From the italian newspaper “La Municipalita’ ”, June 2008 
 

Democracy and Youth Cultural Exchange between Italy and Turkey 

        The European Community has promoted a cultural exchange project between youngsters coming from Italy and Turkey which goal is to make them dicuss on democracy and youth. Four organisations have joined the project: two from Italy and two from Turkey. The Municipality is part of this program because one of the participant foundations (“Xenia”) is located in Pianura neighbourhood.

The other three foundations are: “Apa” (Associazione Psicologica Applicata) located in Palermo; “Basak” (a foundation that help minors under risks) and “Gun-der” (an organisation of people who are originally from Bingöl), both located in Istanbul. Youngsters with different thoughts had the possibility of meeting and comparing their habits and customs, thanks to this project.

The first meeting took place in Istanbul last May. Eight youngsters from Italy (four from Naples and 4 from Palermo) have been welcomed by the same number of turkish guys. The latters have showed their customs and traditions in order to sensiblize the formers about turkish youngsters’ awareness and maturity on the issue of democracy in Turkey. Particular attention has been reserved to the difficult situation of kurdish ethnicity in the country.

The second part of the exchange will take place in Naples in September. There, turkish youngsters will have the opportunity of knowing our culture and our traditions. Meetings will be settled up with our newspaper’s editorial board too. The ongoing of the project will be the topic of a magazine that will focus on the cultural differences between the two countries. The magazine will be written both in english and turkish. Then it will be sent to the European Union. 

Nunzia Marfella