The Threshing Sledge...

We are chatting with Erkan Ölmez on a beautiful spring evening in front of the Zeynebim Cafe Bar Restaurant in Göcek. You know how we sometimes drift into the past; that's what we did. A sentence crossed my mind: "Young people talk about the day or the future, while the elderly talk about the past and politics." I suppose ours comes not from old age, but from a longing for the past...

The conversation turned to the Yörük lifestyle. Erkan said, "My mother is from Denizli, my father is from the Muğla Yörüks. Actually, from the Köprübaşı village of the Kale district. It's the first village on the right as soon as you cross the bridge over the Esençay, which forms the border between Muğla and Denizli. My grandfather was Adil Hoca. He was one of the notables of the region in the early years of the Republic. He was a teacher and a hafiz. He was the regional leader of the Kuvayi Milliye (National Forces). I was a child, he was 92. When threshing the harvest with oxen, he would seat me on a board called a 'söven' or 'düven'. Straw would fill my face and eyes..." When he said this, I interjected, "It's not 'söven' but 'düven', and in some places, they call it 'düğen'. It is a sled-like board with sharp flint stones embedded in the bottom, used to separate the grain from the stalk during threshing. It's similar to a snowboard. A horse, donkey, or ox is hitched to the front of it, and you go round and round. It would turn until the wheat grains were separated from the ear. My grandfather, Osman Demir, would also put me on a 'düven' in Göcek Taşbaşı, and we would go around for minutes," I explained.

As technology reached the villages, we started seeing the 'düven' only in Yörük museums. Is it just the 'düven'? So many other things have remained in the past. 'Imece' (collective labor) is a powerful social symbol of solidarity that played a major role in the liberation and establishment of our country.

The word 'imece' is also rarely used now. In my childhood, and even in my youth, there was a strong 'imece' in the fields, at the threshing floor, and in road construction; there was mutual aid and solidarity. The productive women and men of the village would work together in solidarity through 'imece', one day in the tobacco fields, the next at the threshing floor, and sometimes in road construction. 'Imece' is the name of a strong solidarity in sorrow, in harvest, at weddings, and in short, in daily life. Those traditional 'imece' practices have now begun to remain in the past. Technology and capitalism have weakened these beautiful feelings and sharing.

With today's economic conditions, in days when diesel and fuel prices have hit the ceiling, how can a farmer use their tractor or combine harvester in an 'imece'? Farming has become a difficult trade. What does the government say? "We will import meat from Uganda, from Tanzania. That will be that. Let the villager, the producer do whatever they want," they say. I ask; aren't such statements a clear admission that they have finished off Turkish agriculture and animal husbandry? This is the point we have reached in 23 years! The tide will turn, and one day justice will prevail.

Dear readers, let us end our article with the lyrics of a beautiful folk song...

The grey horse has taken the bit, can the road withstand it?

The beloved maiden wakes from her sleep

My Döndü has become a bride and is leaving

Oh God, can a soul withstand this?

If only I were the stone on the threshing sledge of the harvest

If only I were the stone on the ring on your finger

If only I were your companion in this lying world

There is no questioning in the afterlife for my lion-hearted Döndü

If you allow me, I have an announcement. I would like to share it.

"The people of Bodrum harvest their crops early." The Bodrum Yörüks are setting out early this year as well. The 5th Bodrum Yörük Festival of the Bodrum Yörük Obaları is being held on Sunday, May 11, in the Yalıkavak and Geriş neighborhoods of Bodrum. Come and join the Yörük Migration...

Prof. Dr. Nurettin DEMİR