“This workshop showed us how good and powerful things we can do if we really want to. We found opportunity to ask questions to get to know each other more closely. We found similarities just behind differences.” “I feel free and different because I managed to realise that the two persons are very similar in comparison to what I was made to think and believe for 20 years. I strongly believe that the psychology workshop created something; it put a brick on the wall between people and naive governmental interests. I realise how fooled are not only Greeks but Turks also for many decades. I feel that our flame will get stronger and stronger through time until our huge fire can be able to burn all lies, conflicts, nationalism and borders geographically and mentally. I will come again.” “I have learnt A LOT about SOUTH PARK. This was beyond a workshop, like a friends’ meeting. I felt as if I had known all these people for years. “We” have a lot to do and “will” I am sure. It was a great experience to see such an old woman and feel the same feelings with some crying eyes. The meal, dance in the “kahve”, the Greek-Turkish halay… We shared the same place, time and feelings. We had also a limited time here, but our relationship especially friendship will exist in our minds while we are living. I will never forget the memories in Kayakoy and 12 friends of mine.” “I was surprised to find out that I was not jealous of the other participants who visited other places, while we were attending the workshop” “The most important thing is that we met each other with respect. We learned that being an individual is much more important than describing you as a part of a society. This is the first time that I have known people from abroad therefore it is hard to communicate or tell something for me because I have no practice before.” Serdar & “workshoppers” (this is what Selin calls us)… Thank you for all wonderful times!
KAYAFEST BIG YOUNG HEARTS IN A SMALL TOWN IN TURKEY1 .......................................................................................
Serdar M. Değirmencioğlu
Once there was a small town in southwestern Anatolia, called Livissi. Like many other towns and villages in Anatolia, the local Greek community in Livissi and nearby Makre, and the Turkish community co-existed peacefully for centuries. Even in days of war, there was no hostility or conflict in this area. Then came a decree: Local Greeks were to pack and leave in three days. This was 80 years ago. Two governments decided that nation states were not supposed to be ethnically mixed and it was an acceptable idea to exchange the unwanted ethnic populations, and signed the infamous Population Exchange Treaty. No one asked the locals – Greek or Turkish – their opinion: The “Others” had to leave. The Greeks left in agony words cannot describe – the official who had to announce the decree to the Greeks cried as he was reading. Years later, a handful of young people, members of AEGEE-Ankara (AEGEE is a Pan-European student association) visited this ghost town, now known as Kayaköy (“rock village” in Turkish after stone houses of Livissi) and decided to turn this village into a setting for a festival of peace and friendship. And so they did about 10 days ago, on July 28 through August 3. With funding from the European Commission, they brought together young people (more than 300 from Greece, many more from all over Turkey), members of NGOs, folk This article was published in several professional psychology newsletters and bulletins, and distributed widely in online groups formed by peace activists. It was translated into Greek by a psychologist from Greece and published later in a provincial newspaper. More recently the piece was translated into Catalan by a psychologist from Spain and published in a professional bulletin for psychologists. 1
Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de L’Europe
KayaFest Youth and Culture Festival
91