So, it’s holiday; you could work a lot to earn some extra money, you could stay at home and be bored all the time, you could book a ticket to a lame, sunny, touristic destination; lying on the beach, eating ice cream and staying in your comfort zone. But for AEGEEans, there is an extra opportunity: Summer University! What else is better than throwing yourself into the deep, going on holiday with a bunch of strangers, eating new food, learning traditional dances, having a lack of sleep? Nothing, am I right?!

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My story starts on the fifteenth of July, when I joined the group in Eskişehir. It seemed a nice group initially, but you can say we had a rough start, because, during this first night, the coup in Istanbul took place. Of course this caused some worries among both participants and organisers, but we were safe and our organisers handled the situation very well!

So the following days consisted of ice-breaking-games, workshops about civic education, lunch breaks, cooking, city activities and dinners. We also met the mayor of Eskisehir. According to Summer University protocol, some partying was included as well. I really loved the pub crawl; it was full of entertainment and nice deals with the pubs. Also, you cannot miss out on a European Night. We played a lot of games and ended with Thirty Seconds (of course my team couldn’t be beaten).

We ended the part of the programme in the city Eskişehir with a night camping in the nature. We crossed dangerous rivers, conquered the highest mountains and fought the wildest animals during our journey to the camp! After setting up the tents, we swam and scared the shit out of some frogs in the river. Then it was game time and we all stripped down for the ‘make the longest clothing line competition’. Furthermore, we created our own Peace-shirts with pencils and paint. Afterwards it was time for a nice campfire-dinner and some singing, dancing and drinking beers. Next morning we played some games spontaneously. ‘Dutch Lions’ was among them, which resulted in everyone covered with bruises and scratches.

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That day we returned to Eskișehir to recover in the Hamam and, in the night, we left Eskişehir and travelled to Pamukkale, where you can find the Travertine (google it!) and Hierapolis. We spent one day there and, in the evening, we reached Datça. Here the story of workshops, traditional dancing, partying and waking up too early continued. We also spent a lot of time at the beaches in the sun. After a game that involved some casual ear licking, French kissing, writing on asses, making a fool of yourself in public and sangria, we exchanged Datça for Fethiye.

In my opinion, the days in Fethiye were the best days. We did a boat tour with a BBQ and a lot of swimming and diving. On the second day, it was time for the thing everyone was looking forward to: Paragliding! I was scared when we had to run from a 2000m high mountain, and my legs were shaking because I don’t usually put my life in the hands of strangers (but it was amazing! A new Facebook profile picture is born here).

The next day we visited Saklıkent, which means hidden city in Turkish. We climbed through the canyon, but had to return when it got too dangerous. In the evening, we dressed up as zombies with make-up and fake blood and hit the club (no shame). The next day, we had some free time and ate our last meal together. Later, at the hostel, this was followed by an award ceremony. I received the award for best kisser; thank you […].

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All good things come to an end. We partied together one last time and, during the night, the first people, sadly, already had to leave. Despite a lot of things are going on in Turkey, I really enjoyed my time in this country! All the issues could not have stopped me from going there. I hope the organisers will stay safe in the future. I am grateful I’ve met all these people. The organisers did a really good job, the board is very kind and the other participants completed this experience! It felt strange waking up to an empty room the first morning at home, without any organisers yelling: ‘GOOOOOOOOOOOODMORNING, BREAKFAST TIME’. I think I speak for everyone else if I say that the After Summer University Depression kicked in immediately after the end.

It is strange that you build up friendships within those two weeks. You start as strangers, only connected to each other by our love for travelling and AEGEE. I would have never thought it would be hard to say goodbye to these bunch of […]. But saying goodbye does not exist. Let us make it a ‘till we meet again’.

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Written by Carlijn Cretier, AEGEE-Nijmegen

On July 15th, a part of the Turkish army took to the streets of primarily Istanbul and Ankara in order to perform, what turned out to be, an unsuccessful coup. Considering that there are almost ten locals in Turkey, of which seven Antennae and two Contact Antennae, and that there were both incoming and outgoing participants for Summer Universities into and out of Turkey on and near this date, things got exciting for a lot of members of AEGEE.

