According to the Pew Research Center in 2017, 72% of Turks consider the United States a threat. Gwen and Aziz Sancar, married University of North Carolina (UNC) professors of biochemistry and biophysics, want the Sancar Turkish Cultural & Community Center (STCCC) to serve as a facility for all citizens of Chapel Hill, as well as a place for Turks to celebrate their culture, in hopes that it will improve understanding.
“We hope the community will see that [the center] is a unique and beautiful surrounding where it can have events,” Gwen said. “When [visitors] walk in, there’s going to be plenty of examples of Turkish culture in the building, so I think most people will be curious about that sort of thing and ask questions.”
The Sancars founded the Aziz & Gwen Sancar Foundation in 2007. The STCCC, expected to open in early 2020, is an expansion of the foundation. Proceeds from Aziz’s 2015 Nobel Prize win in chemistry for the discovery of nucleotide excision repair went towards building the complex.
The new location, situated on two acres of land on East Franklin Street, will have a 9,700 square-foot, environmentally sustainable building with classrooms for students and the community and a two-story, low-cost guest house that will host up to eight Turkish students or scholars.
“We thought [the STCCC] would be good for relations between the two countries, to try to get a place where we could show Turkish culture, where local Turks could celebrate their culture and also to acquaint Americans with Turkish culture,” Gwen said.
President Donald Trump armed the Syrian Kurdish militia in 2017, angering Turkey. American tariffs in August 2018 on Turkish steel and aluminum had further negative impacts on relations between the United States and Turkey.
“Aziz and I are very much in the mode of wanting people to get along, and we think that requires understanding,” Gwen said.
East Chapel Hill High School senior Zainab Antepli, who attended Chapel Hill High School for three years, looks forward to the center opening.
“I am truly ecstatic about the new Turkish center that is being opened. This center will add to our already diverse community and strengthen our pluralistic foundation,” Antepli said. “As a Turkish-American, I am proud of both sides of my identity and very glad to see civic initiatives working to sustain and nurture our cultural mosaic.”
The Aziz & Gwen Sancar Foundation originally began with a nonprofit location on East Franklin Street called Carolina Türk Evi, meaning Carolina Turkish House, to house Turkish UNC students and visiting faculty, helping them adjust to the cultural difference.
The idea for Carolina Türk Evi came from Aziz’s experiences in Turkey. In Turkey, the cultural difference between rural areas and Istanbul, a huge international city, makes it difficult for some students to adapt, even though the culture is the same.
“Every province in Turkey has a house in Istanbul for students when they first come to help them get acclimated and figure out where they want to live, and things like that,” Gwen said. “That is the model we used.”
The STCCC will promote outreach programs to Turkey and will hold Turkish dance and language classes, open to anyone interested.
“There are people here in the community who really think this is going to be a good asset for the town,” Gwen said. “I hope [people] will come to the center, enjoy what we have to offer, maybe learn something, and see this as a reflection of the fact that Chapel Hill embraces diversity.”
