Although Sarvinoz Nabiyeva noticed a large Muslim community at UMD, she felt like it was still important to meet some people from the same background as her.
Nabiyeva, whose family is from Uzbekistan, and Hadija Yahya, who is Uyghur, both shared this sentiment.
“The idea of being able to share a part of us with our friends and other students on campus was something that was very important to us,” said Nabiyeva, a sophomore Arabic and economics major. “For me TSSA was a way that I could do that.”
At the fall 2025 first look fair, the two sophomores came across the Turkic Speaking Students’ Association (TSSA) and joined the executive board of the group shortly after.
“Everybody wants to feel like they fit in somewhere, that they belong,” said Yahya, a sophomore public health science major. When TSSA had their first meeting Yahya said, “it just [felt] like you’re at home.”
Kanan Abdiyev, a public policy masters student whose family hails from Azerbaijan, founded and is the current president of TSSA. The organization was made to bring people from different Turkic dialects together, Abdiyev said.
“When I got here, I realized that students from Turkic speaking countries were present at UMD, but we didn’t really have a common space to connect,” said Abdiyev. “Many of us share cultural roots, some languages, traditions, and I thought creating an organization could bring people together.”
Through an event hosted by TSSA in collaboration with UMD’s Turkish Student Organization and the UMBC Turkic Student Association in the fall semester, Nabiyeva was able to celebrate her and other Turkic cultures through food, tea, music and games. One of the games they played was a version of the game telephone but with sentences from different Turkic languages.
Mariam Almuhammad, a sophomore neurobiology and physiology major, attended the event in order to support her friends Nabiyeva and Yahya.
“I enjoyed being in a culture that is so different [from] mine,” said Almuhammad. “It was just fun learning about other languages.”
Dilnaz Hasim, a masters student studying applied economics and current board member of TSSA, helped to found a Turkic Student Association (TSA) while an undergraduate at UMBC. After coming to UMD she looked for a similar environment, and she found the TSSA.
“It’s important to share diverse perspectives in any regard and in any space, and Turkic students are often a bit underrepresented,” said Hasim, who is Uyghur. “It just feels nice to be among people who maybe experienced similar things as you, or share the same holidays or same cultural events and [be] able to celebrate that together.”
Uyghur people are a Turkic ethnic minority group predominantly residing in the East Turkestan region in central Asia.
Currently TSSA is going through an executive board transition that has delayed their start to the spring semester. According to Yahya, this semester they are focused on transitioning, organizing and filling the gaps of the graduating members.
Abdiyev, the current president will be stepping down; however, Yahya, Nabiyeva and Hasim plan on staying on the board as they restructure.
“The future leader[ship] is going to continue building a common community for everyone regardless of their background,” said Abdiyev. “I think they are going to be successful at expanding the organization so it becomes the bridge between cultures at [UMD].”
Image credits: Cover photo courtesy of Turkish Students’ Organization.
Al-Hikmah 
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