A Brief Run-Down

During the night of Friday, 15 July 2016, a fraction of the Turkish army attempted a coup to overthrow the government of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The militants blocked the Istanbul Ataturk Airport, as well as both bridges over the Bosporus in Istanbul. In Ankara, the Turkish Parliament building was struck by at least one bomb. The coup seemed to proceed relatively peaceful, until protesters, spurred on by Erdoğan’s address to the nation, resisted the attempted coup.
The militants clashed with police officers and civilians, until, on Saturday morning, it turned out that the number of protesters was too big to handle for the tanks, fighter jets and armed helicopters. The BBC and The Guardian reported that the total death toll was 265, 161 civilians and 104 attempters of the coup, and another 1440 wounded. AEGEE-Eskișehir recently reported that the number of fatal casualties has risen to 294.

According to The Guardian, directly during the aftermath, the Turkish government arrested 2,839 members of the army and detained another 2,745 judges and prosecutors. Later, CNN reported that this number had risen to a total of 15,846 people, 10,012 of which are military personnel, but that around 4,000 of these detainees have since then been released. AEGEE-Eskișehir confirmed these numbers in their statement on the 22^nd of July, and added that another 50,000 people have lost their job during the aftermath of the coup.

AEGEEans and the Coup

Two Summer Universities were taking place in Turkey during the coup; one of which was in Istanbul, the other was in Eskişehir. The coup happened during the second night of the Summer University that AEGEE-Istanbul organised, while the organisers and twenty-two participants were in the city at a pre-party.

As Brigita Senkane of AEGEE-Riga recalls: “[Dermanşah Yalın, President of AEGEE-Istanbul] organised AEGEE-Istanbul’s SU under extreme conditions: during the coup in Istanbul. He managed to evacuate everyone safely and fast while we were partying in Istanbul without knowing that the tanks were already in Istanbul. The Summer University continued safely and extremely carefully planned, because the organisers were flexible and re-planned everything to make it as much fun as possible and safe for us.”

After the organisers safely got the participants back to the gym, which was used as their sleeping accommodation, they set up WiFi-hotspots to enable all participants to contact their families and friends. The next day, all participants were kept in the gym for safety, and the organisation improvised an alternative programme for them at the location itself.

The coup also coincided with the first day of the Summer University that was organised by AEGEE- Eskişehir. Although most of the violence of the coup occurred in Istanbul and Ankara, some tensions were notable in this city in north-western Anatolia. Evrim Emiroğlu of AEGEE-Eskişehir reports that, of the many difficulties, the frequent police checks stood out most.

The other side of the coin is that local media picked up on the positive message that this Summer University had during the aftermath of the coup and covered them in an article and in a segment.

Travelling to and from Turkish airports, including the Istanbul Ataturk Airport, normalised by the sixteenth of July, and as far as The AEGEEan could uncover, only a couple of members of AEGEE were hindered to travel directly to and from Turkey to visit or return from one of AEGEE’s events. These included two members of A-Beograd, A-Kragujevac and A-Podgorica’s Summer University: Shake it to the Balkan Remix, who were unable to leave Turkey. Additionally, we have received reports that at least one member of AEGEE was hindered in travelling to her Summer University in Azerbaijan, due to the cancellation of her indirect flight via Istanbul.

Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen

Have you ever noticed similarities between your country’s and other countries’ traditions for Christmas? There are many symbols attached to this holiday in Europe, and each country has kept its own identity and traditions, while enriching them with influences form various other sources. This diversity and richness prove the importance given by Europeans to the Christmas holiday. This year the AEGEEan asked and found out how people celebrate Christmas in Greece, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine.

Let’s start from the place where the festive period begins really early. In Romania, celebrations start on November 30th, the day of Saint Andrew. Customs say everyone should hang plenty of garlic and a crucifix next to all doors and windows of the house to keep evil spirits away from their home. At the beginning of December, the Christmas lights are turned on all over the streets. Moş Nicolae comes and gives children presents. Children receive their gifts early in the morning of December 6th, or late at night on December 5th; traditionally, gifts are put in their laced up boots. On December 20th, Saint Ignatius Day, Romanians start the last preparations for Christmas. On this date, they slaughter pigs for the Christmas Eve supper. “Around this date, people usually buy their Christmas trees from public markets or supermarkets.”, Ioana Nedelcu (AEGEE-Ploieşti) told us.
December 24rd it’s Noaptea de ajun, the day children usually start caroling their neighbours. Music is an important part of Christmas celebration all over Romania. There is a special genre of music, related to Christmas carols but with more traditional/Christian lyrics. These are named colindă, which are also popular in Moldova. On the same date, women bake traditional cookies to give children for their caroling. By this time, the Christmas tree must usually already be decorated. During Christmas, Romanians bake or buy various special dishes, including desserts and sweets. Romanians most usually bake cozonac, a type of sweet bread. You can fill the cozonac with walnuts, cocoa, raisins, Turkish delight and in Transylvania: poppy seed paste (cozonac cu mac). Plates heaped with small pastries and cakes (corni și baclava) are prepared to serve to carollers when they call. A boiled vegetable and chicken salad held together with mayonnaise and decorated with olives and boiled eggs is often prepared. It is called Salată de boeuf (from French), although it usually does not contain beef. Other Christmas dishes include piftie, sarmale and pork dishes.

