My name is Mehmet Ali Dericioglu and I’m 26 years old.
I was born in October 1861 in Alasehir/Manisa.
That’s a small province town near the city Izmir,
about 140 kilometres away.
I was born and raised there and lived there until I turned 16.
It’s where I went to primary and secondary school and partly Gymnasium.
I also have two brothers, that were born there, we grew up together.
At that time, Turkey was going through tough years, the 70s, lots of terrorism.
That’s why I had to go to a police or a military school.
That was the safest school back then.
I took the entrance exams and got through both of them.
Then I decided to go to the military school / Gendamerie.
I studied for four years in Ankara.
Shortly before my studies, 1980, there was a military coup again.
So I had to give up the military school, shortly before graduating.
In August 1980 I moved to Germany.
My first stop was Munich.
From there I had no idea where to go, what to do with myself.
I didn’t speak any German and just very little English.
So then I just jumped on the next train and thought to myself, where this train goes,
I will simply go.
And the train brought me to Cologne.
In Collogne, I got out the train, and then I looked around a bit.
With no German and very little English knowledge.
And then I saw, that there’s a circus in town, circus Roncallli.
The owner was called Paul with a beard, I still remember that well until today
and he took me in his heart and gave me a job.
I was opening and closing the curtains for the artists, and I already worked there for three
or three and a half months and was very very happy, but I thought to myself
that it’s not a job for me.
Then I took the next train, then I went to Hamburg, there I had to
work for three days and go to a German school for two days to learn German.
Eight months afterwards I received the permit to stay and to work in Germany.
Then I was allowed to stay in Hamburg.
I lived in Hamburg for three years, but life in Germany was unfortunately
not really for me.
Then I wanted to go back to Turkey, no matter what.
I came back to Turkey after this.
Then I had to do my military service there as everyone else.
That was in Samsung at the Black Sea, it was a very nice time for me.
In 1985 tourism really took off in Turkey, so I could put my German skills
and a bit of English skills to use somewhere in the tourism branch.
That’s what I did.
Then I went to Kusadasi, I started there, I worked as a waiter, then
I worked at a jewellery shop as a seller and in the end I started to work at a carpet shop
as a carpet seller. In August 1986 I then met my wife,
the mother of my children.
Through selling carpets.
I sold a carpet to my Ex parents in law, and so I met my ex wife
And then we kinda got really close.
Then we decided to get married.
After the wedding, I lived in Germany for some time and my wife
always commuted between Germany and Turkey.
In 1987 I looked around a bit and saw that there was a business gap for a bar.
It was a dream of mine, to open such a bar, that nobody else had.
I rented a huge, four story building from my friend
and already refurbished and renovated everything.
It was called Dusty Bar.
Three years later, in 1989, she said Yea, we have to decide, where we
actually want to live.
So we went to Germany.
And we rented a flat in Munich.
There I applied for a job at Karstadt.
Then for a short time, I don’t know about a year I think, I worked in Karstadt.
1990 I wanted to go back to Turkey again, and I got an opportunity in Antalya in Side.
Tiny place.
To work as a carpet seller.
So then I went back again.
I worked there for a year and a half.
On the first of October, 1992, my son Deniz came to the world.
I couldn’t leave my ex wife in Germany alone, so I stayed for some time.
After eight or nine months, my gut feeling started telling me,
that I have to go back to Turkey and then I looked for a job there
and just escaped to Turkey.
I looked around the pretty spots.
This time was Mamaris the spot.
There I rented a real shop and opened a carpet shop.
It was called Turunc Carpet Gallery. 1995, my second child came to the world.
It was on the second of January 1995, Tamara.
And then my ex wife with two children naturally had to come to Turkey.
They were both still small, still babies.
And that was hard, of course.
Then we found out that my wife is pregnant again, with a third child
that is filming me right now.
With Aylin.
And then, on Easter 96, my ex father in law died.
And I couldn’t leave her alone in such hard times.
Then we decided that I really have to abandon the shop in Turkey
and really stay in Germany.
Aylin came to the world and then an insurance company always called,
to sell insurance for the children, you know.
Then I decided to get that insurance.
Then they asked what I do for a living and so, and if I would want to work
for them as an insurance agent.
So I said yes.
So I started to work for the company as an insurance agent.
I did that for a year and a half.
I was quite successful in that but then again I thought to myself,
that insurance agent is no job for me.
Then I thought again about selling carpets in the Kelims branch.
In 1998 I rented a shop and I opened a wonderful shop.
We refurbished and renovated everything ourselves.
And my kids always came to visit and they really fell in love
with that carpet shop and the shop war very very pretty too.
A sight for Augsburg.
Carpet shops were doing worse and worse then, so I had to think about what
to do as a second job.
Then an acquaintance of mine came to me, who worked as a windows and doors renovator
isolating them with sealings.
He asked me to do some research in the Turkey to find a producer
of these isolating materials.
So that’s what I did.
Through that I made a connection to Turkey again.
Through these isolators, these rubber things that come in between doors and windows.
I led both of these businesses at the same time for about three years.
Then I said to myself,
I can’t do it all.
Carpet shop wasn’t making much money anyways,
so I had to close it in the end.
It hurt me so much to close that shop.
It was called Minerva, in the Bäckergasse number 12, 86150. I still remember the postal code
even today.
My kids were really good friends with the neighbours, for them it was like a home there.
And in 2006 was also my divorce with my ex wife.
These times were not so nice at all for my kids.
Then I started living alone, I lived alone for quite some time.
Then I one day I gathered all three of them, took them out for dinner, and I asked them.
Well I want to go back to Turkey, is that okay with you?
And that I can’t make it in Germany any longer like this.
I just wanted to know the opinions of my kids to this.
They were all very sad of course, but they let me go
and I was so so happy that I could go back.
So then in 2011, I simply got back to Turkey and I rented a small
office and I started to live in Turkey.
And my kids came to visit me every year, always when they could.
There are things that I really really like in Germany and of course also
things that I like about Turkey.
I was alway in between.
Between two cultures.
I actually like both cultures.
In Germany, for example, I really like the cleanliness and the social life,
the people respect each other there.
It can’t be described, how people live here.
There are neighbourhoods, that are very tight-knit here,
or the families stay together forever.
That’s why, at some age I’ve always dreamed about going to Turkey
and building a new life there.
Have a small house with a dog and other pets.
To live in a nice neighbourhood like that.
I managed to get all that after my second marriage and now
I feel better here, but when they ask me, I miss a lot of things from Germany.
from Germany.
The traffic discipline is what I miss.
Here in Turkey we sometimes drive through red lights,
sometimes through yellow and we don’t wait at the lights.
We just go over the crossing and have to be careful of the traffic.
We’re simply not so far as Germany yet.
Very seldom I wonder if I should go back to Germany.
Because the political situation in Turkey isn’t stable at the moment, we’re always fluctuating
and now terrorism is also going strong here.
Terrorism has a big impact, every day 5 to 10 people die in Turkey,
more in the east, but still, it’s kinda disturbing somehow.
We’ve just had a military coup attempt
on the 15th of July.
That made Turkey really unstable.
These were bad times for Turkey.
It’s still not stable.
Who knows what comes tomorrow.
And the economy froze, came to a halt here, no money at all.
Not a single cent is moving right now.
The people are in no mood for shopping.
But here, my life is simple for me, I’d say, it’s very beautiful
because we have the sun shining for almost 8 months here.
We live directly at the promenade and the sea is about 200 meters away,
one can just walk there.
I really like it here and at the moment I’m really
happy here in Turkey.