Gaziantep

I have the opportunity to live and work in Gaziantep during the next year. My boyfriend/fiance is African with locks and I am a whitish American. He is thinking of coming with me. I have three questions?

A) What would be our reception in that community. Some people suck everywhere, of course, but if there is strong negativity against us, would it be verbal? violent? Would it be worth it for him to come? What's the scoop?

B) Is it difficult for a West African to get a 10 month visa to Turkey? I am assuming so.....

C) Is Gaziantep a place you would stay for a year for a very good job?

Thanks for the info

Antep (Gaziantep is the official name) is a small city and it feels a long way from a lot of places. I was only there for two days, but I have lived in Turkey for two years and I think the Turks' reaction to you and him would be curiosity more than anything else. People in Antep all "look" quite the same - there aren't many faces which are physically different from the standard Turk/middle-eastern look. If you have blue eyes they'll probably attract a few curious glances, and a black face will definitely get stared at. Generally, though, it'll be a mixture of genuine hospitality and xeno-ignorance. This will "work out" to the same as being in a place where everyone is too cool to care that you look different.

I gathered that foreigners are a rarity in Antep - I speak some Turkish and I think that every single person I ran into asked a few questions of where I was from, etc. People don't do that so much in places like Bursa and Izmir.

The town is nice-ish but I didn't think it seemed interesting. I got the impression that families, not friends, were the core of social circles. And the town seemed to quieten down quite a lot as it grew dark - it seemed a place where you go with friends to tea shops (and baklava shops!) rather than restaurants or pubs.

I would stay in Antep for a year for a good job, but only if I had a life of my own. The town might provide you with friends etc. but I would assume not - it could happen that you don't meet any English-speaking people whom you like.

Antep is good for travel-to-nearby. Look up the websites of AtlasJet, Pegasus Airlines, and Onur air - these are all the local Turkish cheap airlines, and they can get you to cities for weekend breaks quite easily when you have an extra few days to see bigger places further away. The coast is also pretty, and it's about four hours by bus.

The countryside around Antep struck me as being a good spot for horseback riding or biking, less so for hiking.

Syria is fascinating and beautiful and you'd be well advised to spend several weekends there. But getting Syrian visas can be a headache. If you take the job, make sure you get a visa before you leave home, or that you get a residence permit in Turkey so that you can apply locally for a Syrian visa.

I would strongly recommend that you arrive in Antep with projects in mind. If you show up there determined that you are going to complete two online courses, learn to ride a horse, learn Turkish, play your clarinet every night, and visit (several) nearby towns, a year could be very pleasant. But don't show up expecting Antep to offer you a life. It might - but assume not.

Turks are quite curious about the outside world. I met a guy from Paraguay in Istanbul who carries a few credit-card size photos and a map in his wallet, to show to people who asked him questions. He says that he has always had a super-positive reaction to this.

Two websites which could help you are mymerhaba and expatinturkey

There is no 10-month visa unless your employer worked it out with the Turks in advance.

I've been to Antep several times, and I think No. 1 must be working for the Antep Chamber of Commerce! You can see all there is to see and do in Antep in just a few days.

A million people is a small city! I guess everything is relative. I frequently hear how huge Turkey is but its less than half the size of the state I live in

I would like to inform you that a few weeks ago I was at ILS in Gaziantep as a foreign language teacher. I INSIST ON ISSUING A WARNING AGAINST GOING TO ILS IN GAZIANTEP. It turns out to be a major scam. The director of the school has sent already many foreign language teachers on the run with his very bad behaviour. Also, he refuses to pay the money he had promised to the teachers, like travel expenses and pocket money. Furthermore, the director turns out to be single on arrival and happens to be living in the same flat as the foreign language teachers (although this was announced otherwise). He is making life impossible for all employees, both foreign and Turkish, both at school and in the flat. He dismisses Turkish staff according to his whims, but also many times it is them who decide to take leave. As for the foreign language teachers, many of them have fled after just a couple of days or weeks. There is only one person now that is staying on for a longer period because, "she needs the experience for her cv", but this person absolutes loathes working and living with the director because "he has been treating very very badly".
The director is not at all interested in the process of language teaching, but only wants to make money. Even though he has received substantial amounts of money from 3rd world development institutes, he has wealthy students only that have to pay a lot of money for the classes. Foreign language teachers most of the times only very very few students and classes and not all of them know what to do with their free time. The director of the school therefore suggests "cooking spicy food" for him, "ironing" for him and dress in sexy clothes. On the other hand, he has also dismissed an Australian teacher for "too sexy dress". On top of all his misbehaviour he refuses to pay agreed sums of money like pocket money, etc.

I wished to bring these facts under your attention so that no other people need to arrive here without prior knowledge of all these facts.

P.S. The Turkish director of ILS dislikes black people.

Maria Lopez -

If everything is as you say, you'll be doing a major service to teachers by naming and shaming this school. It would also raise the issue of hime getting money from development charities - if he's scamming for this money, he should obviously be stopped. What does "ILS" stand for and what's the name of the director? (Schools in turkey often get re-named).

You brought up an interesting point, though - that of photos (for job interviews) and racism. If a teacher is afraid she'll/hel'll run into racism in a school, it is very easy to find out. Simply do as Turks do - send a photo of yourself (doctored to look more black/asian/hispanic/whatever, if need be) and if the school suddenly withdraws its offer - well, you'll know it would have been a rotten place to work anyhow.

Hello,
I'm italian and I'm living in Antep from 2 months. I just wanna say that unfortunally I've just met that director. A friend (met on facebook) gave me the number of the director, telling he could help me to get a job as teacher. So I called him and he firstly gave me a date in the evening. But I went there with my boyfriend, that is turkish from another part of Turkey. Maybe because his presence, the behawior of director was normal, but over the time I looked many things I didn't like about him. One example: he promised me to make me teach in his institute, but in 2 months that stays only words... and one time he illused me by bringing me to University telling that we had a date with somebody to arrange an italian course there, but in reality he was just promoting his institute (that it's almost going to be closed, I suppose) using myself to demonstrate that he has mothertongue teachers and just to have a reason to speak english (I don't know turkish) in front of employeed at Univeristy to show how he is good in english...... I mean, all that things are not so much bad, but after I've red your negative posts about him I've realized who he is and I decide to stop any contact with him. So thank you.

Gaziantep is a really big city in turkey yes there is some problem with cultural actividades but there is perfecet kitchen cusine in here.

http://www.gaziantepharitasi.com i prefer to visit these places that site in turkish but the topics gives you some ideas..