In Moldova, although Christmas is celebrated on December 25th like in Romania, January 7th is also recognised as an official holiday. On Christmas Day, families are having breakfast and/or lunch together.

In Greece, Christmas caroling is also very popular and there are actually three official caroling days. The custom is that children go from house to house singing the carol, with the accompaniment of a triangle, and residents of the house give them a small amount of money. Greek Christmas carols (calanda) are sung on the mornings of Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and January 5, the Eve of the Epiphany. About thirty to twenty years ago, carolers were getting cookies for singing the calanda.

Homemade kourabiedes

Melomakarona and kourabiedes are the two varieties of Christmas and New Year’s cookies in Greece. The first are semolina, cinnamon, and clove cookies drenched in honey, while the second are fresh butter cookies sprinkled with powdered sugar that are normally served on New Year’s, but many succumb to temptation and begin consuming them earlier. Vasilopita is a cake that is eaten on New Year’s Day. Before the cake is baked, a coin covered in foil is placed in it. The person who cuts the cake makes the sign of the cross three times above it and then starts serving the pieces, one to each person, the house, Christ, The Virgin Mary and Saint Vasileios. Whoever has the coin in his piece of cake will have luck for the rest of the year.
On the 1st of January, Saint Vasileios (Saint Basil the Great) from Caesarea, Cappadocia (Turkey), brings the gifts to the children. People in Greece also celebrate Epiphany on the 6th January. In the Greek Orthodox Church, Epiphany celebrates Jesus’s baptism when he was a man. There are many events throughout the country where young men dive into really cold lakes, rivers and the sea to try to be the first to get a cross which has been blessed by a priest and thrown into the water. Whoever gets the cross first is meant to have good luck during the coming year.

“Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun” this is how you say “Merry Christmas” in Turkish. However, how Christmas and the new year is perceived depends on where you are in Turkey. Christians who live in Turkey celebrate Christmas at churches or with family gatherings. In many districts of major cities the lights, Christmas decorations and trees appear in early December. In Turkey Christmas is of course not celebrated as a religious holiday. It can, in many ways, be comparable to Father’s day, Mother’s Day, Valentines Day and so on. Christmas is brought to Turkey by the major stores and supermarkets who have seen their chance to implement this festive celebration. There are some very natural differences to the way other Christian countries celebrate Christmas. In Turkey there is no dancing around the Christmas tree and sing Christmas carols, just like Christmas cookies and socks over the fireplace are not a part of the tradition yet. But they have Christmas trees and Santa Claus and gifts! In the last years in Turkey they started celebrating the New Year by exchanging gifts.

On the other hand, in Ukraine the festive period starts on New Years Eve. Ukrainians usually congregate in a house of their families and/or friends. They have many dishes at the table, so they start with food, watching different TV shows and chatting. When it is 00:00 the champagne is opened, and there are exclamations “Urrraaaa” (Hurrah) and people wishing everyone Happy New Year. “After midnight, children find their presents under the New Year tree, some other people are just exchanging presents, telling nice words to people. Then Ukrainians call other friends, who are not celebrating with them and congratulate everyone they think is important. Very often the mobile network is overloaded. Then we have parties till the morning, and go to bed at 02:00-08:00 (it depends). In the morning celebration continues.”, says Hanna Polishchuk (AEGEE-Kyiv).
On the 6th of January it is Sviat Vechir (Holy Evening). In the evening, after 6pm all family congregates at the table, which has 12 dishes (obligatory). The main dish is called Kutia (sweet grain pudding), and everyone should eat at least one spoon of this dish first. After dinner, children (and sometimes adults) wear traditional clothes and go around carol singing. People give them sweets and close friends give also money. The next day (January 7th) is Christmas. In the morning people tell each family member “The Christ was born”, and they answer “Glory to Him”. They tell this three times, and each time people kiss the cheek of the person, to whom they tell these words. On this day people continue going round carol-singing. There is a tradition to forgive everyone on this day.

