STV Interview Yeni Hayatlar (New Lives)

Back in the Summer of 2001, I was interviewed by a television crew from STV, at the time one of the leading television companies in Turkey. The television crew interviewed roughly 30 Americans for broadcasting with Yeni Hayatlar (New Lives) during the 2001 Ramadan month in Turkey and the Turkish speaking world. My story was quite interesting for them, for my experiences with Islam and the Muslim communities in Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic.

The interview went very well, but I could not see a finished clip until December 2001. I forgot about it until I met with Fetullah Gulen in Pennsylvania on my way to Istanbul. I remembered he told me I looked different in person (he had already seen my program on STV via satellite).

I did not know what he meant until I arrived in Istanbul a couple days later. During an advertisement for Yeni Hayatlar, I saw a “fat” looking, umm, me on TV. Oh my God, nobody realized that interviewing me outside in very humid conditions, sweating profusely to boot, would, umm, make me look fat. The footage inside my apartment, I looked normal, but outside, oh my God!!!

Yeni Hayatlar

Below is the entire interview in Turkish. The original video was on videotape. In Vietnam it was digitized.

Original Article

I edited this article from my blog post at: https://saigonnezumi.com/yeni-hayatlar-stv-august-2001/.