A 'hazelnut' 'between two theses'

The rain is falling so hard that it is impossible to step outside... Those living in Ordu and Fatsa are going through difficult hours... The lower floors of houses and shops are being flooded... When you leave the Black Sea coast and head a little higher, that is, when you reach the villages of Ordu and Fatsa, people's eyes are on their threshing floors and gardens... They are heartbroken that the labor of a year left under the rain will be damaged... They are thinking about the rain stopping as soon as possible, the weather clearing up, finishing the harvesting work in the gardens, and drying and selling the hazelnuts on the threshing floor...

I am talking about the long-suffering hazelnut farmers of the Black Sea. Hazelnut farming is difficult. It requires labor all year round. It is not just about entering the garden in August and picking the clusters as some might think. Preparation for the next season begins before the current season is even over, with the pruning of unnecessary and harmful branches...

After a few months of winter rest, the process continues with fertilizer, pesticides, and the cutting of small branches we call 'ışkın'. Hazelnut farming is a laborious and costly business, including scything the garden twice a year, which means clearing it of thorns and unnecessary weeds... While scythe workers ask for 6000 TL per person per day, the fees for branch cutting, pesticides, and fertilization are around 3000 TL. In other words, you have already spent hundreds of thousands of TL before you even pluck the hazelnut clusters from the branch. Yes, if you do all this labor yourself, your costs decrease, but they are still not low.

And when August arrives, it is time for the great battle in the gardens... That is, the struggle of harvesting hazelnuts... This year, while 1750 TL per day was paid to resident workers, around 2250 TL was paid to local and daily workers.

You exhaust yourself trying to transport the hazelnuts from the gardens to the threshing floor, mostly in a cycle of two days of sun and three days of rain. It is a tough struggle every day... Despite telling them and warning them many times, young people of child age are brought in to harvest hazelnuts. They demand the same wages as adults. If you do not accept, being threatened with them quitting, etc., are all processes that wear you down.

Of course, what I am describing are the experiences of a producer during the hazelnut season from their perspective. When you look at it from the perspective of the workers, it is possible to see a completely different story. Living conditions in difficult circumstances. Problems with water, food, and hygiene... Money paid to intermediaries and illness, fatigue, and grueling terrain conditions... Of course, their jobs are also very difficult...

At the end of all this effort and the struggle that spans the entire year, people want to sell their product to take a deep breath. This is where the biggest tragedy begins. Let me explain by describing the price policy of only the last two years. Last year, when the season opened, the producer was able to sell a kilo of hazelnuts for up to 300 TL. Later, this figure dropped below 200 TL. A year has passed. Everything in Turkey has doubled without exception. Fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, transportation, and labor costs have increased by at least 50 percent. What would you expect, an increase in the selling price of hazelnuts, right? The state announced a price of 250 TL through the TMO (Turkish Grain Board). That is, a price even lower than last year's opening price. And the nation thinks that the Black Sea hazelnut producer harvests their hazelnuts, dries them, loads them onto a truck, delivers them to the TMO, and sells them for 250 TL per kilo. The biggest deception starts right here. First of all, you can sell a maximum of 100 kg of hazelnuts per decare to the TMO. Secondly, you have to make an appointment. Thirdly, selling hazelnuts to the TMO is not such an easy job. The announced figure is the price for 50-yield hazelnuts. But when you take the hazelnuts to the TMO offices, a very strict inspection awaits you. It is an inspection of 'finding a flaw where there is none'. They say there is a crack, it is not dry enough, there is too much rot, the sizes are small, there is mixing, etc., and your yield is usually kept below 50. This means less payment.

'If you say, "I don't like what the TMO is doing, they want to buy my hazelnuts cheaply," your second alternative is the merchants. They are absolute vultures... The state announces a price of 250 TL. The merchant starts seasonal purchasing at 170 TL. If you say, "Can this be?", the answer you will get will be, "It's your choice, brother, we are not forcing anyone..."

