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Prof. Dr. K. Suha AYDIN
Mersin Üniversitesi Rektörü
TÜM ZAMANLARIN
ÖNDERİ ATATÜRK...
Ülkesine ve milletine adadığı
56 yıllık ömrünün son duraklarından biriydi Mersin.
20 Mayıs 1938’de Mersin’e doğru yola çıktığında amacı Adana’ya sınıra kadar uzanmak ve batı medyasına karşı Hatay sorunu karşısındaki kararlılığını göstermekti. Yola çıkmadan iki gün önce Celal Bayar’a şunları söylemişti: “Benim, kırk asırlık Türk yurdu, Hatay esir kalamaz dediğimi unutmuş olanlar olabilir. Ama ben unutmadım, unutamam,
sen de unutamazsın”.
Devamı için tıklayınız... |
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| Haberler |
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| JANA & LUKAS's Article..... |
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Going home for Christmas or from Mersin to Trnava in 6 days
„You are crazy!“, that is what we immediately heard from everybody´s mouth after we told to our friends we wanted to go home by truck without telling anything to our parents. Actually, there was nothing else to choose. Christmas awaiting at the door and two of us, desiring to be with our families at any cost. We could have booked the flight, but we didn´t...
1. Day
We had been planning the journey for about 3 weeks. Thanks to my aunt, who arranged the truck from Istanbul to Slovakia and some phone calls to the company manager, we were sure we could do it somehow. We didn´t expect it to be comfortable and it wasn´t. All we had to do was to get to Istanbul on 19th December, evening. After an exhausting bag packing (means to stuff all the gifts inside) we started our journey on Friday 18 th. Hitch-hiking was quite easy. We couldn´t imagine better start, our first driver Baran from Diyarbakır invited us for carrot juice. After changing our phone numbers and two other transfers we stopped another car behind Tarsus and continued directly to Ankara. The road was very good and we were impressed by lot of snow in the Taurus mountains. At 5 p.m. we were in the capital. Walking around a bit made us doubt why Ankara is the chosen one. Neither tourists nor English inscriptions on the shops... Anyway we met Esra, our host and spent a pleasant evening and night in her cosy flat. |
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2. Day
At 10 a.m. we left Esra´s apartment wishing to find a good place for stopping the cars. There was a light raining, that´s why I asked a random driver at a petrol station if he accidently hadn´t directed to Istanbul. He hadn´t but suddenly God sent us somebody. Serdar, the truck driver, promised us help. He spoke English and explained us he was going to Thessaloniki (Selanik) in Greece, but needed to rest soon. That great guy gave me a present, tesbih from Kabul, stopped the bus and told the driver to take us for free to Istanbul! Until now I still wonder why he did it...There was a service bus from Otogar directly to the place we needed to go. We found the office and one of the emploees took us to the tır parking. There we met Habib and Muhammar, the guys we were supposed to spend next days with. We loaded the luggage and started the adventure. Hamzabeyli/Lesovo was to first border we needed to pass. The first and the hardest. Bulgarian customs officer didn´t want to let me enter the country because of my Syrian stamp in the passport. I had to explain him I was not a terrorist, but only a simple student going home for Christmas. He wanted cigarettes, maybe money, but didn´t get anything. After 30 minutes of arguing his colleague came and told me to continue on our way. Lot of snow, poorly maintained roads and exhaustion of the drivers caused stopping the cars and spending the night in Turkish parking behind Sliven.
3.Day
Getting up in the late morning, we wanted to go on quickly but made hardly 100 km that day. We stopped in a small village and made a sightseeing there. Very poor houses, charming, but unfortunatelly closed ortodox church and just a few people in empty streets, that was Kutsina in Veliko Tarnovo district. In this very mountainous region we stayed in a motorcade because of snow calamity and spent the evening in Turkish pub drinking tea and eating thick lentil soup. We went to tır bed very early, although we didn´t plan so. I admire these guys, how they can arrange everything in such a small place. Fridge, television, kettle and even a small gas for preparing dishes, they have simply everything there. With a can of beer in our hands, the day was slowly ending. |
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4.Day
New week beginned and everything was better. Bulgarian service cars started to fight against snow and we came to another border crossing soon. Big city of Ruse was the place where we had to wait some time to across 2800 m long Danube bridge leading to romanian Giurgiu. We also experienced Bulgarian firemen hospitality and entered the Romanian territory after sunset, but without any problems (Turkish truck drivers know, why it is important to take some Turkish sweets with them on their ways to Europe). Big surprise – that was my impression of Romania. Some people say it is the poorest country of EU, despite that I saw nice villages with charming Christmas decorations, very good roads and traffic signs. We passed Bucharest bypass and entered the highway connecting the capital with Piteşti. After that and some kilometers more we parked the vehicle in a Turkish motorest under the high peaks of Cozia national park, that protected our dreams in the truck cabin overnight. |
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5.Day
Our drivers still couldn´t guarantee us exact arrival time. Although we wanted to be at home on time, weather forecast and their friends being in Hungary that moment were indicating something different. Not snow any more but rain and ice on the road was what they warned us before. Anyway, we were still in Romania and after washing my face in snow I joined Habib and Jana in the car and we moved. Beautiful nature and still good driving conditions made us happy. No complications, just convenient journey, many interesting bigger and smaller towns and language we could understand quite well showed me Romania is a country worth visiting at any time. On the next parking Jana changed the truck for the one going to Budapest. Soon we came to big city of Arad where we took gas. From there it was very close to Varsand/Gyula border crossing. Neither Romanian nor Hungarian customs officers cared. Pack of cigarettes and Turkish biscuits opened us the Schengen area gate, we were almost at home! First Slovak inscriptions I noticed in Szarvas, Hungarian town with 10% Slovak minority living there. We were told we were not going to sleep that night, but going directly to Bratislava.
