Forced to flee from North Africa due to political unrest in her home country (Turkey), Demit and her family have found assylum in Calgary, where she works as an interpreter and seeks to have her teaching credentials validated.
Demit shares about the universal human values and the call to self-sacrifice that led her to teaching positions in Mongolia, India, and Tunisia and the love and community that continues to compel her to be of service to others.
In the summer of 2016 an attempted coup, whose origins are shrouded in mystery and suspicion, enabled the Turkish government to charge the peace-making and service-oriented Hizmet movement with terrorist activity. The government then began a systematic expulsion and jailing of all people affiliated with Hizmet, including news reporters, teachers, doctors, and emergency responders.
Numerical statistics about Turkey's post-coup crackdown can be found by clicking here.
Read background about the coup and the Gulen movement by clicking here.
Listen to a CBC podcast about the situation in Turkey by clicking here.
