introduction

INTRODUCTION
This report summarizes the findings of field research for the social impact
assessment of Kargı Kızılırmak Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant that commenced
on the 1st of June, 2010 and ended on 31st of August, 2010. The social impact
assessment report is composed of thirteen chapters. The first chapter explain the
internal proceedings of the Virtua Research, expound the research and assessment
methodology employed by our consultant team, and detail the code of ethics
employed by our firm. The following chapters, detail the geographical and
historical qualities of our unit of analysis (Kızılırmak river valley, extending to the
dam construction site and containing Osmancık), and portray the economic,
political, administrative, and cultural structure of Osmancık. Last chapter
examines village specific data collected during our qualitative field research,
portrays the findings of the survey research on the basis of economic activities,
household and everyday life structures, and gender relations, investigates incipient
foci of interest for the thorough assessment of the dam construction, and pinpoints
the attitudes prevalent amongst village stakeholders. Moreover, it also summarizes
key attitudinal perspectives voiced by the local stakeholders in our research set.
RESEARCH STAFF AND DESIGN
PROJECT TEAM
Virtua Research employed 13 specialists for the Social Impact Assessment of the
Kargı Hydroelectric Power Plant Project. The titles and positions of the specialists
are as follows:
VIRTUA OFFICE TEAM
Project Leader, Mehmet Demiray (BS in Sociology, METU; MA in Political Science,
Bilkent University)
Project Finance Leader, Demet Demiray (BS in Business Administration, METU)
Project Coordinator, Sinan Tankut Gülhan, (PhD Candidate in Sociology, State
University of New York at Binghamton)
Desk Researcher, A. İrem Tuncer, (PhD Student in Anthropology, Pittsburgh
University)
CONSULTANT TEAM
Project Consultant, Assist. Prof. Aykan Erdemir (METU, Department of Sociology &
Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology)
Project Manager, Assist. Prof. Özgür Dirim Özkan (Yeni Yüzyıl University,
Department of Social Anthropology)
Statistics (Information) and Geography Consultant, Assist. Prof. Sinan Zeyneloğlu
(Gaziantep University, Department of City and Regional Planning)
Technical Consultant, Serhat Gözütok (MA in Civil Engineering, BTU)
FIELD TEAM
Field Manager, Mustafa Akçınar, (PhD student in Sociology, METU)
Field Executive, Özge Çelik, (MA student in Sociology, Ankara University)
Assistant Field Executive, Irmak Toker (BA in Anthropology, Yeditepe University)
LOGISTICS TEAM
Survey Coordinator, Hüseyin Çalışkaner
Transcription, Burcu Metin
Project Logistics, Gönül Özcan
RESEARCH DESIGN
PRELIMINARY RESEARCH
A three-day long preliminary research was carried out by the project manager
Assist. Prof. Özgür Dirim Özkan in Osmancık on the dates May 13-15, 2010. In the
first day of the preliminary research out technical consultant Serhat Gözütok also
accompanied him and explained the processes of construction. The preliminary
research was crucial to recognize the basic traditional and political vista of the
field which is critical for the final decision on selection of the research team
members from among available candidates, as well as for considering the physical
conditions of the field, and evaluating the logistical facilities.
Photo: Project manager Özgür Dirim Özkan and technical consultant Serhat Gözütok on construction site
TRAINING
After an intensive selection and training process, Virtua Research has put together
a well-qualified, experienced, and committed field research team. A field training
workshop was organized by the project leader Mehmet Demiray, project
coordinator Sinan T. Gülhan, project manager Assist. Prof.. Özgür Dirim Özkan, and
project consultant Assist. Prof. Aykan Erdemir. Our field research specialists,
Mustafa Akçınar, Özge Çelik, and Irmak Toker attended the workshop and received
training on ethnographic research procedures, research ethics, background
information of cultural, political, economic and religious structures of the region,
and on guidelines of Social Impact Assessment. Before the three-day training
seminars they were assigned introductory reading material that provided an outlet
for discussion and elaboration of key issues, especially on the role of religion and
gender relations prevailing in the region. In addition to the conceptual and localityspecific training, research specialists and the project management were introduced
to the reporting formats and techniques applied by Virtua Research. Following the
training workshop, field researcher team carried out a pilot ethnographic study.
