Life at the Syrian Border in KILIS 🇹🇷 VLOG

00:16 - Kilis is located in the south of Turkey on the Syrian border.

00:21 - I went there to find out more about the history of Kilis, to taste its food and to find out more how the people live together.

00:33 - I’m here in Kilis with my good friend Jemil! Hi, guys! And together we will explore Kilis in 24 hours.

00:41 - So what are we going to do first? Yes. Breakfast.

00:45 - Yes, breakfast. Let’s do it. This is the breakfast. It looks so good.

00:55 - It’s like the biggest breakfast I ever had.

00:58 - I can’t wait to start. How does the breakfast look like? It’s very good. Our famous breakfast of Kilis.

01:09 - Ok, we just ordered a Turkish coffee. Looks like this with a traditional flame of Kilis.

01:16 - Mhmmm hmmm wow this is good coffee While enjoying breakfast and coffee, I noticed a painting above our heads.

01:27 - It showed a hole in the roof dating back to 01. 02. 2018, which remembers one of the many rocket attacks from Syria.

01:36 - Unfortunately, the ongoing war and terrorist attacks also affect this small province and places like this restaurant.

01:44 - So something that you will definitely find in Kilis is a lot of history.

01:50 - This house, for example, it’s over 200 years old and people used to live here.

01:55 - After they moved, This became a restaurant.

01:58 - People also come here to smoke Nargile, for example, and of course, to drink chai.

02:07 - Is it interesting for you to watch construction? Yes Yes, you like it? Yes Kilis is well known for being a meeting point of different cultures and traditions, But it’s also a place where you can find the best quality and colorful bed coverings of the country.

02:24 - I’m here in Kilis at the most famous shop for producing quilt.

02:29 - I’m going to meet Aziz now, who is a real professional in his field.

02:39 - Merhaba Merhaba hos geldiniz, buyrun.

02:42 - Hos Bulduk. Ne yapiyorsunuz burada? Burada biz yorgan dikiyoruz Yorgan Üst?? Yorgan Sana dikmek ister misin? Evet Ya gel buraya bakim hadi Ben yapabilir miyim? yapabilirsin ??? It’s my first time.

02:58 - Seyler, seyler, seyler. ??? Bu? Seyler tut, seyler.

03:05 - Napiyorum simdi? Bu gibi? Seyler tut, seyler. Seyler tut.

03:10 - Ve bu ne? Seyler tut, seyler. Seyler tut. ??? Yüksek lan??? Ne icin? OK, so to be honest, I don’t really know what I’m doing here.

03:17 - Tamam tamam I will just do something.

03:20 - Bu gibi? Tamam iste ?? Good? Tamam iste ?? It’s not as easy as it looks like.

03:26 - But I think I’m doing a great job. Güzel mi? Tamam, iyi yeter.

03:30 - Ok Ne zaman bu ögrendiniz? 2 saat buldu.

03:37 - Yok. Ne zaman. Kac yil. 50 yil. 50 yil.

03:43 - Wow. 50 yil, tabii tabii. So Aziz is here since 50 years and he’s transforming these fabrics into something beautiful.

03:53 - Cok güzel bunun gibi. Aynen, aynen tabii.

03:57 - Ya nasil yapiyorum? Tamam ??? Bu iyi mi? Tamam iyi.

04:04 - Ya gercekten ögrenmek istiyorum. Tamam iyi simdi ?? I don’t know how this can be good.

04:12 - I think they’re just trying to be nice to me.

04:21 - Mashallah mashallah. Mashallah Aynen ?? Ya bilmedim.

04:28 - Evet, tabii tabii tabii. Surada önce tam ??… . Bu tarafa gel. ?? ?? Ama söyle pamuk öyle yorgan ne tarafa… lazim, tamam?.

04:45 - So this kind of cover is especially for the wedding night.

04:49 - So this is a very special blanket. I surely didn’t become the best quiltmaker after today, but I hope that this tradition of making quilt will live on for many more generations.

05:01 - So Kilis has lots of history. You can find very old buildings, Some of them are over 200 years old.

05:09 - This is the old street. The history of Kilis is believed to date back to 3000 B. C. And while strolling around in the old town we found a really good place for lunch.

05:21 - Merhaba, nasilsiniz? Teşekkür ederim, Hosgeldin.

05:26 - Hosbulduk. Burada ne var? Burasi Tavaci Kilis Tava.

05:30 - Meshur… ?? Kilis Tava. Bu ne? Kilis Tava.

