ON THE SHORES OF THE AEGEAN

MERHABA! I sobered up in 1990, and my first home group was Izmir's Stories of Sobriety (SOS) Group in Turkey which consisted of Americans associated with the military. The only Turkish person was my sponsor's wife. Meetings were held in the base chapel and in members' apartments around the city of Izmir, with attendance from two to maybe 10 people. Early in my program my wife brought a Turkish newspaper article to my attention that described the hopeless nature of alcoholism amongst Turkish people. The article described carnage caused by alcoholics. The article also described that drying out drunks only to have them return to drinking again and again was not working and clearly demonstrated the hopeless nature of drunks. The writer and professionals interviewed were obviously not aware of AA. I brought the article to a meeting and asked what we could do to carry the message to the Turkish people crying for help. I had less than a year of sobriety and someone with several years of sobriety lectured me about attraction rather than promotion.