TURKEY KNOWN AS THE TURKISH REPUBLIC ,FOUNDED BY ATATÜRK, IS IN THE SOUTH EAST OF THE CONTINENT-EUROPE AND THE NORTH OF AFRICA AND ARABIC PENINSULA.IT IS SURROUNDED BY THE MEDITERRANEAN,THE AEGAN SEA AND THE BLACK SEA.AS A RESULT IT HAS MOSTLY GOT A MILD CLIMATE.AS IT HAS GOT LOTS OF TOURIST ATTRACTIONS DUE TO ITS HISTORICAL SITES AND NATURAL BEAUTIES.

OUR SCHOOL WAS NAMED AFTER MERSİN’S AND TURKEY’S FIRST FEMALE MAYOR DECEASED MÜFİDE İLHAN

OUR SCHOOL BUILDING AND THE FRONT GARDEN

SCHOOL ENTRANCE FOR THE DISABLED STUDENTS

ONE OF THE CORRIDORS IN OUR SCHOOL

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AUTHORITIES FROM THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND MINISTRY OF HEALTH VISIT SCHOOLS REGULARLY TO CHECK WHETHER THEY OBEY THE HYGENIC RULES AND IF THEY THINK THE SCHOOL IS CLEAN AND HYGENIC ENOUGH ,THEY GIVE THE SCHOOL A DOCUMENT NAMED ‘THE WHITE FLAG’.THE DOCUMENT ABOVE WAS AWARDED TO OUR SCHOOL IN 2011

CLEAN SCHOOL, HYGENIC SCHOOL

A student reciting a poem during the ceremonyheld to celebrate the beginning of the new academic year

23rd of APRIL IS THE CHILDREN’S FEAST GRANTED TO THE TURKISH CHILDREN BY MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK-THE FOUNDER OF THE TURKISH REPUBLIC.THIS PHOTO SHOWS THE STUDENTS PERFORMING THEIR DANCES TO CELEBRATE IT.IT IS ALSO THE DAY ON WHICH THE TURKISH GRAND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY WAS FOUNDED

1st graders performing the play ‘The snow Whıte and Seven Dwarfs’

A SCENE FROM TURKISH FOLK DANCES PERPORMED BY THE STUDENTS

ART EXHIBITION IN OUR SCHOOL AT THE END OF THE

YEAR

THE CHOIR OF THE 2ND GRADERS SINGING THEİR SONGS ON 23rd,APRIL CHILDREND’S DAY

KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS IN THEIR CLASSES

MULTI-PURPOSE HALL

The Mayor visiting classes in our school

TEACHERS’ DAY CELEBRATION

ALDOĞAN EROĞLUHe is our school director.He began

his career 29 years ago.He has been our school director for 3

years .

She has been teaching English for about 30 years.She worked in different kind of schools from primary to high schools.She was an educational consultant of Longman publishing between 1994-1998.

NİLGÜN ASPARUK

My partner in this project .He is a primary school teacher.He has also worked as an assistant director twice during his teaching career.He was the assistant director in our school two years ago but as he likes active ,face to face teaching he quit it and began to teach in the classroom.He is teaching to the first graders-age 6-now.

MEHMET KUTLU

Since the foundation of the Turkish Republic,Turkey has shown a considerable development.Besides being the center of attraction of foreign investors and entrepreneurs due to its booming economy,it also offers breathtaking natural beauties,unique historical and archelogical sites.

Visitors to Turkey are often pleasantly suprised by the friendliness of the Turkish people,who will go out of their way to help and happily spend time chatting.Hospitality is a cornerstone of Turkish culture and Turkish people are famous for their hospitalitybecause Turks believe that visitors should be treated as ‘Guests sent by God’,so it will be a pleasure for us to see foreign visitors in our country .

TURKEY

VIEWS FROM THREE MAJOR CITIES IN TURKEY.ANKARA-THE CAPITAL CITY,İZMİR-ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PORTS AND ISTANBUL –A CITY THAT CONNECTS EUROPE AND ASIA .

HISTORICAL VALUES

The TROJAN HORSE

The history of Turkey tells of a 10 thousand year old civilization.Anatolia is a melting pot of old and ancient civilizations.These civilizations interacted for centuries and the result became unique.Everybody should have heard the TROY LEGEND and its invaluable teasure smuggled out of the country by a German archeologist.This site is in the World Heritage list now

People visiting Turkey can see the remains of Roman age nearby an Ottoman fountain.

