“Children have more imagination than we do”

Mr Aminikia, the Flying Carpet Festival is aimed at refugee children in the Turkish region of Mardin, close to the Syrian border. Where did the idea come from?

I met Pinar Demiral, the founder of Sirkhane Social Circus School which offers music workshops to child refugees in the war-torn Kurdish region. I visited Mardin with her and saw children playing on the streets with tanks roaming around them. I started recording songs with them and saw the need for music, art and beauty.  In 2018 I quit my teaching position at San Francisco University to start the festival with Sirkhane.