The word ‘Gurbet’ translated means ‘There is no more a place far from home’. ‘Gurbet’ has always been used to define the Turkish people living in Europe and continues to be used to define them today. The word has been used in all aspects in formal to informal settings, from government officials to journalists to poets, to entrepreneur’s and to writers to describe Turks in Europe.
This was the motivation to commence this research in order to highlight the meaning, history and the reason behind ‘Gurbet’, which still retains it’s true and original meaning amongst the Turkish people living across Europe.
The exhibition was a compilation of portrait photographs accompanied by interviews of individual women who were living and working in the UK with the notion of ‘There is no more a place far from home’.
-April, 2014. London.
Semra Eren-Nijhar 