The fieldwork and field notes of the pilot study were than evaluated by the
trainers.
TRAINING SEMINAR PROCEEDINGS AND CONTENTS
On
May 28-29, 2010, the entire field team and consultants participated in a
seminar at the Ankara Office of Virtua Research.
During the seminar, the following activities were undertaken and decisions were
made:
Project leader Mehmet Demiray summarized the development of the project,
the needs of Statkraft, and outlined the rights and responsibilities of each and
every field member,
Technical consultant Serhat Gözütok delivered a briefing on dam construction
and
expropriation procedures as well
as the
legislations regulating
construction projects in Turkey,
Statistics and geography consultant Sinan Zeyneloğlu shared basic statistical
information (demography, education and basic economic Indicators) and also
delivered a presentation about the geography and climate of the research
area,
Project consultant Aykan Erdemir explained IFC standards and clarified field
procedures to be followed and described the theoretical framework to be
utilized for the project,
Project manager Özgür Dirim Özkan delivered two days of training on
ethnographic field techniques and note taking with a special emphasis on
peculiarities of the research field relying on the data collected during the
preliminary research,
Desk researcher A. İrem Tuncer presented a concise history of the region and
outlined the literature dealing with Osmancık,
Project coordinator Sinan Tankut Gülhan delivered field guidelines and sample
reports from previous studies and explained field quality control processes in
detail,
Field manager Mustafa Akçınar shared the results of the preliminary field
observation conducted during proposal preparation and shared slide shows
demonstrating daily life in Osmancık,
Project finance leader Demet Demiray delivered a short training course on
work safety rules, presented an overview of finance issues, and introduced
the logistical facilities in the field.
DESK RESEARCH
Extensive desk research has been conducted by İrem Tuncer and Sinan Zeyneloğlu.
The field research team also participated in the desk research process during the
orientation and training week in Ankara in the first week of June. Coordinated by
İrem Tuncer, the field team visited the National Library in Ankara and University
Libraries of Ankara University, METU, Bilkent, and Hacettepe, where copies of all
available material were made. During desk research, all statistical data resources
for the region were compiled by Sinan Zeyneloğlu, and the data was made available
as soft copies and shared with the research team. Data dating back to older times
was requested from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), and for the period not
covered by their resources a historical archival work was initiated. A detailed
investigation and summarization process was completed regarding the local history.
The content analysis of national newspapers and three regional newspapers printed
in Osmancık and Çorum has been a part of our desk research. The selective
headings of the desk research findings can be found in addendum I.
FIELD WORK
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
One of the shortcomings of SIA practices has been its impervious approach to issues
like methodology, epistemology, or theory formation. 1 As SIA practice is rapidly
changing and becoming more open to hitherto not applied methodologies, we aim
to bridge the gap between quantitative oriented approaches and qualitative based
methods.
The essential difference between ethnographic and classical sociological method,
established by early twentieth century French analytical sociology and foremost
among them Emile Durkheim’s empirically oriented social scientific approach, is
the manner in which relations between dependent and independent variables are
understood. As etched in Durkheim’s notion of “social facts as things,” the classical
sociological method have largely sought for reproducible, non-unique, frequently
observable, patterned, nomothetical, homogeneous, and controllable social
occurrences as units of analysis (Durkheim 1982). Anthropological stance, on the
other hand, looked towards non-reproducible, unique, ideographical, spontaneous,
occasionally ephemeral, and frequently mythical elements of culture. Yet, the
conundrum between two divergent methods was overcome at the end of the
twentieth century, and ethnographic research techniques that are rooted in
participatory action approach have contributed immensely to the development of
locally approachable, grassroots oriented, egalitarian, and mutually understanding
applications (Atkinson 2001). Foremost among those applications is of course, SIA
practice.
One of the most illustrating examples of this enrichment of the information by
hybrid methodologies in data collection would be the analysis of national and
municipal election results in Osmancık. Statistically speaking, the absolute majority
of Osmancık is voting in favor of right wing parties, namely, AKP (Justice and
Development Party, 50,69% in 2009) and MHP (Nationalistic Action Party, 30.82% in
1
H. A. Becker, The International Handbook of Social Impact Assessment: Conceptual and
Methodological Advances (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006), 129.
