My first day in 'Almanya'
Bahaeddin Güngör
Baha Güngör heads Deutsche Welle's Turkish Program
DW's Baha Güngör came to Germany from Turkey - where everyone told him the Germans would be good to him - when he was a child. He remembers the long journey 50 years ago, and recounts how his life unfolded in Almanya.
"You're going to Germany" - time and again, my teacher, my neighbors in Istanbul's Üsküdar district, our local grocer "Bakkal" Ahmet told me: "Germany is good, the Germans are our friends, Germans are good people." They all spoke well of the Germans and Germany: Germans are "friends", "brothers in arms", "industrious" and "disciplined." There were days when I could hardly wait to go to "Almanya" - to be reunited with my parents who had left for Germany three years earlier.
More:My first day in 'Almanya' | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 31.10.2011