01- About Us
Alafranga is the most graceful echo, on the streets of Europe, of the cultural heritage we carried with us when we left Türkiye. For us, the name is far more than a nostalgic label: its strength comes not from imitation, but from putting down roots in Europe, from changing, and from finding our own color as we become someone new. Alafranga creates an independent space for publishing, one that brings together past and present, alaturka warmth and life in Europe.
We all either arrive here to turn a new page, or live our lives here, weaving them within our own circles, out of our own stories. Some of us migrated here, some of us were born here; we grew up, studied, worked, fell in love, made friends and built worlds of our own. Yet right beside us, in the lives next door, we don’t always see the struggles people are facing or the stories they are quietly gathering.
With this magazine, we gave the bridges we want to build between our lives a name: Alafranga. We are here to share our experiences, our struggle to simply exist and the memories that are ours alone; to discover new stories; and to learn, in every part of life, what living here means for all of us.
We don’t squeeze what it means to be Turkish in Germany into a single mold, because there is no single version of it. Our aim is to make visible every person who makes us who we are, and the countless stories that shape our diaspora, and to bring us all a little closer to one another.
02- Our Manifesto
Different generations, backgrounds, beliefs, languages and ways of life: every one of them deserves a corner of its own.
We believe our differences shouldn’t divide us; on the contrary, they will bind us even more closely to one another. They give us more stories to share, more perspectives to discover and more reasons to listen.
We believe culture is what connects us to one another: through literature, art, music, academia and everyday life.
We believe being part of a diaspora isn’t about choosing between “here” and “there”, but about “everything else in between”.
That is why, with Alafranga, we listen, we share and we connect.