This meeting was organised in response to IETM members' calls for the network to be more active in Turkey, which were expressed at the 2005 Annual Spring Plenary Meeting in Belgrade.

IETM collaborated with Avrupa Kültür Dernegi (European Culture Association, Istanbul) to co-organise the Annual Spring Plenary Meeting 2006.  The Meeting with the theme "Margins of Europe" took place at the Culture Forum Istanbul.

This event took place at a time when the EU and Turkey started discussions with Turkey on EU accession negotiations. This has strengthened our interest to take action, especially on the European side by IETM members, to reinforce the dialogue of the civil societies in Turkey and Europe by means of networking Culture and Arts professionals who can play an important role in this dialogue. 

IETM members took part in the Istanbul Culture Forum as a pre-meeting activity on Wednesday 19th April 2006. This international conference aimed at reflecting the current situations in culture both in Turkey and Europe from various perspectives. The main theme of the event is “Margins of Europe” which brought into focus the political, geographical, sectoral and disciplinary margins of Europe’s artistic scene. The same theme was also reflected in various ways throughout all working sessions of the IETM Annual Plenary Meeting.