Nâzım Hikmet Camp Builds More Than Memories. Join Them Today!

Jun 27, 2025 | Community

For ten summers, the Nâzım Hikmet Summer Camp has brought together young people from Türkiye to think, connect, and imagine a better future through dialogues on literature, ecology, and shared experience. This year, the camp takes on a new dimension.

For the first time, it will welcome youth from the Turkish-American diaspora — offering them the chance to connect with their peers in Türkiye, including young people from earthquake-affected regions. It’s a meaningful step toward building lasting bridges across distance, experience, and culture.

But bridges don’t build themselves. They need commitment, and the support of those who care.

From now until the camp begins, every dollar you donate will be matched 1:1 by BTF. That means your gift will go twice as far in supporting travel, accommodation, programming, and full participation for all students — no matter their background.

Your contribution helps create a shared space where young people explore the values legendary poet Nâzım Hikmet championed: justice, solidarity, and the courage to imagine a more humane world.

“I spent most of my younger years in New Hampshire. When we came as a family to Turkey for summer holidays, I often felt dragged into gatherings with my parents. Not being able to meet those of my age, I felt alienated in my own country. Returning to Turkey for my final year of high school at Robert College, I felt like a fish out of water.

This year marks the tenth year of our camp on Büyükada held in the memory of Nâzım Hikmet’s son, the painter Mehmet Hikmet. His youth was also spent abroad, first in Poland, then France. Even though their home in Paris made one feel as if one were in Turkey, Mehmet too longed to meet peers in his homeland. Estrangement can lead to questioning one’s sense of belonging. Self-discovery however need not lie in searching for one’s identity nor sessions with psychologists. Meeting people with different life experiences can allow us to enrich one another.

Supported by Bridge to Türkiye Fund, the Nâzım Hikmet Camp this year will bring together youth of Turkish origin from the U.S. and young people from Istanbul’s Princes’ Islands, along with those from Turkey’s earthquake regions. Through activities and collaborative projects of mutual concern, and by responding to the question ‘What can I do?’, we believe young people will build long-lasting bridges for a shared future. And your support will be crucial in building these bridges.

This is a very special year for us as we’ve reached out to those in the U.S. In the coming years, we plan to also include youth from Europe, making our camp even more international. We hope you’ll join us in our global journey.”

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Gündüz Vassaf is a Turkish writer, psychologist, and public intellectual whose work explores the psychology of everyday life and the human quest for freedom. After earning his doctorate in psychology and teaching at Boğaziçi University, he left academia in protest of the 1980 military coup and turned to writing full-time. He has published seventeen books spanning essays, fiction, poetry, and children’s literature, including the cult classic Prisoners of Ourselves: Totalitarianism in Everyday Life and his latest novel The Painter’s Rebellion (2023). Known for his weekly columns in Radikal and appearances on Turkish TV, Vassaf’s writing blends literature, philosophy, and psychology. He is also a founding figure in Turkish and international peace and human rights movements, including Amnesty International Turkey.

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About the Nâzım Hikmet Camp and Adalar Vakfı: Held from July 27 to August 4, this year’s camp will focus on topics including literature, ecology, and civic engagement. The daily schedule mixes workshops, discussions, and excursions around Istanbul. It’s an immersive way for participants to learn from each other’s experiences and leave with new ideas, friendships, and a broader understanding of where they come from and where they might go next. The camp is a project of the Princes’ Islands Foundation (Adalar Vakfı), supported by the Community Volunteers Association (Toplum Gönüllüleri Vakfı) and renowned Turkish author Gündüz Vassaf. Since 1984, the Princes’ Islands Foundation has worked to preserve the natural and cultural life of the Islands, and this camp is part of that mission — helping pass on values of community, care, and continuity.

Donate to the Nâzım Hikmet Camp today!

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