This scent might be the last one you ever smell... Does gold smell like bitter almonds?

12punto columnist and former Bergama Mayor Sefa Taşkın, in his article titled "Does gold smell like bitter almonds?", included striking details. Taşkın wrote that while gold itself has no scent, the cyanide used to extract it—known for its environmental damage—smells like bitter almonds, and that for anyone who catches this scent, it is the last one they will ever smell.

The relevant section of Taşkın's article is as follows:

Gold has no scent, but the cyanide used today to obtain it does…

It smells like bitter almonds!

Anyone who smells cyanide first detects the “scent of bitter almonds,” but this is the last scent they will ever perceive.

Cyanide is an extremely toxic chemical substance.

It affects the central nervous system. It prevents oxygen from reaching the cells.

When inhaled as a gas, Hydrogen cyanide (HCN), the body is deprived of oxygen, suffocates, and dies in approximately thirty seconds.

Chemically represented as “CN,” “cyanide” consists of Carbon (C) and Nitrogen (N) elements.

Immediately after entering the bloodstream and causing suffocation, the elements that form it decompose and mix into the metabolism.

No trace of cyanide remains in the body.

If an autopsy is not performed immediately on the deceased, it is difficult to determine that they died from cyanide.

When ingested in liquid or solid form as sodium or potassium cyanide (NaCN and KCN), the time until death ranges from 5 to 30 minutes.

In the books of British crime novelist Agatha Christie, murderers often kill their victims with cyanide.

Murderers hope to commit the “perfect crime” this way, but they often fail!

Taşkın, who places special importance on Bergama, also recalled the Ovacık-Çamköy-Narlıca region in İzmir's Bergama district, the site of our Republic's first gold mine, and noted the following:

WHO DOES THIS HOMELAND BELONG TO?

The first gold mine in our Republic's history began operations in Ovacık-Çamköy-Narlıca in the Bergama district of İzmir: Along with it, the one in Havran-Balıkesir.

These mines were followed in order by the Uşak-Kışladağ, Manisa-Sart, Gümüşhane-Mastra, Erzincan-Çöpler, İzmir-Efemçukuru, Eskişehir-Kaymaz, Niğde-Bolkardağ, Kayseri-Himmetdede, Ordu-Altıntepe, Sivas-Bakırtepe, Kayseri-Develi, Balıkesir-Sındırgı, Çanakkale-Lapseki, and İzmir-Çukuralan mines.

Of course, that was just the beginning.

The doors were wide open, after all.

More followed, and more are still coming!

Who does this homeland belong to?