2009) have gained %82 of the votes in the last municipal elections. This statistical
illusion would have led us to the false conclusion that this overwhelming majority
translates into a fundamentalist Islamic worldview and chauvinistic tendencies.
Normally, such a picture in Turkish rural context means there is strong social
pressure in the social sphere which will lead to strict gender segregation and
insurmountable political pressures for the left wing groups and foreigners.
However, current mayor, Bekir Yıldız, a member of the leading AKP (Justice and
Development Party), demonstrates a contradictive example to such stereotypical
conclusion. After finishing the law school of Istanbul University he worked actively
in right wing civil society organizations and turned out to be an active member in
political struggle. However, as a mayor he signed the decision of giving the name of
Pir Sultan Abdal, who is an Alevi (Heterodox Islamic sect) rebel from the 16th
century widely used as a symbol among left wing groups around Turkey, to one of
the main streets in Osmancık. Moreover, during our fieldwork we have discovered
many civil society organizations, where women were overrepresented and
dominant, and a surprisingly significant proportion of women were integrated into
the economic life in a town where women’s labor force participation does not
appear to be high. Ethnographic methodology enabled us to discover the
statistically non-prevalent social factors effective in shaping the daily life and
worldviews of Osmancık residents.
If we dwell further upon the methodological and technical practicalities of
ethnography as a field-centered practice we should give heed to Clifford Geertz,
one of the leading figures in ethnographic research. His description of ethnography
is particularly based upon a key aspect of doing research: writing.
The illusion that the ethnography is a matter of sorting strange and irregular
facts into familiar and orderly categories -this is magic, that is technologyhas long since been exploded. What it is instead, however, is less clear. That
it might be a kind of writing, putting things to paper, has now and then
occurred to those engaged in producing it, consuming it, or both…The ability
of anthropologists to get us to take what they say seriously has less to do with
either a factual look or an air of conceptual elegance than it has with their
capacity to convince us that what they say is a result of their having actually
penetrated… another form of life, of having, one way or another, truly “been
there.” And that, persuading us that this offstage miracle has occurred, is
where the writing comes in. (Geertz 1989:1-3)
Photo: Our field executive Irmak Toker, taking field notes
Hence, this writing, the material proof of “been there,” acquires its existence in
the form of field notes. Field notes are the sine qua non of ethnographic research.
They
are
the
explanatory,
determining,
analyzing
and
all-encompassing
cornerstones of research. They do not just carry the concrete, objective data but a
subjective part that enable us to understand the respondents deeply and
throughout all aspects daily life. A typical example of such an understanding can be
followed from Mustafa Akçınar’s field notes from July 27;
Even though I could not extract much information from this interview, during
the time spend in the poppy field working with locals, I have been bitten
several times by the mosquitoes and kept itching since then. Probably, this is
what is meant by ethnography… There is no guarantee of reaching valuable
information, though the means utilized to reach information itself turns out to
be the ethnographic information itself.
Yet, this cornerstone is not easily carved out, nor laid down in concrete. It is rather
dynamic, incessantly changing, and constantly invested in determining the
problems embedded in ethnographer’s encounters with the subject.
Field notes are not written in accord with some tightly pre-specified plan or
for some specifically envisioned ultimate use. Rather, composed day-by-day,
open-endedly, with changing and new directions, field notes are an expression
of the ethnographer’s deepening local knowledge, emerging sensitivities, and
evolving substantive concerns and theoretical insights. (Atkinson 2001:355)
Since day one, Virtua Research Istanbul Office has received hundreds of pages as
field notes from our three ethnographers: Mustafa Akçınar, Özge Çelik, and Irmak
Toker. They have assiduously drawn field notes each day -apart from their days offand emailed these daily to our Istanbul office. In our Istanbul office, we closely
examined each field note, sent feedbacks, and discussed the findings and the
orientation of the field research in general with our consultant team.