05:34 - bu ne? Kilis Tava Ama bu ne? Ya nasil bu ne? Ne dedi yani sey Kilis Tava ?? Icerisinde yesil biber var. Kirmizi biber var. Cok az ?? ama. Baharat olarak. Tuz ver, kara biber kullaniyoruz.

05:52 - ?? Gecidikten sonra, ?? bunu Sonra ?? Tepsi patlıcan?? Patlican ?? Sonra ?? Evet Look at this plate.

06:11 - Bu acisiz. Wow. Cok iyi, cok güzel Afiyet olsun.

06:16 - Afiyet olsun. Hehe sagol. So this is the Kilis Tabagi. Tabagi? Tavagi? Tava.

06:24 - Tava?. Tava. Ya tabagi yanlis söyledim. Ya off.

06:30 - This is the most famous place here in Kilis.

06:32 - It’s called Tavaci Izzet Usta. And we’re going to try this now.

06:38 - Looks very delicious. Kilis is a small and nice city.

06:43 - Afiyet olsun. You try. Afiyet olsun.

06:51 - With your hands. Oh, my God. It’s really good.

06:58 - It’s really good. It’s a bit spicey. Yeah Wow but it’s really good, oh my god.

07:09 - Kebab gibi. I’m going to drive your car now.

07:17 - Yes. Are you afraid? No hehehehehe you should be hehe Am I too fast? Yeah, maybe.

07:36 - Çok yavaş Slowly slowly, slowly.

07:41 - You think I can drive Tofas? Yes Yes right? Yes yes.

07:48 - If I can drive this car, I can drive Tofas.

08:09 - On our small road trip through Kilis, we had 2 goals: 1. Not to get lost and 2. to find a historical place.

08:15 - We are now at Ravanda Castle which is the most important historical site here in Kilis.

08:20 - The crazy thing about this place is that there was no archaeological team yet that made any efforts here.

08:27 - So nobody really knows what time this castle was built, what kind of people lived here and so on.

08:33 - If you are an archaeologist and you want to find out something cool, then come here.

08:41 - And you might find something. It’s on top of a mountain.

08:44 - To get here it took us 30 minutes. It was very easy to come here. The roads are very good.

08:51 - Nobody really knows, but they think that this castle was built in the 11th century and it was probably used by hittites.

09:01 - Hititties. Hatitties. Hittites. Hittites.

09:05 - It’s a 5-easy-minute-walk. Do you know what that is? This is the ware house.

09:12 - Yes. Old antique ware house. They put their water And food. Food.

09:19 - Yes. Entrance of the ware house is this side.

09:24 - Let’s go inside. Come, hadi gel. Don’t worry.

09:31 - I don’t think it’s so safe This is the ware house.

09:42 - vaybe It just looks beautiful. I hope one day archaeologists come here and discover this place a little bit more.

09:55 - I’m sure it has lots of hidden secrets. This tree is another highlight in Kilis this tree is so old, it says it’s over 300 years old and I don’t know the story Harika.

10:57 - When you look at the map of Turkey, you will notice that it does not only share its borders with Syria, but that it’s also the longest border with a length of 909 km Which is longer than Germany from the south all the way to the north.

11:13 - There has been a war going on in Syria for over 10 years, resulting Syrians to flee their country and search for a new home.

11:20 - For many of them this home is Turkey. There is no country in the whole world that hosts more refugees than Turkey does.

11:28 - And Kilis at the border even accepted more refugees than local residents are living there.

11:34 - So how does that work? How does life in such a small province change for the residents? I was born in Kilis and also I like Kilis because it’s a small, quiet city and I think the Syrian people come here.

11:52 - And there is a different culture in Kilis. I think we should help them because they are inside a war.

12:06 - I think we should help them. So many things changed. Two different cultures had to adapt to each other and started to transition into one With so many Syrians in Kilis, of course, we have to check out a Syrian restaurant.

12:26 - Many Syrians are doing business in Turkey and open restaurants, for example.

12:31 - Altayeb Lokantasi is one of the best Syrian restaurants in Kilis and they had quite a big menu.

12:37 - So we ended up getting some hummus and chicken.

12:40 - Are you excited? Hello guys. We’re going to have our Syrian dinner now. We ordered some hummus And chicken Falafel Falafel. I think it’s good.

12:58 - So this is the falafel. Syrian falafel, and we also have the hummus Looks like This.

