Meeting Kadir…

Kadir

I have been inspired by many people since arriving here in September but few have impacted me as much as Kadir. We met early on in the year while sitting around a table with a Nargile (water pipe). Kadir immediately talked about his desire to visit the United States and his hesitancy to go to Syria because of visa concerns. This is pretty amazing considering how close Kadir lives to the Syrian border. He lives in the Kurdish areas of Turkey which span into Iraq, Iran and partially Syria and has much to say about his identity as a Kurd and as a citizen of Turkey. I tell Kadir’s story in my Cornell Sun column today (Click Here for article)- specifically in regards to a trip this summer to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

When we sat down to talk we ended up next to (get this!) a native of Alabama playing professional basketball for Turkey’s Besiktas franchise. The guy was waiting for a friend coming from, of course, Israel. When he told us that he played a few years of pro ball in Israel itself I asked is it was for Hapoel Yerushalaim (Jerusalem’s Pro-Team). When he confirmed that was indeed the team, Kadir and I exchanged glances and nodded- yes, we thought, this only gets more interesting as time goes on.

The details of our conversation are in the article- if you read it, great! If not, I hope you get a chance to do so. Your comments and questions are welcome below…