Children from all over the world embarked on Turkish voyage

Photos: Sunday's Zaman, Mehmet Yaman)
Photos: Sunday's Zaman, Mehmet Yaman)


Date posted: June 24, 2013

Around 22 years ago, Fethullah Gülen said, “The day will come when you will no longer fit into the stadiums.” In fact, it turned out to be true. The Turkish Olympiad, which began in 2003 with young people from 17 different countries, has grown to the point that this year we hosted 2,000 students from 140 countries. The Olympiad came to an end in Istanbul with a magnificent final ceremony.

The first stop in Anatolia for these “children of Turkish” was in Izmir, at the cultural festival held there. İzmir residents were happily surprised to see young Africans dressed in their countries’ traditional clothing but speaking in Turkish in the city center’s Kemeraltı market. In the end, İzmir embraced these young guests from all over the world. It was interesting to watch the young people walking along İzmir’s seashore “kordon,” bargaining with shop owners in Turkish, seeing species of fish they weren’t familiar with and looking at the city’s famous clock tower, with all its pigeons.

Later that evening, of course, they brought city residents a night of Turkish song that would not soon be forgotten. After Izmir, the young people traveled on to Ankara’s Kızılcahamam, where they were warmly welcomed as if they were the city’s own children. At the same time, they were preparing for the Olympiad’s elimination rounds. The generally bureaucratic atmosphere of Ankara was softened — if only for a while — by the presence of these young guests, who visited the Turkish Parliament, the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Ankara Train Station.

In Bursa, these young guests began their journey with a ride on a sea bus. They ate Iskender kebab and performed for the many Bursa city residents who filled the local Ataturk Stadium. The unparalleled beauty of Bodrum, in the meantime, captivated the young people. And the Turkish songs and poetry they performed in the Bodrum Amphitheater attracted, perhaps, more guests than the theater had ever seen before.

In the end, the young people arrived in Istanbul for the Olympiad finals. It was almost time for their farewells. The energy of the song contest winner, Martin Yordanov of Bulgaria, was incredible; he seemed to fly all over the stage and won the hearts of jury members Ajda Pekkan and Orhan Gencebay as well as others on the jury. Of course, it wasn’t just the jury that was captivated; so were the many members of the audience, and the millions watching on television screens everywhere. And so these cultural ambassadors left us with memories that will last forever. At the airport, the sad farewells between Angel Lazaro and his friends from Thailand were akin to the most melancholic of songs. They met as competitors in a single language — Turkish — but parted ways as friends for life.

Author: MEHMETYAMANSTANBUL
Source: TodaysZaman , 23June2013


Related News

Turkey Carries Out Major NATO Purge

Turkey has fired hundreds of senior military staff serving at NATO in Europe and the United States following July’s coup attempt, documents show, broadening a purge to include some of the armed forces’ best-trained officials.

Witch-hunts in Europe

Hate-filled language, such as “dirty water mixed with the milk,” “we will enter their dens” and “hashashin,” all uttered by the prime minister as part of his hate speech against the Gülen movement, was also a method employed during the witch-hunts in medieval Europe.

Gülen speaks to Kurdish paper, renews his support for education in mother tongue

Well-known Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has voiced strong support for education in one’s mother tongue, in reference to allowing the use of Kurdish in education in Turkey, and said basic human rights and freedoms could not be the object of any political bargaining as they are the natural rights of human beings. Speaking to […]

Erdoğan has to respect civil society

ŞAHİN ALPAY Colleagues and friends ask me, “What is the reason for the feud between the government and the Gülen movement and between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Fethullah Gülen?” This is, briefly, my response. In Turkey the demand for education is very high. Universities are unable to meet the demand and there are […]

Turkey: Erdogan’s macabre dance in Africa

What is the sense in advocating for the transfer of investments of private individuals to a government backed NGO? Is President Erdogan indirectly telling African leaders that his empire in Turkey extends to African countries hence the outrageous demand? From the preceding, it is clear that President Erdogan has little or no respect for African nations hence this anomaly. I also beg to state here that the politics of Turkey should be left in Turkey.

Gülen Movement has been used to undermine Ergenekon trial

‘Whenever new evidence surfaces related to Ergenekon, some people claim that that evidence was planted by Gülen sympathizers within the police force. This is quite unrealistic because important documents have been found in places where the police have never been able to access’ 5 February 2012 / YONCA POYRAZ DOĞAN, İSTANBUL A veteran journalist has […]

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Targeted by Erdoğan, Turkish schools earn praise, offer success abroad

Erdoğan using hate speech against Gülen movement, says MEP

AK Party gov’t violates rule of law with mass profiling of civil servants

Media Imposes Official Ideology, Creating Negative non-Muslim Image

Kimse Yok Mu aid cheers up Albanian community in Petrella

President of Zambia Mr. Rupiah Banda thanks Turkish investors in education

NTIC Foundation: Touching lives in Nigeria

Copyright 2024 Insightful Neighbor