People, Human Rights, Lifestyle, Travel, Activities

Stupid people will always make jokes on those who maybe know their mother tongue less, and by doing it at the same time they would feel a privilege on you. This is exactly what happens to me at the kindergarten. Teacher's assistant were making jokes on the way I speak Turkish, then I stopped it by saying that it is incorrect, and I was quite polite with her, and I thought I could prevent it, but not. Now she found the way how to make other jokes or even make orders to me, on what I should do, and how I should do. You might not understand it, but whenever a stranger gets into the working sphere, especially in a conservative place, where most of people haven't seen other people except of their own, they try to do bad things and jokes on the way how this foreigner acts or speaks by feeling themselves very powerful. But in my case it doesn't work, I usually express my thoughts directly to a jokes maker. And still I have really bad feeling after that situation which happened t...

Last week was full of unexpected disaster and expected meetings. First, Crimean Tatars were prohibited to commemorate victims of Deportation in Akmescit (Crimea). Second, three days of mourning have been declared in Turkey because of explosion in Soma coal mine, where 301 workers died. Third, in Ankara the commemoration meeting of victims of Deportation of Crimean Tatars took place for the second time of the history of Crimean Tatars, who live in Turkey more than 2-3 centuries. An explosion at a coal mine in western Turkey has left at least 301 workers dead and scores injured. 787 people had been inside the mine at Soma in Manisa province when an electrical fault triggered the blast. The electrical fault triggered a power cut, making the mine cages unusable. Those trapped are reported to be 2km (1.2 miles) below the surface and 4km from the mine entrance. The blast happened at about 12:30 GMT on May 13. Even in Gaziantep people gathered for the protest meeting. Turkish Government ...

This is the second month of my stay in Turkey. I'm getting to know the culture and people better. I cannot say that I didn't know about them much, but still all my short-term visits to Turkey couldn’t show me people deeply. It is great for me that I can learn something here, for example, language. People here are the same as everywhere in the world, but with their typical habits, the way of speaking and living. I'm a foreigner here, I'm a stranger... They can call me Uzbek or Kyrgyz – for them there are no differences between Crimean Tatar or Kyrgyz, or Kazan Tatar, they just say that I'm from Tatarstan. Most of people do not know where Crimea is, even after that terrible occupation occurred there. Still some of them know Crimean Tatars because Crimean Khanate was under the Ottoman Empire one century. It is really hard to find books in English here in Gaziantep, they have books on English learning only, or manuals for kids to study it. But today I found one wonde...

Last week I didn't do anything special, however I keep on doing my activities, among which – discussion club in English language. I'm a facilitator of the conversation, and I already held two clubs. For the second English conversation I prepared interesting questions about Gaziantep city: social life, political views, Majorities and Minorities. First of all I explained them who are minorities and majorities, and asked to characterize these communities in Gaziantep. I can't say that the conversation was very dynamic but all of the present could share their thoughts. Day by day, I make such conclusion that Turkish people, or people here do not like talking about politicians and politics. They even make such jokes as: where is my cell-phone to turn it off? Hope, you get the idea why they say it. Generally people here – 45-50% - workers of the manufactures and factories support R. Erdogan and his ruling party – Ak partisi. Because they believe that Erdogan will raise the ec...