Photo: Field Manager Özgür Dirim Özkan accompanies the team in an interview
In addition to keeping communication channels with the field research team,
project manager Assist. Prof. Özgür Dirim Özkan spent the first four weeks and last
two weeks of the research in Osmancık. He has undertaken further training of the
field research specialists in addition to personally conducting in-depth interviews
and focus group meetings with the local administrative and municipal authorities.
He has taken the responsibility to follow closely the day-to-day activities of the
field researchers, and supplied feedback to their field notes.
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
In their work, “The Tapestry of Culture” which is recognized as one of the
masterpieces of anthropology, Rosman, Rubel, and Weisgrau identify participant
observation as the heart of fieldwork (Rosman, Rubel and Weisgrau 2009:29). As
Bernard argues “Participant observation usually involves fieldwork, but not all
fieldwork is participant observation” (2006:343). In that sense, participant
observation involves participation, daily talks, various types of interviews and
questionnaire forms. Even “hanging out” with locals can be realized as part of
participant observation. Bernard identifies “hanging out” as a skill (Bernard
2006:368).
Photo: Field team hanging out with the seemingly distant informant
Various forms of participation in the field may provide the ethnographer with
valuable information which he cannot gather by using classical methods of
research. This was clearly the case in the following experience of Virtua field
manager Mustafa Akçınar. Being aware of popular usage of bicycles in Osmancık, at
the second week of the research he bought a second-hand bicycle:
Thus, [while buying a second-hand bicycle] I established connections with five
different locals. It was obvious that I would conduct an interview with the
shop owner, with the workers in car-wash and owner of the car-wash service
where I am going to park my bicycle every day. (June 16, 2010)
Establishing connections with locals while experiencing a daily practice not only
simplified organizing in-depth interviews, but also enhanced ethnographer ability
to observe and interact with the locals. That is recognized as the ethnographer’s
advantage of developing an emphatic approach in the field.
Even though the field notes portend the centerpiece of ethnographic research,
participant observation presents the field researcher with the necessary
accoutrements to delve into the cultural workings of a social formation. Participant
observation lacks the objective yardstick to gauge the extent of researchers’ reach
since neither the time spent, nor the people met, would suffice to attest to the
depth and revealing power of participant observation. In a sense, participant
observation can be grasped as the concentrated realm of social relationships at
work as reflected in the field notes. Thus, participant observation never ends
during the field research; each passing moment, every second, each glance,
minuscule encounters ensconces the material of ethnographic research. An able
and elaborate participant observation requires some particular abilities on the part
of researchers: talent to adapt to different and divergent environments and social
spheres, ability to have an active and dynamic sight of the surrounding social locus,
a well-developed short-term memory, ability to start informal interviews and being
an active listener to the interviewees, ability to take detailed field notes, and most
important of all, patience. (Kathleen Musante DeWalt and Billie R. DeWalt 2002:17)
FEMINIST METHODOLOGY
Since The World War II, feminist movement and feminist critique have been
successful in shaping and influencing social thinking. This fact had a significant
impact on social sciences. Since anthropology used to focus more on different
cultures, it is one of the disciplines affected the most by feminist critiques.
Feminist movement not only had effects on anthropological theory, but also on
ethnographic methodology. Implementing feminist methodology does not only
require dealing with gender issues. According to feminist methodology, gender
issues should not be dealt as just a variable but also they should take part as
theoretical categories. In this sense, the research team did not only deal with
gender issue as a “variable” for the research, but paid attention to being the voice
of “half of the population”.
Photo: Irmak Toker learning the local recipes and details of political life
The female ethnographers aimed to collect data from women not limited to
information on gender issues. On the contrary, the prolonged conversation with
female members of the society, starting from their cooking habits and special
recipes, moved to the political sphere and provided our ethnographers with
detailed information about latent political conflicts, still determining the dynamics
of building alliances and prolonging hostilities in the town of Osmancık. The role of
local notables and limits of their power were discovered in such interviews. One of
the moments, where the success of feminist methodology crystallizes was the
discovery of a black and white photo, which shows the patriarch of a local notable
family together with İsmet İnonü, the prime minister of time. The photo was shown
to our ethnographer Irmak Toker, in a conversation about wedding preparations in
front of an old chest containing bridal outfits and some photos.
IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS
During the first month of the research, ethnographers in the field conducted
“unstructured” in-depth interviews, which aimed to seek minimum control over
people’s responses, letting them express themselves in their own terms, and at
their own pace. However, when the fieldwork was broadened to villages, a
structured form was needed as the research team had already defined certain set
of problematic.
Assist. Prof. Özgür Dirim Özkan prepared a structured questionnaire form as a
guideline for the interviewers. This form is specifically oriented towards unearthing
material conditions of production, consumption and distribution prevalent in the
agricultural relationships. Based upon our observations, paddy rice cultivation has a
pertinently emphasized role in our studies.
The structured in-depth interviews focused upon the perception of several issues
already taking place in the region: Immigration, dam construction, regional
development, the impact of the highways -especially the newly expanded IstanbulSamsun highway that connects the metropolitan heart of Turkey to the Black Sea
routes- and the centuries-long conflict between Alevi/Bektashi and Sunni
communities. Pertinent to these questions, an underlying set of issues are raised
concerning the nature of land owning in the villages, and the evolution of this very
landowning structure.
During the research, 109 in-depth interviews and 94 unstructured interviews were
completed, their tape-recordings were made after receiving informed consent, and
recordings were sent to our Istanbul office, and were then meticulously transcribed
by Virtua experts.
FOCUS GROUP MEETINGS
Apart from in-depth interviews, focus group meetings are also a vital component of
fieldwork. Focus group meetings do not only facilitate the observing of power
relations and cultural ties of the locals, but it is also recognized as a more reliable
source of data, since the final form of a certain sort of information is gathered
after a consensus is achieved by the locals. Focus group meetings are especially
useful in villages, where the “groups” are already established. If not, after the
entrance of the ethnographer into the field, the curiosity of the locals that makes
them to form a circle around the “outsider” ethnographer is a naturally formed
focus group.
During the research, a total of 13 focus group meetings were held. These focus
group meetings were mostly arranged and supervised by field research specialist
Özge Çelik during field visits to the villages. Çelik, for example, firstly invited the
wife of the village headman for a structured in-depth interview and by the end of
their interview built rapport with the interviewee. Then, due to the sensitive
nature of gender relations and the incumbent segregation that prevails in the
villages she found herself in the midst of a local women’s meeting. Thenceforth she
conducted ad hoc focus groups and recorded the conversations after receiving
informed consent.
Photo: Özge Çelik conducting a focus group meeting among women in Osmancık
ORAL HISTORY
A corollary to ethnographic research methods is oral history. The most important
and founding figure of American Oral History, Studs Terkel, described the gist of
oral history as follows:
Let’s say an author, let’s start with that and then we’ll come to the noncelebrated people. I read his book, let’s take our friend of this afternoon,
Billington, and it’s a thick book on Frederick Jackson Turner. I go through it
pretty thoroughly. I mark it… It’s rather indecipherable, but I make it out.
Now that I’ve read it, it’s there. And he starts talking. I don’t memorize what
I’ve read but I have an idea generally, and a phrase or two might come to my
mind… I call it, “the phrase that explodes,” whatever it might be. I’m
interviewing a person… Something he says, one thing, might open many
avenues… [F]rom then on you talk and you’re on your own. (Grele and Terkel
1991:12)”
Therefore, oral history takes off where writing ends. One of the peculiarities of the
Turkish context is that knowledge transmission across generations mostly depends
on oral means. It is the tales, stories, gossip, menkıbes (religious stories of
dervishes), and familial genealogies that define and extend collective memory in
Turkey. Another aspect of Turkish context is the lack of official and unofficial
historiography on recent history. It is also a fact that because of periods of political
instability and political oppression, documents about recent history often include
false or biased information. It is not uncommon to find that most significant
historical details are systematically excluded from written accounts. Thus, oral
history enables ethnographers to enrich the information on recent history of a
specific territory and also enables one to cross check information from alternative
sources.
