Turkish refugee, Okan Yahsi

At first life in Scotland was very hard. It was not easy being uprooted from my home and travelling to a strange place, where at first I could not even understand the language. It was very frightening.

Some people were hostile to us, thinking that we were being privileged in some way, although we were not, but many others also helped us.

People just like me

Since childhood I have been interested in music and drama. I play saz, which is a traditional Turkish stringed instrument. Music is very important to our family and I had attended a conservatory from the age of 11 until I graduated at 15.

When we arrived in Glasgow I got involved with the Citizen’s Theatre and was given a part in their play ‘The Court of Miracles’. This helped me to meet many people with interest like my own and I realised that the Scots were just people like me. That sounds obvious, but when you are uncertain in a language, it can act like a barrier and you start thinking you are surrounded by a different species.

In 2003 Louise Irwin, who is the Scottish Refugee Councils’ Drama Development Worker asked me to take part in ‘The Washing Line of Wishes’, a drama about the experience of refugees for young people. We took the play around schools in the city and did over 20 performances. It was very important to me to be able to use my music in the play, which shows what being a refugee is really like for young people.

Applying to RSAMD

Taking part in the drama group at the Citizen’s gave me the confidence to apply to study theatre and this year

I was accepted at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama. I was so nervous that I never even told my mother I was applying, so she must have wondered why I was standing behind the front door waiting for the mail to arrive every morning!

Now I am studying theatre and I love it. Drama is a way of making things real for people that are sometimes only partly understood. Most people are not harsh or cruel, but they can be misled or allow their own fears to make them afraid of what is unfamiliar. It is this sort of simple thinking that leads to prejudice and misunderstanding.

This is where I will build my life

Scotland is my home now. I feel happy here and this is the place where I will build my life. It is not a hard place. The people are friendly once you get to know them and I have many Scottish friends, which is just as well, because I am one of them now.

I hope that one day I will have my own theatre company that can look at the issues that affect people's lives and make people think perhaps a little more deeply about thing; not just asylum, but every kind of prejudice or injustice.

Okan Yahsi
Okan Yahsi is the first refugee ever to be accepted to study at the Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. He arrived in Scotland from Turkey with his mother in 2000.