Photo by Szabina Hellinger

In Hungary, Santa is called Mikulás and comes on the 6th of December instead of Christmas. He brings presents to children in their boots in case they have been behaving well all throughout the year. If they have been naughty, they get some rods (for being whipped with) from krampuses instead. “On Christmas night, the 24th of December (Szenteste = Holy Night) we decorate our Christmas tree indoors and “Little Jesus” (Jézuska) is supposed to bring nice presents for the kids untill the next morning, placing them under the tree.”, Balázs Kovács (AEGEE-Debrecen) told us. The Christmas decoration involves szaloncukor, special Hungarian goodies.

Hoping you enjoyed reading this article, the AEGEEan would like to wish you Merry Christmas anywhere you are!

Written by Lia Tuska, AEGEE-Kastoria/Sofia

Unemployment insurance fund – indispensable for social states. Turkey’s blue collar and white collar workers struggling with unemployment and precarious conditions for years have gladly welcomed this fund (which actually was already established by mid-2000) that was successfully promoted by AKP government. Through the fund around 50 billion Euros were raised, which is enough for marketing purposes to increase credibility of the party in power. It worked out quite well in this regard.  While on the other hand, questions about how the funds have been managed were never allowed. The reality was, among 2.5 million unemployed only 271 thousand were able to use the fund. The punch line of this story is that the remaining amount, through different tools of the state apparatus, were transferred to the construction sector on whose shoulder AKP was raised. I will detail the role of the construction sector later. To sum up the management of unemployment insurance fund successfully polished the image of AKP government and raised great funding opportunities.

The idea of such a fund whether one has the chance to benefit or not creates the (illusory) feeling of security, which is the second indispensable need in the hierarchy of needs. It would be unfair to expect an average citizen, who tries to survive with a minimum wage – lower than the hunger limit – to question how the fund is managed by the government. Somebody, in this case the opposition, has had to deal with the allegations and reveal misuse if there is any.  And apparently they failed to raise enough awareness and discussions on the issue.

The second story: urban transformation policies as the second most visible public policy. Especially after the devastating effect of 1999 Marmara earthquake, the urban transformation policy entered Turkey’s literature. The idea of urban transformation is commercialized as an inevitable necessity by the government, and the urban space became wide open for immense modification. Reproduction of the urban space as a way out from the crisis of the financial sector has been justified with discourses of decriminalization of the cities, ensuring security and recreation of deformed centers, used by the statesmen and promoted through the hand of the media. The economic policy of 2000s has been managed not through planning in accordance with supply and demand, but through urban projects developed for increasing the unearned income of a certain class. In this regard, TOKI – Mass Housing Administration – has become the most prominent administrative body. The urban transformation policies promoted as ‘getting rid of the old for building new’ were of course applauded by the consumption society. The interesting point here is that, when cheering up, they were completely unaware of the fact that soon they would be exiled from their neighborhoods and forced to move to the ‘new’ city consciously disconnected from the social life. When what was going on was realized, and the victims (unfortunately only a small group) got organized against urban transformation, they were either threaten by government officials or too afraid to raise up. In the end, the majority agreed to move out and by paying some ‘extra’, they managed to buy new houses from TOKI. The houses built by TOKI were too costly which resulted in millions of citizens incurring costly debts that last from 10 to 40 years to pay together with the debit interests. It wouldn’t be wrong to sum this policy up as financial slavery.  In short, as we see in the management of the unemployment fund, another basic need, shelter, was successfully abused for the sake of the political agenda.

Consequently, the more poverty and unemployment increases, the more citizens get addicted to social aids and illusory policies. And the more the citizens get addicted, the more grow the chances of the party in power for winning the elections through illusory policies. With this in mind, my intention with a policy oriented evaluation is to provide you with some insight that enable us to find out  the underlying reasons why there are over 20 million people that voted for Erdoğan.

