Live Library, ‘‘Three untold stories from three women, their life back in their homeland, the dangerous journey they have taken, and their thoughts of a new home in Finland’’ event took place at the University of Jyvaskyla, organized in cooperation with the UN Youth of Finland as a part of the National Youth Peace Week events on 25th September. Tied with these stories, we had the honor to have Dr. Jon Pahl, an award-winning teacher, the author of the book “Fethullah Gulen: A Life of Hizmet” who presented his book and his expertise on the background causes of the growing asylum applications from Turkey.
Related to this event, we have noted down some insights and thoughts among both speakers and participants of the event below.
Feedbacks
Participants:
‘‘First of all, I am really happy to participate in such a program. It was great to share ideas, experiences, and life itself. The stories were mostly heartbreaking and tragic. I noticed that there are still lots of people who do not know anything about the situation in Turkey.
I also noticed that we have to be more in solidarity with the others who believe in peace, human rights, rule of law, etc.
‘‘it is so sad and disturbing that we in Finland do not know anything about these issues in Turkey and the new wave of asylum seekers’’
‘‘As a half Turkish, I am terrified and extremely sad and angry towards the things going on in Turkey and what Hizmet affiliated people have been going through, thank you for being brave and sharing this with us’’
‘‘Of Course, we know that human rights violations are going on in Turkey but we did not know to that extent and particularly towards people who are critics of the regime’’
‘‘As I have been interpreting for one of the speakers and had to hear the story three times ahead, what I got shocked all the time to imagine what babies going through and I think they don’t deserve that”
“I have heard that many people are running to Greece from Turkey taking a dangerous journey these days but I did not know the specifics of it’’
1st speaker:
I really appreciated how the audience listened to us attentively and empathized with what we’ve gone through. I’ve felt really comfortable around them and we even became friends in a really short time.
2nd speaker:
First of all, thank you for being given the opportunity to be in such a program.
I have seen how our journey could actually be told to many people of different nationalities in a short time frame of 10 minutes given the live library format.
We are against all kinds of persecution, but it was very important to be able to bring up the persecution of pregnant women and children to a certain extent.
Once again, I saw that people were not aware of our pain that we thought everyone knew and made ordinary by talking among ourselves. This shows that we should continue to tell everyone about the grievances experienced without saying young or old when our language turns around.
3rd speaker
I’m one of the storytellers in this program. It was really great to be there and the first time to tell my story in front of the people who were supportive.I think that it should be again.”
4th speaker
It was a very important occasion. I realized that I started to perceive the persecution process we had been subjected to for years as if it was “normal”. With the reaction of the audience, I realized that our experiences are not normal at all and there is no point in pretending to be normal. For this reason, we should increase such activities in order to raise awareness. Victims in Turkey constantly ask what we are doing to support them, and this event has been by answer now. Therefore, it was so valuable for me to be a part of this event. Thanks to everyone who contributed. ,
Here is the short memo video from the event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaoRAcHiQYU&feature=youtu.be
