Aysel Öztürk

She was born in Bulgaria in 1988 and raised in Istanbul. She holds a BA in Sociology from Galatasaray University and an MA in Cultural Studies from Istanbul Şehir University. Throughout her education, she was interested in various topics such as social policy, migration, rural sociology and participated in various civil society and academic research projects. Through these projects, she had the opportunity to conduct fieldwork in villages in different regions of Turkey and observe rural-urban and human-nature interactions on the ground. In addition to the research projects she was involved in, she worked as a research specialist at the Istanbul Planning Agency-Social Policies Office and as a project coordinator at Anatolian Grasslands. When she fell in love with a Laz man, she found herself in the Fındıklı district of Rize and her path crossed with Gola. She believes that experience and interaction in all areas of life are more nourishing than theoretical discussions in small rooms. She defines herself as the conversation partner of the blue seas and Leyla's mother.