All these heritages ,either from ancient civilizations or from Ottoman times make Turkey a unique country fır the visitors.

There are a lot or historical sites ,buildings as well as natural beauties in Turkey.They have been put in the Unesco’sWorld Heritage list

Literature has been an important component of Turkish cultural life.It reflects the history of the people,their legends,and the political and social changes that have an effect on the country throughout its long history

LITERATURE

The Noble Prize in Literature for 2006 was awarded to the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk,who is a very prolific writer.

Yaşar Kemal ,one of Turkey’s most prolific writer was also awarded Legion D’honneur by French Government.

Turkey has a very ancient folk dance tradition.It varies from region to region.Each dance is colourful,rhytmic,elegant and stylish.

ART

Folklore has also had a considerable influence on ballet.A number of modern dance group like the infamous ‘FIRE OF ANATOLIA’ have recently begun to give performances all over the world

Atatürk gave great importance to the arts and actively encouraged theatre ,music and balet.Turket today boasts about its highly professional theatre,opera and ballet companies,as well as flourishing film industry.The country holds nımerous arts festivals throughout the year,the most prestigious of which is the İstanbul International Festival

Traditional Turkish Handcrafts has formed a rich mosaic because it has brought values of the cultural heritage of the different civilizations together.These civilizations flourished in Anatolia for ages.

HANDCRAFTS

Traditional Turkish handcrafts can be listed as carpet making,rug making

Cloth and basket weaving tile making, ceramic pottery Basket weaving

Making embroidery , leather manufactoring music instrument making ,masonry,

Coppersmith

Wood carving Paper marbling

Turkish cousine is in a sense a bridge between far-eastern and mediterranean cusines.It always enhances the natural taste and flavour of the ingredients.So Turkish cousin is renowed as one of the world’s best.It is considered to be one of the three cousines of the world because of the variety of its recipes,its use of natural ingredients.Its flavours.

FOOD

MERSIN IS A CITY IN THE SOUTH OF TURKEY, ON THE MEDDITERRANEAN COAST.IT IS A BUSY CITY WITH ITS INTERNATIONAL PORT,FREE TRADE ZONE,FACTORIES AND NEWLY FOUNDED UNIVERSITY.IT IS FAMOUS FOR TANGERINE TREES.

Mersin,which lies on the Mediterraen coast with its clean beaches,and

MERSİN

Lemon tree orchards and palm trees and plateaus,is a self sufficient city.Approximately.% 50 of its land is covered in forests and scrubs.The region became a cradle to various civilizations.

A VIEW FROM OUR CITY -MERSİN

A VIEW FROM MERSİN

MERSİN – TURKEY

THERE IS A VERY BIG PARK WHERE PEOPLE HAVE A REST AND FRESH AIR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY

MERSİN – TURKEY

One of the extraordinary things about Mersin is its cemetry .When you visit the cemetry.you can see the graves of the bodies who were once the members of the 3 major devine religions.Not only bodies,but prejudices burried in Mersin cemetry.Mersin’s strong multi-cultural makeup help Mersin to conflicts.Locals and immigrants have formed Mersin and its mosaic together.

The freee zone facility in Mersin was opened in 1987.Since then,trade volume and export of some goods,especially the industrial ones have increased considerably

FREE ZONE

MARINA WHERE EITHER DOMESTIC OR INTERNATIONAL BOATS ANCHORED

Just on the shore of Mersin,Marina was build both as an urban marina,which is a social recreation area with different facilities like restaurants,sport centers and a safe water for the yatches to anchor.It has already increased the quality of life in Mersin and made significant contribution to yatch tourisim.It has the capacity for 500 yatches.

MARİNA

MEDITERRANEAN GAMESMediterranean Games will be held in Mersin in 2013.Athletes from 24 countries are expected to participate.There will be 27 different sportive activities and nearly 250 medals will be awarded

CULTURE and TOURISMMersin has a huge and magnificient cultural heritage.Archeological excavations show that the date of the first settlement in Mersin dates back to Bronze Age.There are a lot of cultural ,religious and architectural areas.All these areas are protected by law.

