turkish-greek civic dialogue - AEGEE Europe

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to our minds to realise this event. When I look at your faces from here this side
I am really convinced that we made the good choice. There is also one lady that
brought this project into life, this project would be impossible without her.
Miss Burcu Becermen! I would like to thank her and her project team supported
by Greek and Turkish AEGEE locals.”
.......................................................................................................... Burcu Becermen
Turkish-Greek Civic Dialogue P.Manager
Kalispera, good evening, iyi akşamlar.
Well, I don’t know where to start actually. BUT I HAD A DREAM.
Thanks to AEGEE, we came together with Greek friends. We realised how
beautiful things we can create together. And I don’t know how, but somehow
two years ago, we discovered a magnificent village. It was called Karmylassos,
it was called Levissi, and it was called Kayaköy. And from the very moment that
we saw this village, we fell in love with it.
And it was somehow this youth synergy that convinced us to make an
organisation here just to bring young people of the two countries together
within the framework of culture and peace. I hope this is just a beginning and
one day we can really turn Kayaköy into a great art and culture center.
Now actually I don’t have anything more to say. The only thing is that it was
my dream to have you here altogether. And I would like to thank you very much
for every single person who shared this dream and made it come true.
................................................................................................................. Cengiz Aksoy
Subgovernor of Fethiye
“I want to thank you all the young organisers of this Festival for their choice of
our village Kayaköy as a venue for this friendship festival.”
..................................................................................... Let All Dreams Come True!
Atilla KARADENİZ, Festival Coordinator
“We had a dream” we cried out as we started…
What was indeed the dream? The friendship of
Turks and Greeks? Dancing with each other side
by side? Listening to the words “This sea doesn’t
separate us, in contrary it brings us closer, it
binds us”? Paying frequent visit to the other side
of the sea in every single opportunity we had?
Well, were all those ideas dreams? Or not?
Yes, maybe we turned the truth into unattainable
dreams, we closed our eyes, and we dreamt of
those things; however the real dream for us is
to open up our eyes and have a look around. We
opened our eyes in Kayaköy at the KayaFest we
have seen our friends and the common culture
that brought us closer by the waves of the sea.
Then two tears dropped. One was the tear of the sorrow of realising the truth
very late, and the second one was the tear of ease and peace of knowing the
truth. The first one dropped on the land, as a first touch of water on cultivated
seeds. The latter on our palms. So that we could show everyone. We could take
everywhere.
For sure, there were many other emotions evoked. Some of the emotions were
written in the hearts with love and friendship, some others on paper with
addresses and with the hope to meet each other again. We tried to squeeze
friendships into the snapshot frames, and we promised to keep them forever.
Finally the festival was over, even though it seemed as if it would never end.
We said, “We had a dream” as we started. It came true in the end. Let all
dreams come true…
On behalf of the KayaFest Organisation Team
KayaFest Youth and Culture Festival Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de L’Europe