Turkey: People and Officials Happy to Learn About Falun Gong At Famous Tourist Site

On August 7th 2007, two Falun Gong practitioners took advantage of a brief holiday to promote Falun Gong and explain the facts about the persecution to officials and the general public in Canakkale City, a famous tourist attraction in Turkey.

On the first day, practitioners visited the provincial government to tell officials in various departments about the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Upon learning the facts about the inhumane persecution launched by the Chinese Communist regime, the officials were shocked and infuriated. In the meantime, many people showed an interest in Falun Gong and asked the practitioners to demonstrate the Falun Gong exercises one after another. Besides demonstrating the exercises, the practitioners also briefly introduced the principles of the cultivation practice to a large group of people working within the city government.

On the same day, the two Falun Gong practitioners also went to the city hall to introduce Falun Gong to the government employees there.

On the second day, they visited major local newspapers and television stations. They first visited a famous news agency, Ihlas Ajans, to explain the facts about Falun Gong and the Chinese Communist regime's atrocities against Falun Gong. One manager deeply sympathized with the persecution Falun Gong has suffered in China, and he introduced the practitioners to the news department of a newly established conglomerate that owns three daily news, a television station and a radio station.

Upon the practitioners' arrival at the news department of the conglomerate, they were warmly received by a senior reporter, Mr. Alican. After listening to the practitioners' detailed introduction, and perusing the materials about Falun Gong and the persecution, Mr. Alican said, "Since Falun Gong is such a wonderful cultivation practice, we will do our best to help introduce it to more residents of Canakkale City." When they were about to leave, he said seriously that he planned to write a series of articles for the newspaper so as to systematically introduce Falun Gong and the persecution in China to its readers.

The day before they left Canakkale City, the Falun Gong practitioners walked along the long coastal boulevard from the beginning to the end and distributed truth-clarifying flyers to every hotel and café along the boulevard. These businesses were crowded with local visitors and those from overseas as this time of the year happened to be the Canakkale Festival.

To ensure the success in promoting Falun Gong and explaining the facts about the persecution to the stream of visitors, they first went to the local security office in the morning to apply for permission to distribute flyers during the festival. After hearing the detailed introduction to Falun Gong, the officer who was on duty at the entrance of the building said that he was very interested in Falun Gong. While asking someone to bring some water for the practitioners, he said that later he would like to learn Falun Gong. When the practitioners were about to leave, the officer sincerely waved his hands to the practitioners and asked for a flyer and the telephone numbers of Falun Gong contacts.

Next the practitioners visited the security office's administrative department. After a brief self-introduction and explaining the objectives of the visit, they introduced the magnificence of Falun Gong's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance to some officers, and also discussed the practice's popularity in some eighty countries around the world. Falun Gong's magnificence attracted the attention of many people in the office. They came over to the practitioners one after the other regardless of their work, and attentively listened to the introduction of Falun Gong. In the end, the head of the department happily approved the practitioners' application to distribute flyers in the busiest business centre in the coast area. When the practitioners were about to leave, many officers asked the practitioners to teach the Falun Gong exercises to all of the employees in that security office next time. The practitioners were pleased to agree to their requests.

The two practitioners enthusiastically distributed flyers among the crowded business centre packed with many visitors. At one point, a youngster identifying himself as chairperson of a university's student association approached the practitioners. After listening to the practitioners' truth-clarification, he invited them to introduce Falun Gong to the faculty of the university and teach them the exercises. He added that he would make the necessary arrangements as soon as school resumed, hoping that the Falun Gong promotion activities could be held on campus no later than March 15th 2008.

That evening, these two practitioners distributed over 500 flyers to let those who have predestined relationships with Dafa know about the magnificence of the practice.