The Turkish Olympiads continue in earnest with a cultural festival in Ankara. Among the 1,000 students in attendance from across the world are teenagers from the countries where the Arab Spring is taking place. As they enjoy a unique opportunity in a faraway land, their minds are not far from their countries.
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| Students are enjoying the Turkish Olympiads faraway from their homeland. |
She is accompanied by her classmate, Ayah Al-Arashi,15, in her endeavor. Arashi also takes part at the event but she does not compete; she sings as part of the performances during the Olympiads. She shares the feelings of her friend. “It is dangerous. People are on the streets with weapons, knives ...”
Fridays are difficult for residents of the Yemeni capital Sana as the demonstrators hit the streets on Fridays. Araşi is happy to be in Turkey for the Olympiads, which she calls a “brilliant idea.” “A really nice idea. Everybody is given the chance to learn about other countries. I made friends from other places here,” she says.
The Turkish school in Sana is the only international school whose staff has not left the country after violent protests started. The Turkish teachers and managers of the Turkish schools in Egypt were similarly the only ones to stay in the country as pro-democracy demonstrations were under way.
Sana Khaled Al-Sayed is among the group of Egyptian students who arrived to Turkey to take part in the Turkish Olympiads.
She studies at a Turkish school, named Selahattin Türk, in Cairo. “The protests were huge; we were scared. We love our country. We want it to be democratic,” she says in good Turkish. Before the Arab Spring, 14-year-old Sayed says, Egyptian people were repressed by the authorities. The Egyptians could no longer live under pressure and they united and filled the squares, she explains. The Turkish Olympiads kicked off on Thursday with a glorious ceremony in İstanbul. The event is a great opportunity for thousands of students across the world to convene and get to know each other. One thousand students, accompanied by hundreds of teachers, are in Ankara for the cultural festival. Everybody is in high spirits and enjoying themselves during this valuable experience.
A group of girls from Turkmenistan’s Balkanabat Türkmen Turkish High School are cheerful as they wait for a practice session. They can all speak Russian and English in addition to the Turkmen language and Turkish. One of them, Jenner Nalan Basher, is the daughter of a Turkish father and a Turkmen mother. Her father helped found Turkish schools in Turkmenistan. She wants to study at Fatih University. All the girls in the group are devoted fans of Turkish television shows, which they point to as the reason behind their almost-perfect Turkish accent.
Dövlet Hudayberdiyev, also from Turkmenistan, is taking part in the poetry competition and his favorite Turkish singers are Muazzez Ersoy and İbrahim Tatlıses. He speaks perfect Turkish as he has been practicing the language since primary school.
Noubisi Akpuru, 14, is in Ankara for the song competition. He loves Turkey and plans to live in Turkey in the future.
He visited Turkey two years ago on a school trip. “My favorite city is Antalya,” he says. Noubisi is happy to be part of the Olympiads. Two students who arrived from Lebanon, Nour al-Yaman and Mohammad Danhdashli, are among the participants of the event who do not study at a Turkish school. Turkish is an elective course in their school. They say that the event is excellent and everything is going smoothly.
Published on Today's Zaman, 17 June 2011, Friday