In addition to illusory policies, the reason why 20 million have voted for Erdoğan is the lack of a promising alternative in the political arena. Although the marginalised groups: LGBTI community, Alevis, Armenians, Kurdish, young people (the protagonists of the Gezi Protests), single women and other minorities, (at this point I define a group as minority not numerically but in accordance with the power they hold), the local victims (who were not politicized beforehand) of ecocide through hydroelectric power plants (HES), all have once more indicated the need for a fair alternative is rapidly growing. The fact that the parties that position themselves as left orientated have rough edges and they failed to convince around 15 million people to vote, played an important role in the victory of AKP. At this point, taking the increase of votes of HDP, Peoples’ Democratic Party, and the coalition led by CHP, the rights and wrongs of the political parties should be evaluated independently from each other.

Discussing the voters’ incentives is of high value for reaching a verdict about any elections. This is why I try to present you an alternative perspective through illusory public polices and lack of promising alternatives to help you with your verdict.  According to the hierarchy of needs, one has to cover its survival needs such as security and shelter to be able to question politics.

Nevertheless, whichever perspective we choose, it requires high intelligence to refuse that Turkey is turning into a hegemonic despotic regime.  If we insist on in this route, to expect a similar scenario we have seen in Egypt would be a fair guess.

Let’s hope Turkey will have a different ending, which will give birth to systematic, social and progressive thinking.

Written by Gizem Karsli, AEGEE-Ankara

On the 13th of July 2014, a Youth Council was established in Turkey, giving almost 30 different youth organizations the chance to cooperate between them. Among them, there is also AEGEE, represented for now by AEGEE-Ankara. The AEGEEan spoke to Turgut Tosun and Oğuz Tosun, member of the coordination group and boardmember of AEGEE-Ankara, to find out more.

On the 13th of January this year, fifteen youth organizations got together to discuss the proposition that was released by the government about setting a National Youth Council in Turkey. “According to the proposition, it was supposed to be established within the Ministry of Youth and Sport”, Turgut says. “However, the problem is that it would be controlled by the ministry and they would have the final word in case of a disagreement. This was a totally unacceptable case for youth organizations, so a group of five people made an arrangement with the ministry to discuss the current situation”. However, an agreement could not be reached, so the organizations kept working as a civil initiative with the aim of creating a civil youth council which would represent as many youth organizations in Turkey as possible.

Turkey’s youth has to deal with a lot of problems with the government, of which the arrest of several young people after the Gezi Park protests is just one example. “We were in contact and tried to share any outcomes of our meetings with the ministry, but after the Gezi Park movement and the policies of the government towards the young people of Turkey, we decided to temporarily suspend our relation with the government”, Turgut explains. “This council is an initiative to save youth from the fire in Turkey”, Oğuz adds. “If we implement this council properly, the youth can start to know themselves. We want to give the youth the chance to understand themselves, so they can change the world”.

AEGEE-Ankara got involved in the process of establishing the Council from the beginning, attending the first meeting in January and all the meetings taking place afterwards. Some representatives from other Turkish-speaking AEGEE locals also attended a few meetings, but so far AEGEE-Ankara is the only local involved in the Youth Council. However, there will probably be a Network Meeting organized to see how the Turkish-speaking AEGEE locals can get involved in the Youth Council, since AEGEE does not have a national level.

Moreover, the Youth Council cannot officially be called National Youth Council, because the use of the words ‘national, council, Turkey, initiative or platform’ is officially banned after the Gezi Park movement, but this does not mean the organizations have given up. “To use the word ‘national’ we need permission from the Council of Ministers of Turkey, which I don’t think we will have in the next fifteen years. Thus, we decided to call ourselves Gençlik Örgütleri Forumu – GÖF or Youth Organizations’ Forum”, Turgut explains.

The expectations for the work that can be done with the Youth Organization Forum are high. “I think the youth in Turkey has a great chance to act in many fields, from democracy to environment”, Oğuz says. “I believe this is the best thing for young people. Before we start to change things on a local level, we want to observe as much as possible different examples all over the world. The youth in Turkey can bring the local and international actions together to change the system in Turkey. Wish us luck and power!”

