the campaign advertisements, as well as organizing and implementing a strategy for disseminating advertisements in a timely fashion.
AFG
United Nations Development Program / UNOPS – Spokesman/External Relations and Media Liaison Officer, Kabul/Afghanistan (June 2004 – June 2005)
Duties: Make and maintain close contacts with journalists and media organizations (radio, television, media NGOs, newspapers, magazines and other printed publications).
Develop media strategies to widely promote the work of the Electoral Commission and its goals.
Training local staff to establish a national election-related external relations/communication team.
Organize press conferences and other public events.
Provide the media with accurate and timely information about Voter Registration and Elections.
Be on call to respond to questions posed by journalists through telephone, email, and visits.
Respond immediately to erroneous information distributed by the media.
AFG
Internews (NGO) – Resident Adviser, Kabul/Afghanistan (April-October 2002)
Duties: Organize various training courses for journalists.
Conduct training for Afghan radio journalists from regional stations.
Hold seminars at the Journalism Faculties of Kabul University and Herat University.
Build relationships with Afghan regional radio stations.
Made and maintained close contacts with relevant Afghan ministries.
Trained government officials in different components of external relations, such as publishing newsletters, interview techniques and ways of informing the media/public of governmental activities and political goals.
CHN
China Radio International – Language Expert German Service, Beijing/China (2001)
Duties: Announcer/Producer of weekly one hour news summery about Germany - covering politics, economic and cultural events.
Skills
Languages
Fluent: English, German, and Turkish.
Conversational: French and Mandarin.
Basic: Farsi and Korean.
Computer: MS Office, Photoshop, Video and Photo Editing. Web Content Management
Licence: Car, Motorcycle, Boat.
Nationality: German and Turkish.
Rules of Life: "Treat others like you want to be treated"....and..."If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well"
Aykut Peter Tavsel
Born in the early siixties in Frankfurt/Germany, where I spent all my time throughout education.
After highschool I completed an aprenticeship as a carpenter and ship builder. Following I started studying architecture in Darmstadt.
During my studies I had to work to finance my life. First as a waiter in a very posh bistro in Frankfurt. Then I managed a cocktail bar, which led to owning the very same bar later.
One day a guest asked me whether I would be interested to earn money with my voice, which he seem to have liked.
I sold my bar, packed my few belongings on my motorbike and left Germany for London/England. I started shortly afterwards as a Junior Editor at the German Language Service at the BBC.
That was the beginning of my journalism career, which led me to Berlin, Seoul and Beijing.
A former colleague and close friend offered me to enter the NGO world by training journalists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Two years later the UNAMA spokesman in Kabul approached me asking if I would like to work as a spokesperson for the Afghan Election Commission.
Since then I'm occupied with public outreach, media relations and civic education in the exciting field of international election support.
_174213.jpg)
_259868.jpg)
_414628.jpg)
_963301.JPG)
_457663.jpg)
✧ Click on a thumbnail and the picture will open in a new window with a short explanation. ✧ To enlarge the picture just clicking on it again.
Iraq 2010
A visit to the Erbil Electoral Office - The city in Northern Iraq was very different to Baghdad. It was like we were let out of a cage. We could move relatively free around the city, walk up to the old citadel and roam the bazaar. The best thing was to walk again and I took advantage of this fact. Back in Baghdad we were driven even very short distances in an armored vehicle with security personal.
Baghdad - Iraq 2010
Saddam's parade avenue with the enormous sculptures of the crossed swords (see shadow) on both ends. In the back is the memorial for the unknown soldier and behind government buildings and the famous Hotel Rashid.
Pakistan 2002
Radio Journalism Training in Peshawar - Part of the two-week training was as well to get familiar with recording devices. In this case MD recorders.
Caricature Exhibition, Geneva 2011
When my son saw this, his words were: "Wow, Papa look!... ....Star Wars meets Ninja!!"
Kosovo 2012
Mitrovica is a devided city. The north is populated by Serbians, who do not recognize the Kosovar government in Pristina.
