http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=102050

ŞABAN GÃœNDÃœZ & LÃœTFİ AYKURT
ANTALYA

In the 1970s, Turkish citizens were packing their bags and moving to Germany. Now, almost 40 years later, more and more Germans are moving to Turkey.

Elderly Germans seeking a calm, peaceful retirement are moving to the Mediterranean coastline. The current German population in Antalya is 14,000.

Marina and Klaus Eder, a married a couple, are two Germans who reside in Antalya’s Kuzdere town. The difference between them and many other Germans in the region, however, is that they have adopted Turkish culture and the way of living in just about every way. They celebrated the Feast of the Sacrifice and handed out pieces of the meat to their neighbors. Marina wears traditional baggy pants called shalvar and makes börek, a popular pastry.

The Eders have only been in Turkey since March 2004, but they have adopted Turkey’s culture much faster than most people. “We aren’t here temporarily. We are here until the day we die, and after we die we’d like to be buried here,” the couple said.

Marina and Klaus were both butchers in Germany. They first came to Turkey in 1990 as tourists after the fall of the Berlin Wall. They fell in love with Istanbul and began visiting Turkey every three years. They first visited Antalya in 1993 and met many Germans during their vacation. They were inspired to move to Antalya by seeing so many of their countrymen enjoying their retirement there. Immediately after their retirement in 2004, the couple packed their bags and moved to Turkey.

“When we moved to Turkey, we did not want to start a German ghetto so we did not want to live in the German-populated areas. The German population in Alanya is great. But in order to adopt the Turkish culture and tradition we had to find a place outside of this town. We decided to move to a village because we believed we would learn about Turkish culture the best there. If we had decided to live with the Germans, we would, in a sense, have simply moved Germany here. But we came here to live according to Turkey’s culture,” Marina Eder says. “We try to live like any other Turkish family.”

The Eder couple not only sacrificed a lamb during the Feast of the Sacrifice but also fasted during Ramadan. Marina wears just about anything the villagers do in order to become one of them. “The people love me because I really try to be like one of them,” she notes.

The Eder’s most enjoy the Turkish gesture of respect by kissing the hand of the elder. They say: “There is no such thing in our culture. Here, our neighbor’s children come during the holidays and kiss our hand. It is a tradition to put money in the pocket of a young boy leaving for the military. We did the same when one of the boys in our neighborhood was leaving for the military.”

Noting that they were very surprised by how Turks attach great importance to their neighbors, the couple said: “We were very touched by the fact that our neighbors wanted to share everything with us when we first came. We were surprised when they said, ‘We will share everything.’ We were actually skeptical for while about if they really meant it. They knew I really liked pomegranates. They picked a basket of pomegranates from their garden and brought it to me. They placed a note for us on one of the trees that said, ‘This is for you’; they had planted a pomegranate tree for us. Also, when we first came, there was a parrot we loved very much. When it died, 12 people visited us to give their condolences as if a human being had passed away. After that, we understood the importance attached to neighbors. Our neighbors don’t see us like strangers. They see us like one of them.”

The Eder couple, however, do complain about the bureaucracy in Turkey and the expensive living standard. They say: “We came to Turkey in our own car. Since 2004 we have been paying taxes. But now they also want us to pay taxes for the years before 2004. We also encounter such bureaucratic impasses with our residence permit. We’re most disappointed by the increasing price of gas. In 2004 a liter of gas was YTL 1.70, now it is YTL 2.70 YTL. Life in Turkey is expensive.”

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Marina and Klaus Eder, a married a couple, are two Germans who reside in Antalya’s Kuzdere town. They have adopted Turkish culture and the way of living in just about every way. They celebrated the Feast of the Sacrifice and handed out pieces of the meat to their neighbors. The Eders not only sacrificed a lamb during the Feast of the Sacrifice but also fasted during Ramadan.Marina wears traditional baggy pants called shalvar and makes börek, a popular pastry.