The civil war going on in Syria for the last three years has not only brought great tragedies for the people there but also forced thousands of people to migrate to other countries, including Turkey where Rojava immigrants are struggling amid challenging living conditions.

One of those immigrants is Kurdish theater player Yusuf Yekta who migrated to Antep after his house in the Kurdish Sheik Maksoud neighborhood in the Aleppo was demolished due to the attacks of al-Qaeda linked jihadist gang groups some four months ago.

Forty one years old theater player Yekta who used to perform works at the Cemil Horo Cultural Center in Aleppo has overcome the trauma of the war by restarting his artistic works in the Mesopotamia Cultural Center's Antep branch. “I held on to life once again” he says as to what he feels about continuing his life in Antep.

Yekta tells the followings about why and how he moved to Antep; “Armed groups attacked our neighborhood after the war broke out. Our institutions were all closed because of their attacks which intensified more and more in the course of time, forcing the Kurdish civilians in the neighborhood to migrate to other places. I was among those people. I managed to reach Antep through illegal ways. I knew nobody and felt all alone at first”.

Yusuf Yekta says that he later met some Kurdish residents in Antep, got in touch with MKM artists and restarted his artistic works there, which he says has relieved him. “I a kind of found myself here. I felt like I was in Rojava. My works here are going well now and we have projects on expanding our works. We have recently staged a “wall of shame” themed performance which was successful”.

Yekta stressed that “We will try to respond to the unfairness imposed on Kurds in four parts of Kurdistan with the artistic works we will perform. We started our works with this hope and we are making headway with the ten students I am training now”.