Photo: Özgür Dirim Özkan learning the history of animal husbandry from an elder shepherd
We have employed oral history as a prolific method throughout the research
although not as the main source of data. This helped us to connect loose ends of
the rich, and unfortunately often contradictory accounts transmitted by different
individuals. Salim Savcı, for example, as a retired teacher who had spent years
outside of Osmancık, but nevertheless kept his interest in investigating the history
of Osmancık provided us with valuable information not only the recent history, but
also with important clues about the social and cultural dynamics of Osmancık.
Another advantage of employing oral history technique was observed during our
rapid assessment in Hacıhamza. In the earlier phases, we were informed that there
are a considerable number of absentee landlords residing in Hacıhamza, possessing
the paddy growing territory of Ovacıksuyu. However, there were no reliable
historical data about how this picture of property is defined. Therefore we started
to make some interviews with the technique of oral history, which provided us with
deep and rich historical information that would be impossible to gather by any kind
of archival research. For example, Necati Çağatay, an 87-year old retired teacher,
provided us with a sketch of historical developments, which is full of personal and
communal anecdotes in a three-day long interview in Hacıhamza.
ETHICS
Virtua Research, as a member of TÜAD (Türkiye Araştırmacılar Derneği/Turkish
Researchers’ Association), abides by the Association’s accepted code of ethics,
ESOMAR (European Society for Opinion and Market Research) according to the
latest revisions in 2007. Our field research specialists are trained by Mehmet
Demiray, Assist. Prof. Dr. Özgür Dirim Özkan, Assist. Prof. Dr. Aykan Erdemir, and
Sinan T. Gülhan on the basics and application details of the ethics code. 2
During the field research, the research team paid maximum awareness for ethical
issues. One of the basic problems faced during research was continuous questions
posed by villagers about expropriation payments. Despite the possibility of
mistrust, team members avoided making any comments which then might have led
villagers to predict expropriation payments. The risk of mistrust or refusal was
eliminated by consistent repetition of research aims and content. This process
enabled our research team to overcome an ethical dilemma not only in favor of the
locals, but also for the research-sponsors.
Another serious problem faced with during the field work was the risk of conflict
with local authorities. The first visit of the research team at the field was paid to
the local governor and to the gendarmerie and police stations to avoid any kind
2
For the details of the ethics code please refer to www.esomar.org
problems which would be likely to occur. They were informed about the content of
the research. However, two weeks after the visit, a commander-in-chief from the
police station kindly requested Mr. Özkan to visit Osmancık police station. During
this visit, a police officer working in Çorum city center who was responsible for
intelligence was present. Since the research team began to pay visits to the
villages at the time, the officers kindly asked Özkan to provide them with
information about the villagers “who might have any kind of sympathy or tendency
towards terrorist organizations”. This request put Mr. Özkan in a very difficult
position. On the one hand, gathering intelligence for the police would be a serious
violation of research ethics and total disregard of the safety and well-being of
research subjects. On the other hand, a negative attitude towards security forces
and open confrontation with officers would result in practical difficulties which
could risk the success of the research enterprise. Özkan followed a delicate path by
introducing the notion of “applied anthropology” and delivered a speech about
potential benefits of applied anthropology not only for scholarly inquiry but also for
public projects. He mentioned that there was increasing number of military
personnel in Turkey who have MA or PhD degrees in anthropology. He then pointed
out the clear distinction between scientific research and espionage activity and
that a blurring of the boundaries would endanger the credibility, legitimacy, and
well-being of all parties involved. When carried out with utmost respect for
research ethics and scientific standards, applied anthropology would have the
potential to contribute significantly both to human security and state security.
Thus, Özkan was gradually able to communicate to the officers how an incident of
“espionage” activity undertaken by ethnographers would harm not only scientific
research, but also the work of the security forces as well. This open dialogue and
principled engagement with the security forces not only saved the team from
possible conflict with local security forces, but also contributed greatly to the
prestige and legitimacy of ethnographic research. In the remaining part of the
fieldwork, the boundaries between scientific research and espionage were fully
comprehended and respected the security forces, and the research team was
provided the opportunity to work in its own way.
In the remaining part of this text, the names of informants are kept anonymous in
order to protect their privacy. Given the closed nature of Osmancık as a town and
the tight-knit social relationships prevalent in the region, some sensitive
information, regarding professions and/or residential neighborhoods, is kept secret.