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen & Raluca Radu, AEGEE-Cluj Napoca

]]> ../../../2014/05/27/turkey-the-mine-accident-arises-protests-against-governement/ Tue, 27 May 2014 10:00:49 +0000 ../../../?p=23121 A tragedy invested the city of Soma, in Turkey, where, on the 13th of May, the local coal mine suffered by an explosion, and a consequent fire, during a shift change in the afternoon. At the moment of the explosion, two kilometers underground, more than 700 miners where at work. The blast and the fire, that lasted for at least… Read more →

On Europe’s borders, human rights violations are happening on a daily basis. People are beaten, jailed, tortured and killed for mostly political reasons. But what do Western media share about it? … exactly. So if you want any information, you have to look for it yourself. Here’s a short report from two AEGEE members who went to see it with their own eyes.

When you’re in the south-eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakır these days, several times a day you will hear thundering in the air, every day. Military airplanes are crossing the territory, between Antep and Van, Erzurum and Şırnak, patrolling the skies and reminding those on the ground of who the boss is. The boss is the Turkish government in Ankara, because the territory in question is part of the Republic of Turkey. That’s pretty simple.

Or is it?

Walking around in Diyarbakır, it is impossible to miss one particular sight. At the great square just outside the impressive ancient city walls, there is a tall white building with a large bronze figure attached to the wall, next to which a slogan is written: „Diyarbekirli, Vanlı, Erzurumlu, İstanbullu, Trabzonlu, Trakyalı ve Makedonyalı hep bir ırkın evlâtları, hep aynı cevherin damarlarıdır.“ All those that live on Turkish territory are of the same (Turkish) blood. That’s what Atatürk said once, in 1932, and after all that Atatürk did for the Turkish nation, there can be no doubt that he must have been right. 

Depending on your source, the numbers may vary, but there are around 15 to 18 million people living in Turkey that call themselves Kurds, not Turks, even if their passports are Turkish. In comparison to the overall population of currently around 80 million, that makes it about 20% of all Turkish citizens. Not something you can neglect, least of all if you are the government of Turkey. And in fact, the Turkish government has been paying a lot of attention to its Kurdish citizens in recent decades. Just that this has not really been the kind of attention that the Kurds were looking for.

One of the main things Kurdish people in Turkey have been looking for ever since the foundation of the Republic is something they call their natural right: to be educated in their own language. Kurdish language is very different from Turkish, even if centuries of coexistence have created a large pool of common vocabulary. Kurdish children who go to school have to study in Turkish even if they have never heard this language in their lives, and this gives them a great disadvantage. At the same time, if Kurdish children cannot learn their mother tongue properly, only very few of them will actually produce cultural goods like music and literature. Consequently, Kurdish culture is suffering a very fragile (and barely legal) existence.

However, the Turkish government, and indeed the majority of Turkish citizens, have little understanding for such demands. Their position is that if the country is to function, it needs one language that everyone is proficient in, and this language is Turkish, because it is the native language of the great majority of citizens in the country. Well, that latter point is of course undeniable. And Turkish law says that Turkish is the only official language of the country. But does that mean that Kurdish language should be prohibited completely? Is it necessary that someone like Abdullah Demirbaş, the mayor of a Diyarbakır district where over 90% of the people speak Kurdish in their daily life, is removed from office and jailed for two years because he published a tourist brochure in Kurdish language? These are only some questions to start with.

What makes the language question delicate is related to one evil word that has haunted every Turkish government since the foundation of the Republic: Separation! What would happen if the Kurdish provinces just declared independence one day, similar to Kosovo or South Sudan? That would be a disaster beyond imagination for Turkey. And just the idea of such a disaster causes the public discourse in Turkey to be rather irrational, even hysterical. The dogma is that giving any more liberty to the Kurdish people will inevitably lead to a stronger awareness of their own identity, and consequently to separation. It doesn’t only seem useless to argue against this logic; it is even outright dangerous, as many journalists had to discover when they ended up in jail for exactly that reason.

It is hard to tell whether the Turkish government is just a prisoner of public opinion in Turkey (because of course they want to be re-elected), or if this public opinion coincides with their own personal views. However, there can be no doubt about what the Turkish government is actually doing in the provinces with Kurdish majority population. And these things are terrifying. Yet, as it seems, most of my Turkish friends seem not to know what’s going on in their own country. This is why I hope that many of them will read the following few examples with close attention.

