Turkish children living in London met at the Karagöz Hacivat play on April 23, National Sovereignty and Children’s Day.
According to the families who attended the event organized by Yunus Emre Cultural Center, this was a great opportunity for their children to learn about their roots.
The Mert family said they were very happy to find the Karagöz Hacivat game while researching a special event for their daughter Nehir for April 23.
Father Ali Can Mert said, “It’s been two years since I came from Turkey, but it’s not enough to show our daughter the values of her own culture only on YouTube.”
“I felt like I was in Turkey while watching it,” said Nehir, a primary school student in England.
Ada Burke, who is behind the scenes of the show, stated that she lives in England and has been playing the shadow play in English in England’s schools since 2018, besides Turkish.
Burke, who said that he got very good reactions from the English students, said that he went to Bursa to learn the Karagöz Hacivat performances and took lessons from the masters.
Nurcan Aktaş, who brought her two daughters to the show, stated that she often took her children to the theater in England, and now she brought them to the play Karagöz Hacivat to learn the roots of Turkish theater. Aktaş also stated that it gives him great pleasure to see this game, which his daughters can only watch on YouTube, live this time.
Eylem Certel said that she and her two sons came to the Karagöz Hacivat event at home after watching the wreath-laying event of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality on the Taksim monument live. Certel stated that they always speak Turkish at home so that her children do not forget, and said, “I want them to understand and know that April 23 is the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day”.
The youngest daughter of the Mert family, Nehir, complained that she stayed away from such shows because she was studying in England.
It was the common concern of all families who came to the show that their children, who were educated in English, could spend time in Turkish on this occasion.