Poetry as Waterfall
One of the main objectives of the Tarsus American College Turkish Literature Department is to expose students to the magical world of poetry. Towards this goal, TAC students visited the first evening of the 14th International Karacaoğlan Poetry Nights by the Tarsus Waterfall, sponsored by the Mersin and Tarsus municipal administrations. At the event, which was a fusion of poetry and fresh water driplets of the mighty Tarsus waterfall, the Mersin Metropolitan Mayor Burhanettin Kocamaz, a poetry aficionado, too recited poems. The poetry nights set the stage for famous local poets (namely Çınar Arıkan, Mustafa Doğan, Necmiye Duru, Rüştü Aydın, Mine Bahçeci, Sabahattin Özkan, Mehmet Doğan, Murat Arıcı, Mustafa Türkücü, Ümran Yıldırım, Mustafa Keşli, Furkan Toros, Yurttaş Şahbaz, Nafiz Nayir, Ali Yapalak, Mehmet Açıkgöz, Kenan Şahbaz, Bahri Şatıroğlu and Burhanettin Kocamaz) as well as folk poets (Necmettin Eser, Aşık Kürşat Özlü, Mustafa Buğrahan, Mustafa Kürklü, Ahmet Erişik, Nuri Yeşil).