Responders

by Bahar Filiz | Ozyegin University

In recent months, the developments of the COVID-19 pandemic have set the media agenda in Turkish newspapers. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, immigrants had begun moving toward Greek borders to reach Europe. This movement began when the Turkish government decided to remove obstacles along the Greek border on February 29, 2020. The Minister of Internal Affairs, Suleyman Soylu, gave numerical information about the number of refugees who crossed borders: “On the first day 9,062, on the second day 43,068, on the third day 65,127, on the fourth day 10,030, on the fifth day, 5,722 people passed.”

by Mahmut Sami GÜRDAL | Ozyegin University

I am an undergraduate level psychology student at Özyeğin University and am working as Dr. Rottmann’s research assistant on the Respond project. In this blog post, I would like to describe my experience in this process. Over the past few months, I gathered information about Syrians’ experiences in Turkey and how NGOs and government agencies are providing services and support for Syrians. There are a lot of negative stereotypes about Syrians in Turkey, and I know many of these stereotypes as a member of this society. Although…

by Bahar Filiz | Ozyegin University

“When I saw the announcement for the research assistant position with the RESPOND project, I felt both excited and curious. I did not have accurate information about Syrian refugees’ situations in Turkey or the opportunity to communicate with them. I felt that there was probably a considerable amount of misunderstanding between Turkish citizens and Syrian refugees due to a lack of clarification about the Syrian refugees’ position in Turkey. So, becoming research assistant was a chance to broaden my perspective on this topic…”