What is a wedding in feudal culture like?

Can we ignore the fact that the feudal culture currently experienced in the Southeastern Anatolia and Eastern Anatolia regions is linked to feudalism?

Feudal culture stems from the imbalance in land distribution.

Let us begin with an observation.

For example, in Diyarbakır, more than 41 percent of the land is under the control of 3 percent of the families. In Şanlıurfa, nearly 30 percent of the nearly 10 million decares of land belongs to 1.5 percent of the families.

The feudal economic structure in the region creates unemployment, poverty, and a feudal culture.

This structure is also fueled by the lack of industry and service sectors in the region.

In the Southeastern region, the landlords and tribal leaders dominate almost all the land in the region.

Some landlords, fearing or being wary of rhetoric regarding land reform from time to time, take two approaches.

First; some landlords distribute their land among their families or transform them into capitalist, large-scale agricultural enterprises.

Second is this; the landlords and tribal leaders have established or have had cooperatives established. They have placed themselves or have been placed at the head of them.

Thus, a model of cooperativization has emerged that is not observed in any other region of the world.

I named this "Aga-Koop" in an article I wrote years ago.

Poor peasants are the equal(!) partners on paper of the cooperative called Aga-Koop. However, they continue to live hand-to-mouth just as they did before.

DOES THE FEUDAL STRUCTURE IN THE LAND ORDER NOT ALSO CREATE THE DRAMA OF SEASONAL WORKERS?

In this country, we have a problem like seasonal workers that the well-off living in cities either do not know about or pretend not to know about.

Every year,

For greenhouse vegetables and citrus in Adana;

For cherry picking in Afyon;

For hazelnut harvesting in Düzce;

For cherry picking and cutting tomatoes for drying in İzmir;

For beet hoeing in Konya-Aksaray;

For hazelnut harvesting in Ordu;

For vegetable harvesting in Samsun;

For cotton picking in Urfa,

For jobs such as beet hoeing in Yozgat-Nevşehir, seasonal workers are brought in primarily from the Southeastern Anatolia region, such as Urfa, Mardin, and Diyarbakır.

Seasonal agricultural worker families leave home in March, April, and May, and return home mostly in September, October, and November.

The most important reason for migration is "economic difficulties," in other words, landlessness or having very little land.

The rate of those who owned any land before among those who migrated to the city is extremely low.

Only 7 percent of the families have agricultural land in their villages, and the average size of these lands is smaller than 10 decares.

AND IS FEUDAL CULTURE NOT THE RESULT OF THE LAND ORDER?

The feudal structure, as is known, is a system that emerges on the basis of social hierarchy, land ownership, and personal loyalty.

In this hierarchy, there are land-owning landlords, tribal chiefs, religious sect sheikhs, and ethnic and religious politicians and political approaches that feed off them on Turkey's agenda.

The feudal structure perpetuates servitude, prevents equal citizenship, and also creates inward-looking units for those living in villages or hamlets.

AND WHAT IS A WEDDING IN FEUDAL CULTURE LIKE?

Today, tribal weddings in Southeastern Anatolia continue to frequently make the agenda with both the richness of the jewelry and the visual spectacle.

Here is one of them.

According to media reports dated October 3, 2025, the couple Hülya and Emrah Gökçe from the Jirki Tribe in Başaran Village of Beytüşşebap District in Şırnak were married with a wedding that lasted 2 days and 2 nights.

3 million TL was pinned on the groom and 1.5 kilos of gold were pinned on the bride.

The wedding lasted 2 days and 2 nights.

Thousands of guests from Mardin, Hakkari, Van, and Diyarbakır, as well as Şırnak, attended the wedding.

The bride Hülya and the groom Emrah Gökçe thanked the guests.

The groom's father, Ömer Gökçe, thanked everyone for the interest shown during the wedding and said, "I sincerely thank all our friends, tribe members, and guests who did not leave us alone on this special day. Our wedding was very crowded in terms of attendance. This is the most beautiful indicator of the unity and solidarity of our people."

The groom's sister, Merve Gökçe, said, "I am proud to be a tribal girl. We thank everyone who made us feel this interest and love," and the best man, Engin Gökçe, said, "1.5 kilos of gold were pinned on our bride and 3 million TL on our groom. We thank everyone who attended and supported us."

(See: https://www.nefes.com.tr/asiret-dugununde-damada-tomar-tomar-para-geline-kiloyla-altin; https://www.msn.com/tr-tr/haber/gundem/d%C3%BC%C4%9F%C3%BCn-2-g%C3%BCn-2-gece-s%C3%BCrd%C3%BC-geline-1-5-kilo-alt%C4%B1n-damada-3-milyon-tl-tak%C4%B1ld%C4%B1/)