With rain, debts, storage costs, porterage, and schools opening, you have to sell your hazelnuts somehow because of the expenses before a new work season. And there you are, facing the dilemma of 'between a rock and a hard place'...

A Dutch farmer, or if we look at it from a broader perspective, a farmer in EU countries knows what they will face from before production to after and during the sales stage. That is, they know what they are producing, how much it costs, and what they will earn in return. In Turkey, a equation of unknowns awaits the producer from beginning to end...

Money has already turned into nothing and continues to do so. The few pennies they get fly away in a short time, and then the rush for the next season begins... Of course, if you have any strength and stamina left. The Black Sea farmer and producer are at this stage right now... For three years, they have been fighting alone against an invasive species called the stink bug. They have been losing money for three years... Now, just as they are about to take a breath, thinking the stink bug has not been seen much or has decreased this year, this time it is a system that wants to take their product for next to nothing... So how will this producer survive... How will they continue their lives...

Who will hear their cry and who will provide a solution? What does the state exist for, and what do those who govern the state and the relevant institutions of the state exist for...

The painful part of the matter is that this issue, which concerns millions of people, cannot even be a subject of politics... What are we talking about? Discussions on the peace process, the disintegration of the CHP using state institutions, the imprisonment of opposition mayors, the tension we are experiencing with Israel, or the discussions on turning Turkey into a federal state...

What is the nation experiencing, and what are we talking about? The state of the hazelnut producer that I have tried to summarize above is exactly the general picture of Turkey. Moreover, beyond this, today the mountains, forests, pastures-highlands, and water resources of producers, farmers, and villagers are being plundered. The government, let alone being a remedy for the problems of the farmer and producer, has put projects into action to wipe them off the map. If we continue from the Black Sea, tender after tender is being held. While the long-suffering hazelnut producer of the Black Sea is struggling to bring their product to the market at the cost of their life in their field and vineyard, and while their product is being tried to be snatched from their hands for pennies, the state that should support and protect them, and those who govern that state, are also licensing the village and field, which is the last fortress in the hands of the nation, to companies... Yes, today in the Black Sea, villages, pastures, highlands, and forests are being licensed to companies under the name of "we are doing mining." Someone obscure will barge into the vineyard and garden you are trying to protect like the apple of your eye in three or five months, with a bulldozer and gendarmerie in front of them, and will first say, "We are doing drilling." And then they will say there is this mine here, there is that mine there, and they will completely take over. This is called "mining." This order of plunder and looting is being tried to be fed to the nation with fairy tales of "our country is getting rich."

They are so brazen and daring that they have also started social engineering studies by shooting special series and films to brainwash the citizen. My friends called the other day and said, "Watch Kanal D, there is a film about gold mining." Since the television in the village is a bit crappy, I tried to watch it on my mobile phone. They have made a crude propaganda film praising cyanide gold mining. The dialogues, messages, and references seem to have been taken from the brochures of the Gold Miners Association. A cheap Kanal D series that smells of propaganda, with amateur and superficial evaluations and aimed at preparing brains.

I spent years at that channel. The situation it is in now is unfortunately pathetic. Now they have become a propaganda tool for cyanide gold miners. How painful... In the 6-episode series called "Between Two Theses," the gold mining process is supposedly explained with an impartial perspective...

I have written it before, and I am writing it again: the process they call the peace process is definitely progressing intertwined with the process of plundering the natural wealth of the region by imperialists and their local collaborators. They have set their eyes on the natural resources of the East and Southeast, along with the Black Sea, Aegean, and Mediterranean. They need a thornless rose garden and brainwashing apparatuses. The opportunities to make documentaries and news that will tell the truth in Turkey today are very limited. They are conducting one-sided propaganda through the media organs they have seized and taken over.

There is a need for a real opposition stance that will tell the nation the truth. The painful thing is that an official related to agriculture from an opposition party that is a candidate for power comes out, complains about the spoiled nature of the Black Sea farmer and their lack of awareness of the world, and blames them... This is another most difficult dilemma we are facing...

İbrahim Gündüz