6.Day
After many kilometers our drivers must had been tired a lot. Our stomachs were grateful for stopping in Turkish motorest and having some soup there. We slept for an hour and half and continued on our way to the sweetest country (for me) or just another final stop (for the drivers). When I woke up, the car was about 15 km before the last border. It was 7 in the morning. Sleeping Bratislava welcomed us with its chilly weather and some confused people, running here and there, trying to find the best last minute Christmas gift for their kins. We came to Volkswagen factory in our capital. I jumped out from the truck to say hallo to Slovakia and later helped my friends with some formalities in the office. After final farewell I stayed alone. Taking my backpack I went to the bus stop to get to the train station. There was no bus so I made a short hitch-hike and stopped a guy who took me to better stop. In a few minutes a train with me on board moved to Trnava. My aunt, whom I must thank a lot for this perfect plan came to pick me up from the station. After spending a day in her flat, eating, having a shower and shave (after 6 days I really needed) she came in front of our door with some homemade cakes and me being hidden in a big cartoon box. My mother opened the door and was listening to my aunt telling what was in the box. A present from Istanbul was waiting for being opened. Well, I think I can not explain my mum´s reaction after I jumped out. I wish everybody to experience something like that…
We could have booked the flight and told to our parents, but we didn´t... Probably it would be too boring! |
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| Lukas ... |
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Something went wrong…
Christmas is very important time for European people. In my home country Slovakia, there still is a very special and traditional atmosphere during the holiday. And I like it. I am with my family; all of my friends who are studying or working in different places are back home; there is always plenty of delicious food to eat; house is decorated; carol-singers are cheerfully singing in front of our door; holy spirit is in the air.
This year I and my friend Lukas gave ourselves a very special present. We decided after four months in Turkey to go for one week back home. The best thing about our arrival was that nobody knew we would come. To see my parents and other family members shocked upon my arrival was one of the best felling ever! I spent a very good time at home. |
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When I was there, everybody was interested about my life in Turkey. The most common question was about the Islam religion. How do I see Muslims; if I have any problems with them… Just after this asking I realized that I moved a few steps forward and my compatriots were still at the same level. They live in a European Union which is becoming more and more closed and afraid of foreigners from different continents and with different religions. On the one hand it understandable Europeans don’t want to become a minority in their own state but on the other hand media in EU create a bad image of the east nations which scares its inhabitants and spreads intolerance. You can find a certain amount of stupid radicals everywhere; the question is just if you show your disapproval with them or not. |
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I |
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am still trying to find my own opinion about multiculturalism which is a phenomenon that we cannot stop. Europe needs other nations because its population is getting old. Slovakia will be soon a target for Muslim immigrants, as well. But it has one big advantage to other more developed states like France or Germany. We can learn from their mistakes and prevent problems which they have now. The future will show if we are clever enough. |
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I am not a person that can save a Europe, I am not the one who has the “right” opinions but I am a girl who has stayed in Islamic Turkey for quite some time. I realized I do not see any differences between us and them other than when they swear they say: "Alah, Alah" and we say: "O my God". When they have a problem, they go to pray to a mosque, and we go to a church. Their society is still quite moral and undepraved, ours is slowly going down. They are smiling at me, we rather don’t look at them. Something went wrong… And that is what came into my mind during this Christmas time.
Jana... |
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| Previous article |
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| What Christmas means to me |
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| Kuzu var mı? |
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| Our first Turkish düğün |
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| Turkey in My Eyes / Daily newspapers in Slovakia |
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| My turkish reflexion |
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