13:06 - Cok güzel, cok güzel. It’s really good It has a special flavor.

13:46 - OK, so we are about to eat some katmer now.

13:50 - We are going to a famous katmerci place Hoş geldiniz Hoş bulduk Hoş geldiniz So this is a katmerci.

13:58 - And he’s making come katmer for us now, dimi?.

14:00 - Nasil? ??? Kilis’in … ?? Siz nerelisiniz? Kilis.

14:10 - Ah güzel. Kilis’teyiz. Siz mi? Evet. Burasi güzel. . ?? Cok güzel yapiyorsunuz Afiyet olsun Kaymak???… .

14:29 - Siz nerelisiniz? Memleket? Almanya’liyim ama Istanbul’da yasiyorum.

14:34 - Kilis insanlari nasil? Cok güzel. Kilis cok güzel. Türkiye’nin en güzel burasi. Kilis.

14:42 - Gercekten? Tabii. Bu Kilis tatli ol???. Antep fistigi bu.

14:57 - We are trying the katmer now, I’ve never eaten in my life There are so many first things I’m trying here in Kilis.

15:04 - Mhhh wow. Good. Cok iyi. It’s not too sweet, it’s really good.

15:19 - Wow. This is my favorite dessert now, really It’s so, good, it’s good. Cok lezettli, tamam.

15:35 - Tesekkürler. Güle güle, iyi günler. So we are now at the bazaar of Kilis, what’s the name of this bazaar? Kuyumcular Carcisi.

15:46 - Ahh Kuyuncular Tarcisi. Yes this is the bazaar and you can find everything here.

16:01 - Merhaba, bir sey sorabilir miyim? Nasilsin? Iyiyiz.

16:06 - Bir tane alabilir miyim? Ne kadar? Ikramsiz Hayir Ketcup, mayonez? Yok. ??? ?? Lütfen. Yok ya.

16:22 - Olmaz. Olmaz. Something I noticed in Kilis: They don’t like to accept money.

16:41 - There are so many things here. Oh, it’s quite a big bazaar so we are now at the old part of the bazaar.

16:49 - It’s the Kapali Bazaari. Pazari. So let’s see who we can meet here.

16:54 - Merhaba, bir sey sorabilir miyim? Nasilsiniz? Iyi çok sükür Kilis hakkinda anlatabilir misiniz? Ne sekilde? Ne var burada? Yani Kilis degil benim memleket ama iste işsizlik var yani ??? Yoksa Kilis güzel ama işsizlik var. Insanlari iyi. Tesekkürler.

17:22 - There are also, Syrians and Turkish people on this bazaar together. They’re selling at the same place.

17:29 - Burada ne var? Kabar. . ??? Kabar. . ??? Wow, cok büyük.

17:38 - On böyle?? Nasil daha saglik yasabilirim? ??. Bu cok güzel yemegi güzel??? People share their jobs, their houses and their social spaces like sport facilities, places at the bazaar or educational institutions.

17:58 - And for that, Kilis even got nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in the past.

18:03 - In Kilis, they also have a sports center. Look at that.

18:08 - And this place also supports Syrians to join the teams and to play.

18:18 - Adiniz ne? Ismim Yunus. Ok, I’m here with Yunus.

18:22 - Kilis’te ne var? Kilis’te nüfüsundan cok ??. . Güzel, kücük, güzel ?? Life is still far from easy for refugees, but Kilis has many human rights and refugee organizations that do their best to integrate refugees into society, even though hundreds of thousands of them are still living in camps nearby.

18:58 - We are visiting now an organization Yeryüzü doktorlari. Doctors Worldwide Turkey.

19:05 - We weren’t allowed to film in any of the organizations, but one place that specifically impressed me was the woman center where Turkish women are teaching Syrian women all different kinds of jobs, like hairdressing and sewing.

19:18 - They also provide Turkish lessons and a kindergarten.

19:22 - So we just made it to the Yedi Aralik University here in Kilis. Over 10000 students are enrolled here and they even have Erasmus Plus programme.

19:35 - So international students come here as well And what can you study here? Engineering and physics, biology and 2 years education.

19:46 - Do you like it here? Yes, of course. Because it’s a new university. It opened in 2007.

19:56 - Just a few kilometers from the Syrian border Kilis is not only a new home for many of the refugees, but also a safe zone.

20:05 - And this is one of the very few good examples that Turks and Syrians can live together peacefully and even enrich each other’s lives.

20:13 - That’s it from Kilis, see you next time in ??.