MAIDEN’S CASTLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEA

The castle on a small island away from main coast is Maiden’s castle.According to the legend, a king’s daughter was famous for her beauty.One day a fortune teller told the king that his beautiful daughter would die at a very young age being bitten by a snake.On hearing this,the king ordered a castle to be build in the middle of the sea thinking snakes wouldn’t be able to reach this castle.Then his daughter began to live in the castle.One day a villager brought a basket of figs as a present .When the princes wanted to get a fig from the basket,a snake hidden under the figs bit her and she died.So the castle’s name became ‘THE MAIDEN’S CASTLE’

MAIDEN’S CASTLE

Apart from these there are a lot of historical and religious remains in Mersin

Cleopatra Gate:It is in Tarsus,a town near Mersin,İt is thought to have been built by a Roman commander,Mark Antony for Cleopatra,the queen of ancient Egypt

Namure Castle,in which one can see the remains of Turkish-Islamic works of art such as mosques,fountains and baths

Tall Pillars is a region where one can see the most important and well protected historical remains

Three beauties mosaics and Roman Bath:The bath which takes place on the seashore belongs to Roman period.On the floor was the washing section of the bath

And three semi-goddeses are depicted

ANOTHER REMAINS OF AN ANCIENT CHURCH

ANOTHER REMAINS OF AN ANCIENT CITY IN MERSİN

MEN ROCKS-FIGURES AND TOMBS ENGRAVED IN THE ROCKS BY ROMANS

MEN ROCKS-FIGURES AND TOMBS ENGRAVED IN THE ROCKS BY ROMANS

MEN -ROCKS AND TOMBS ENGRAVED IN THE ROCKS ON A HILL SLOPE

ANOTHER ANCIENT CHURCH AT THE ENTRANCE OF A LONG UNDERGROUND CAVE NAMED HEAVEN

It is a large valley which was formed as a result of collapse of ceiling by an underground river.The entry is a ladder of 452 steps.There is a church at the mouth of this cave.On the tablet of 4 lines over the gate of this church it is written that it was built for mother Mary.If you go into the cave and walk to the end of it ,you can hear the sound of mythological underground river.Next to the heaven there is Hell Valley,which was formed like the Heaven Cave.It is impossible to enter this cave.According to the mythology,after defeating Typhon,Zeus imprisons him in the hell valley for a time before closing him under ETNA volcano

HEAVEN AND HELL CAVES

The region has been a cradle to various civilizations.One of the first followers of Christianity Saint Paul was born in Tarsus and a church was built in the name of him

BELIEF TOURISM

TARSUS ,MERSIN’S MAJOR TOWN ,HAS GOT A CHURCH NAMED SAINT PAUL CHURCH.HE IS ONE OF THE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST.

AYATEKLA CHURCH IS ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED CHURCH IN THE CHRISTIAN WORLD

Near one of the towns of Mersin ,there is the oldest and most important center of Christianity.According to the legend, one of the students of Saint Paul,while making propaganda to expand Christianity,learns that

he will be killed.So he hides in a cave and disappears in it.This cave was thought to be holly and turned into a church and was used as a sacret place for worshipping.

AYA TEKLA CHURCH REMAINS

Congress Halls in Mersin have already hosted many international and national congresses

CONGRESS TOURISM

TARSUS WATERFALLS.THE PLACE WHERE THESE FALLS ARE İS A RECREATION AREA FOR PEOPLE IN TARSUS.

On the slopes of Taurus Mountains there arebreathtaking plateaus which can be visited in all seasons but especially in summer when the city dwellers want to be away from hot and humid weather and have a rest .Apart from plateaus there are many waterfalls.Tarsus being the most famous one is frequently visited no matter what the season is

PLATEAU TOURISM

There are many wetlands and areas protected by international agreements.These bird paradises and turtle protection areas are visited people who are keen on photo-safari

ECO TOURISM

ART IN MERSİNCultural studies are really intensive.Mersin State Opera and Ballet exhibits its activities at Mersin Culture Center.Mersin State Painting and Sculpture Museum and Art galeries organize various activities such as Mersin International Music Festival,Mersin Turkish Classical Music Festival and International Polyphonic choruses Festival are held as well.