Iceland’s tiny Turkish community eager to promote culture

Turks have little trouble finding fellow countrymen wherever they travel, and the volcanic island just below the Arctic Ocean is no exception.

Iceland has a Turkish community of around 50 people, who have come together and founded an association to introduce Turkish culture both to their children and Icelanders.

 â€œThe idea was to do something for our children to learn about Turkish culture and traditions,” Çetin Çağlar Çetin, the chairman of the Iceland Turkish Culture Association (Tyrknesk-íslenska menningarfélagið). “A get together for April 23 National Sovereignty and Children’s Day, and we had five kids at that event. In this year’s event, we had more than 25, including local kids.”

Çetin came to the island eight years ago after marrying Ingigerdur Einarsdottir and they have two children, 7-year-old daughter Julia Esma and 5-year-old son Einar Ozan. Marriage is the reason why most of the Turks have moved to Iceland, and raising bicultural, bilingual kids has been a challenge for all.

“We often organize book-reading sessions and read Turkish books to our children to improve their language skills,” said Çetin, who added that there are around 20 children in Iceland who are younger than 10 and have at least one Turkish parent.

“We get together on national holidays and religious holidays to have our children experience the Turkish culture,” said the association chair.

Zeynep Dağdevir Maggason, a local of the Aegean province of İzmir, was happy that the language interaction worked the both ways. Speaking Icelandic is a major challenge for every foreigner on the island.

“My Icelandic is still not very good, but I owe the level of my language to Ada, my 3-year-old daughter,”...