Numerous settlements have grown in recent years on the outskirts of Mersin, a city on Turkey’s southern coast. Their structure and appearance is unusual for Turkey: large residential blocks in a circle around a kind of park, with big swimming pools, meeting places, restaurants, and bars in the middle. The apartment balconies all face this artificially constructed center; the residents have turned their backs on the outside.Many of the residents here are “Deutschländer” – Turks who lived for many years in Germany, saving their money to enjoy life this way now. But they have not really returned to Turkey. Too much has come between them and their old homeland. So the returnees sit on their balconies, beside the pool, or in the restaurant in the evening – and remain among themselves.