On Tuesday, Oct. 22, the campus community had the opportunity to eat a Turkish dinner and watch a Turkish movie. The Office of Global Engagement and the Turkish Student Association organized the event, which started with dinner in Fountain Dining Hall, followed by the movie “Ayla: The Daughter of War” in the Witherspoon Student Center Campus Cinema. The purpose of this event was to allow people to experience and learn about Turkey and its culture. 

Dinner at Fountain started at 4:30 p.m. and featured many dishes from Turkey, including bulgur pilaf, Turkish chicken kebabs, Turkish shepherd’s salad, orzo salad, Turkish stuffed peppers, a variety of hummus and more. Among the diners’ favorites were the chicken kebabs and the different types of hummus.

The Turkish Student Association had a table set up at the entrance of Fountain Dining Hall to inform diners about Turkey. Asya Atik, president of the Turkish Student Association and a Ph.D. student in operations research, was at the Turkish information table and discussed what the goal of the group was.

 “We want to make people know about Turkey,” Atik said. “We always said that Turkish food is great, but they never had a chance to taste them, so we actually make them have the opportunity to taste Turkish food.”

After the dinner at Fountain, the event continued at the Witherspoon Student Center Campus Cinema for the showing of “Ayla: The Daughter of War,”which was a part of the Global Film Series. “Ayla: The Daughter of War” is a movie that takes place around the time of the Korean War. The movie follows a unit of Turkish soldiers that found an orphaned Korean girl, who they took in and cared for. Later in the movie, it shows their attempt to find her again after they are forced to return home to Turkey. Daniel Haller Jr., a second-year in chemical engineering, had the opportunity to study abroad in South Korea and said that the movie “really personalized it … and changed the way I think about [the Korean War].”

Lizzie Dunsmore, a second-year inter-college transfer student, spoke about how much she learned from the movie.

“I didn’t even know Turkey fought in the Korean War; that’s not something that’s really taught in the U.S. history class,” Dunsmore said.

The Global Film Series has one film left which will be shown on Nov. 19 in the Witherspoon Student Center Campus Cinema.

For more information on the Turkish Student Association, visit their Get Involved page at https://getinvolved.ncsu.edu/organization/tsa.