Kosovo 2012
IFES crew in Prishtina. I was very lucky to have such colleagues and friends. We achieved a lot in a very short time. Thanks to all.
Afghanistan 2002
Loya Jirga, Kabul, June 2002 - It was the first traditional assembly of delegates from all corners of the country since decades. For more then a week the delegates discussed the political future of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan 2004
Band-e-Amir Lakes - the lakes in Bamyian Province. After all the dust and dirt of Kabul this trip was a real cure. To get there was a bit of an adventure. The night before I met two young Americans at a gathering. Both had a bottle of beer in their hands when I first saw them. They told that they were pilots for a construction company. A couple of drinks later they offered me a free flight to Bamyian the next morning. I was not so sure whether they would be fit enough to fly a plane - I wasn't. At 7 am I met them again on the tarmac of Kabul airport, dressed in their pilot uniforms and obviously sauber. Less then two hours later we landed in Bamyian and after two more hours drive on a dirt road we arrived at Band-e-Amir. The most magical place I have ever been.
_174213.jpg)
Iraq 2010
Media Center of the Independent High Election Commission (IHEC) - I told the IHEC external relations staff to remove the white screen behind the penal....but they didn't. As a result the name of the commission became slightly different. Not many journalists noticed though.
_259868.jpg)
Islamabad 2002
Flight to Kabul. These days this was the only airline operating to the Afghan capital.
Baghdad - Iraq 2010
The 14th of July Bridge crossing the Tigris river. Over on the other side is the so-called Red Zone. Where I stood is the IZ (International Zone), better known as Green Zone.
Afghanistan 2002
Liberation Day in Kabul, Spring 2002 - After the parade was over a lot of military was roaming the streets of Kabul. People hoped that Defense Minister Fahim is a peace-loving man... and on this day he was.
_414628.jpg)
Afghanistan 2002
City center of Kabul. The River is the Kabul River. On its banks is the so-called Titanic Market. Whenever the water level rises the stands get washed away.
Iraq 2010
The T-walls in front of the entrance of the counting center in Baghdad - During the tabulation of the election results both servers crashed at the same time. The IT specialists of the UN tried for two days to get them running again, but without success. I don't know who came up with the idea but two sheep were brought to the counting center and sacrificed. The man who killed the animals pressed his blood soaking hand twice against the T-walls. ....don't ask me why. However the striking servers started up again shortly afterwards. Hmmmm
_963301.JPG)
Iraq 2010
Official announcement of the final results of the March 2010 Parliamentary Elections in the Al Rasheed Hotel in the International Zone.
Campaigning - Iraq 2010
One of the very few occasions we could leave our compounds with just one PSD (bodyguard). But just inside the IZ (International Zone).
Afghanistan 2002
Kabul Airport - Spare-parts next to the tarmac. It was good to see this sight after a successful landing.
Truckstopp between Peshawar and the Khyber Pass
It was noisy, dusty and smelly....but at least very colorful
Afghanistan 2002
The fortress of Alexander the Great - Herat was the only functional city in Afghanistan during these days - thanks (?) to Ishmail Khan, one of the most powerful warlords. The traffic was regulated by policemen in white shirts, armed just with handguns; operational telephone booths were on every street corner; green patches of gardens and parks were frequented by families during mid-day heat and shortly before sun set; schools and the university were equipped and open for male and female students. I had the big pleasure to conduct journalism seminars for three mixed-gender classes at Herat University.
_457663.jpg)
Afghanistan 2002
Zaranj - a city in Nimroz Province just 6 km away from the Iranian border. The main source of income is smuggling goods from Iran.
Afghanistan 2002
Motorway between Farah and Zaranj - We got lost a couple of times and I'm pretty sure that we even crossed the border to Iran without knowing. Whenever we met somebody - and it was not quite often as you can imagine looking at this photo - he always said "just follow the track". After a couple of hundred meters later the track split in two leading to different directions. We needed more then 13 hours for a trip locals need just 4 hours.
