Türkiye Day in PDX
Check out the ABC interview and the full photo gallery here
Portlanders visited “Türkiye” in Portland!
City of Portland, Office of Community and Civic life has hosted Welcoming Week since 2021, to build strong community support for immigrants and refugees through art and performances. Thanks to the efforts of Guluzar Kara, president of Oregon Turkish American Association (ORTA), and her whole executive committee, Türkiye participated in this event for the first time, and it was a great success. Welcoming Week Events closed on September 22nd, with a celebration of “Türkiye Day in PDX”. Once again, ORTA went above and beyond to bring our community together by celebrating Turkish history, art, music and dances to present Turkish hospitality and culture to the city of Portland. With the help of devoted volunteers, this celebration showcased Turkish culture through art, live dances, instrumental music performances, workshops and other Turkish traditions.
ORTA invited Atatürk Kültür Merkezi (AKM)-Yadigar (memento) Exhibit who traveled all the way from Los Angeles to showcase the Anatolian handcrafts and textiles and many more. In addition to the exquisite collection of artifacts, relics, and other timeless pieces from Yadigar, our own ORTA members and supporters, Alev Kocaoglu, Sermin Oztaskin, Sule Kirkewoog, Nurgul Dogan, Oya Kara, Nedim Korkmaz lent beautiful pieces to the display. Every piece brought the essence of Türkiye’s villages, filled with memories. AKM pleased the audience facilitating hands-on workshops of beautiful paper marbling Ebru and traditional Wood Stamping. Everyone took home a piece of art and history, made on the spot and following ancient tradition
Once again, ORTA partnered with Anadolu Turkish Folk Dancers from the Turkish American Cultural Association of Washington (TACAWA), who drove from Seattle to perform several delightful shows with live music and folkloric dances. Visitors enjoyed performances from many regions of Türkiye, all presented in traditional attire adding colors to the day. Live music was also a display of traditional Turkish instruments: ud, ney, davul, tef and kanun.
Collaboration and partnership with these two institutions is an example of the strides ORTA is making to reach out beyond our immediate community to learn, develop and grow.
In our continuous efforts to promote and highlight our members, Idil Karauzum Duran and Oya Kara had a spotlight promoting their business and beautiful jewelry. Idil’s daughter Mila, made an impact decorating guests’ hands with stylish henna designs and long-time member Sebnem Ozturk displayed beautiful pestemals that guests were able to experience and buy.
Sebnem also raised money for ORTA selling other decoration items and she graciously donated 3 pestemals to be raffled among Instagram posts. You still have time to tag photos or videos from the event @orta_pdx, #TurkiyeDayinPDX, and #orta_pdx before September 30 for a chance to win!
The air was filled with the unmistakable aromas of Turkish coffee and Turkish tea which were accompanied by Turkish delights and of course, traditional pistachio baklava. Thanks to Smyrna Market who brought these delicious desserts fresh from Türkiye. This booth was the most visited all afternoon where our wonderful volunteers Gozde Dermanel, Yasemin Douglas and Feruza Canturk, charmed guests wearing traditional Anatolian dresses. Some lucky guests even had the opportunity to sit with Gozde and hear their fortune interpreted through their coffee grounds.
Our own tavla master Riza Temir, was in the house orchestrating informal workshops of our favorite table game backgammon (tavla). Guests that were new to the game learned how to navigate the board and also learned the Turkish camaraderie.
While some of our volunteers were on the spotlight staffing booths and answering questions, many others helped us ensure that things ran smoothly. Nesteren Demirdag helped Yadigar wood stamp workshop, Maya Dietrich and her schoolmate Vanessa welcomed visitors all afternoon at the front desk, and literally ran to unlock the doors every time a guest came. The entry hallway was filled with a display exhibit of the foundation of Turkish Republic and Atatürk’s reforms arranged by Ali Baran Baykal, who later tested guest’s knowledge with a trivia question and handed free gifts to visitors. Ayla Tezcan, Gungor Makar, Emre Bektas,Murat Kucuk, Burak Baykal, and Ozcan Ertem helped us with the hard work of setting up and tearing down all displays.
The cherry on top was the interview that Madam President Guluzar Kara gave to KATU News (ABC channel 2) sharing some highlights of the event. It is not frequent to hear Ataturk’s name in the local news and she made it possible! (Check out the video)
This event would not have been possible without the partnership with the City of Portland Office of Community & Civic Life represented by Wafa Almaktari who gave ORTA an official “City Partner” status and access to the event, provided funding, reserved the venue and provided tremendous amount of support to make this a free event and open to the general public.
It was uplifting to see our Turkish-American community getting together to show our culture and heartening to see how it was received by guests, many of them exposed to Türkiye for the first time.
"We dreamed about it , we believed in it and we made it real! ‘
ORTA Executive committee members; Zeynep, Basak, Yusuf, Jaime, Claire, Guluzar.