Some Old Thoughts from Turkish-Greek Youth Work Practice

Youth Work Can Make a Change!

I had managed my first youth exchange with Aegean University of Greece in 2000. It was organized in the name of the Industrial Engineering Students Society in Dokuz Eylul University. As the first action we hosted 35 young people in Izmir and then we visited Chios, Samos and Mytilene with more than 20 participants. It was great times… Even we had named our projects in such an idealistic way; “In the name of peace”… That was the hot times, as there were some stupid conflicts between Turkey and Greece in those years such as Kardak conflict.

I was quite concerned with idea of “peace”, as that summer AEGEE organized “Peace Summit” Youth Forum in August 2000 in Kusadasi. Unfortunately I still regret that I did not have the opportunity to attend this course on conflict resolution and peace, as I was having a summer course in university that year. I have witnessed the effects of this project more on official level. The project helped the international community to realize the importance of bilateral and multilateral activities in conflict resolution and future peace building. As one of the results, EU opened an open call for Turkish-Greek projects.

By 2003 it was the time for the unique project “Turkish-Greek Civic Dialogue”… Young people from the both sides come together to celebrate the same culture, the same habits, the same gestures, the same traditions…

I still remember the night by the fireplace in the tent area of “KayaFest” in August 2003 in detail. I was teaching “zeybek” dance to my friends from the other side of the Aegean. In a moment they realized that it is indeed quite the same dance that they know! More and more people joined our circle around the fire… What a celebration it was… To see the friendly eyes of the people from the other side of Aegean Sea is always fascinating, especially when they are eager to share a future of peace and friendship together.

What is the outcome of international youth work?

I think the real outcome of international youth work is constructing those social bonds between the people... Young people get to know “the other”. Social bonds create empathy. People try to understand other values, traditions, concerns and feelings.

Young people start making friends and networking. Young people try to understand each other. Young people get inspirations for new questions and they question the truth which is told to them. They start to understand that there is no pure reality. By the time young people’s minds and lives change one by one… Friendship and peace happen…

Of course I am not optimistic all the time. I know that I am not very realistic at all. It is not going to be same effect neither for everyone nor every time.

The big brothers need conflicts… to let some groups to earn economical and/or political power… and conflicts will happen… but still even the possibility to have them less is quite promising, why not working for that!!?

It is even nice to dream about peace and friendship!!!

~~~~~~
Living a life of my own...
...

*^"#+&*