Diyarbakır, 12 November 2013. Me and Gizem are sitting in a court room. Three Kurdish politicians are on trial. It is alleged that they are supporters of the so-called Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), which is said not to be a terrorist organisation in itself, but affiliated with the Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK) that is considered a terrorist organisation not only by Turkey, but also by the EU and the US. So the charge is not that they are terrorists, nor that they are members of a terrorist organisation, but members of an NGO kind of thing that is in a way related to a terrorist organisation. They haven’t done anything. For this crime, they have been two years in jail already, a situation called „pre-trial detention“. Now, finally having their trial, evidence against them comes from wiretaps (intercepted phone calls) that are actually not only illegal, but, according to the defending lawyer, also obviously fake. Not that it matters what the lawyer is saying, though, for as she speaks, the judge is playing with his iPhone. Apparently the judgement is already written.

Van, 14 November 2013. We are speaking with Selim, our Kurdish driver, who owns a small company and has been an activist for Kurdish rights all his life. Thousands (!) of Kurdish politicians, activists and journalists have been jailed only since 2009, he says. Many of them never heard the official reason why. But of course they know why: Because they worked for Kurdish interests. They tried to open language schools, they published books in Kurdish, they helped Kurdish refugees from Syria, and, worst of all, they did research about the countless human rights violations by the Turkish military, police and bureaucracy. There are things that the Turkish public should not know, and investigating in such things will cost you your freedom. But losing your freedom is one thing, he says, and being in prison is another. During the approximately 20 times he was jailed (and never convicted!) for one of the reasons above, he was tortured so hard that he still wonders why he is alive at all.

Lice, 15 November 2013. More than 20 people surround our table in a bakery in this small provincial town, most of them are young men, not much older than I am. But their stories cause me to grow grey hair within minutes. During the 90’s, Lice was largely destroyed by the Turkish army, burnt like other thousands of villages in the area to cut off the supply chains and hiding places from the PKK militia. During the last 29 years of guerilla war, more than 40,000 people have died, most of them civilians. Many of the people in this room have lost family members this way. Not that the PKK is unguilty, they say. But the methods of the military were brutal. Kurdish lives didn’t count, and still don’t. Only this summer a young man was shot by soldiers in Lice when he peacefully protested against the extension of the military camp on the edge of the city. And in the very bakery where we are talking, two people were shot some years ago. – Only a few minutes later, we suddenly hear shouting from outside the bakery, „panzer, panzer!“ it goes. The army is getting interested in our meeting. But they only come and check, nothing more. We are lucky this time…

What impresses me most during these days is that most Kurdish people actually don’t seem to have hard feelings towards their Turkish „brothers“, as the government officially calls these two groups. Of course there are a number of radicalists who don’t believe in peaceful solutions and want a separate Kurdistan at any cost. But despite all the repression, most Kurds apparently could imagine living together in Turkey. The only thing they demand is their rights: language rights, local self-government, and, first and most of all, the end of these daily human rights infringements.

And I wonder: Do they ask for too much?

P.S. My great gratitude is with Gizem Karslı who did not only make our research trip possible, but who is investing an admirable amount of energy in promoting equal rights for all Turkish citizens.

Written by Thomas Leszke, AEGEE-Köln

Everything started when the Turkish government decided to destroy Gezi Park to build a mall. That made people come to Taksim Square, Istanbul, to protest for saving the park. Today, there are many people protesting in Turkey and the police is becoming more and more violent. There are many injured people and also some deaths.

Police forces have left Taksim Square but protesters are still there to protect it. However, police forces might have left the square, but things in Turkey haven’t calm down: as it seems, Gezi Park was the last drop for Turkish people and now we have protests in Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara and 48 other cities.

All of those protests started with a sit-in protest in the park, but now, people reacts against the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and they ask him to resign. Gezi Park was just the start and the last drop for Turkish people and the issue is bigger. They demand the freedom of speech and real democracy in their country.

It is obvious that those days in Turkey we witnessed a clear violation of human rights.  Not only the police attacked peaceful protesters in Gezi Park, but also they used water cannons, tear gas, peper spray and armored personnel carriers against the protesters which led to over 1000 injured people and at least two deaths.

We are in the side of Turkish people. We demand the Turkish government to stop the violence against them and leave them because it is their right to protest. The Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) decided to take action against that violation of human rights in Turkey and show our solidarity to Turkish people.

To do that, we are calling everyone to light a candle and take a photo and write “your name + lights a candle for democracy in Turkey” and send it to hrwg@aegee.org for uploading it in our Facebook page. Also we are calling the locals that want to take action to send us photos of what you did to upload them in our Facebook page. Turkey needs us and we have to be there, by their side!

