Swedish Turks from Kulu, Konya

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 24 August 2018)

swedish meatballs are Turkish! recent NYT article.


                Deep in the heart of Konya

Over the years Konya's Kulu district has become well known for
giving its sons and daughters to Sweden. And while there are 49,000
people living in Kulu now, there are 50,000 who have settled in
Sweden, most of whom have dual citizenship.  Most of those from
Kulu in Sweden live in Stockholm and Göteborg.

For the Swedish elections to be held on 9 September, the honorary
consulate in Kulu has set up voting stations for those in Turkey
for vacation. In Kulu, as well, there is a restaurant and a park named
after former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.


Not such strange bedfellows, after all.


Kulu Mayor Ahmet Yıldız explained that "Sweden has been very
good for us economically but our youth have gone. We migrated
to Sweden but longed for home here."  Mehmet Akalın, who went
to settle in Sweden 11 years ago said that "Living there is nice.
There are human rights (!) and everyone has equal rights.  There
are people from Kulu all over Stockholm and economically
they're all better off than they would be here."

High school student Elenor Özcan remarked that "I was born
and raised in Sweden and come here in the summer. School
is better there than here.  I want to live my life there. I'm not
thinking at all about coming back here." (!)


Kulu district is in Konya's north, south of Ankara.