Written by Dimitra Amorgianou, AEGEE–Kastoria

Thank you Michal Szanjder for the main picture of the article!

What  are your expectations of Izmir?

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear  the name of this city?

Almost all of participants  prejudged Izmir, Turkish culture and Summer Universities. Within the scope of this project, they learned about the Turkish culture and also tasted Turkish food during colourful activites. One of the workshops was about the ancient art of marbling, paper marbling. The dance of colours was impressive to the participants. AEGEE-İzmir is trying to change the participants’ mind about AEGEE, making them see that SU’s are not only for parties and swimming. AEGEE is also there to promote understanding of cultural diversities and active citizenship. That’s why in the SUnkiss event the organisers  tried to point out these topics continuously so that it was impossible to miss.

The participants had an introduction to colour and colour therapy: It has been recorded that the ancient Aegeans used colour for the cure of ailments. They worshipped the sun, knowing that without light there can be no life. They looked at nature and copied it in many aspects of their lives.

The vivacious people of Izmir live in the middle of sun, sea and forest, that is to say yellow, blue and green, hence the Izmirian are healthy and full of life.

One of participants, Sanita Slezkina said: ‘’I didn’t expect such a colourful programme, it was really a nice SU full of sun as the topic said! It was really satisfactory, also the places we stayed at and the meals. It was very well organised as well, seemed like I had bought a travel agency’s offer or something like that! It is incredible that students can organise something like this! Also what I understood is that in Turkey it is much easier to find good sponsors than in Latvia.’’

After the end of this Summer University all participants returned to their countries with positive impressions . Some still dream that they were satisfied with a SUnkiss.

Written by Sıla Özdemir, AEGEE-Izmir

“…Children’s games in the streets were suddenly interrupted but they wanted to play more with their Armenian friends, they wanted to listen together to tales of their grandparents in the dusty streets of Van, Kars and Bitlis.

Without telling the reason why our Armenian friends left, they taught us to forget 24 April, to forget the games we played and the stories we were told…”

….

My eyes filled with tears after reading this letter written by AEGEE-Ankara Turkish-Armenian Working Group on 24 April. 24 April 1915 was the black day of Armenian history. For already 97 years on that day Armenians all over the world have commemorated the Armenian Genocide day by the Ottoman Empire.  The genocide was done in the most inhuman way – massacres and deportations, when around 1.5 million Armenians were killed and tortured, many lost their families, others had to escape to various sides of the world. This resulted in the development of the majority of Armenian diaspora communities all over the world. On that painful day Ottoman authorities arrested around 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria… 97 years have passed since that bloody day, but Armenians have this pain in their hearts, a pain that should not be familiar only to Armenians, but to the whole world in order to avoid this kind of crime towards human beings in

future.

My first visit to Turkey was in 2010 when I was going to sign the Convention d’Adhésion for AEGEE-Yerevan, which became an official AEGEE contact. When I learnt that the Agora would be in Istanbul I was actually very glad as I had wanted to visit Istanbul long time before, but meanwhile, I didn’t know what to expect from Turkey. Surprisingly, I discovered a group of hospitable AEGEEans, friendship and fun.

I met the Turkish-Armenian working group members of AEGEE-Ankara who were opened for cooperation with AEGEE-Yerevan. I discovered so many similarities between Armenian and Turkish people. After that I thought: “I definitely need to contribute to the peace building process of our two nations.” Soon after the Agora the Armenian-Turkish working group of AEGEE-Yerevan was established. Active cooperation has started with the project called AEGEE Virtual Traveller, which gives  both members of AEGEE-Yerevan and Ankara an opportunity to write about the other countries without having visited it. You can check it here: http://aegeetraveller.wordpress.com/. Furthermore, the Turkish-Armenian working group of AEGEE-Ankara visited Yerevan around the Armenian Genocide Memorial day and discussed the future projects about which you will hear in the future.

Summing up, I just wanted to share my story and efforts we all make for our peaceful future. I am really proud to have this cooperation well established and wish good luck to both working groups for their future projects. That is how I see AEGEE contributing to its PEACE AND STABILITY pillar, that is how I am being proud of my association.

Wrtitten by Shushan Khachatryan, AEGEE-Yerevan &
Content Manager of AEGEE Eastern Partnership Project

Group photos by Shushan Khachatryan
Photograph of the Armenian Genocide memorial by M. Megi