In parts, where private data is not mentioned and/or information mentioned refers
to public figures such as previous mayors, local notables, or public figures names
are kept intact.
PROVINCE
OF
ÇORUM
AND
OSMANCIK
Administratively Osmancık is part of the province of Çorum, which is located on the
northern part of Central Anatolia region. The province borders Amasya in the East,
Yozgat in the South, Çankırı in the West, Sinop in the North, Samsun in the
Northeast, and Kırıkkale in the Southwest. The landmass of Çorum province is
12.820 km². The province is located at 34 degrees, 4.28 minutes East longitude,
and 39 degrees, 54.20 North latitude.
Map: Location of Çorum in Turkey
GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
40% of the total area of the province is mountainous with occasional high altitude
plateaus, which is only available for semi-nomadic animal husbandry. 45% of the
land mass is consists of semi-flat territory, party suitable for agriculture (mostly
wheat) and 15% is consists of flat land, suitable for industrial agriculture. The
territory is deeply cracked by two of the longest rivers of Turkey, namely,
Kızılırmak in the west and Yeşilırmak in the east. The city center is located on the
largest plain (Çorum Plain) of the province, which also denominates the city.
The
province
of
Çorum
has
13
subprovinces: Boğazkale, Dodurga, İskilip,
Osmancık,
Oğuzlar,
Alaca,
Kargı,
Sungurlu,
Uğurludağ,
Bayat;
has
Laçin,
4
Ortaköy,
Mecitözü,
subdistricts,
Cemilibey, Seydim (subdistrict of Çorum
city proper), Hacıhamza (subdistrict of
Kargı), Kamil (subdistrict of Osmancık),
and Alpagut (subdistrict of Dodurga).
Furthermore, Çorum province contains
732
Map: Administrative units of Çorum
villages
which
bring
the
total
population tally to 540,704 according to
the most recent census results. In the province, 40% of the population (212,418)
lives in the center of the province, the city of Çorum, 25% (138,059) in the other
subprovincial centers, and the remainder 30% (190,277) is resident in villages and
subdistricts.
NORTH SOUTH AXIS
When the population figures are investigated on the sub-province level, we
discover that there is a sharp difference between the northern and southern
subprovinces 3. Whereas the southern subprovinces has always been densely
populated from Ottoman to the Modern Republic, the population density in the
north is significantly low.
A defining feature of the Çorum province is its dual position: northern parts and
southern parts of the province have different climatic qualities. In Çorum City (and
provincial center), Alaca, Boğazkale, Mecitözü, Ortaköy, and Sungurlu subprovinces
–areas which lie to the south of the Kızılırmak River basin- continental climate is
effective, while to the north of the basin, in Bayat, Dodurga, İskilip, Kargı, Laçin,
3
See the population figures in Appendix
Oğuzlar, Osmancık, and Uğurludağ subprovinces are under the mixed influence of
continental climate and the Black Sea climatic elements.
In the southern parts of Çorum province, summers are hot and arid, winters are
cold with occasional snowfall. Annual raindrop is almost exclusively limited to the
spring and fall seasons. Subprovinces in the north, however, experience less
temperature differences between seasons, with warm summers, damp and mild
winters. Precipitation is equally distributed to every season with fall having a slight
excess of raindrop. The sharp difference between north and south can be clearly
seen in the below pictures.
Photo: North-South division
UNIQUNESS OF OSMANCIK AND KARGI
Even though most of Çorum is geographically, and from the outset, culturally
located in the Central Anatolian Region, (albeit the regional delineations being
arbitrary definitions developed by geographers of the early Turkish Republic) two
subprovinces of Çorum are situated in the Black Sea. Hence, particularly
subprovinces of Kargı and Osmancık are categorized by Turkish geographers as part
of the Black Sea region, while the rest of Çorum falls into the Central Anatolia
region.
Photo: the grain fields in the east of Osmancık
These contradictory position can be observed in a journey from Çorum city center
towards the black sea costs. By arriving at the Laçin and Dodurga subprovinces one
can attest to the visible change from the steppes and grain fields of southern
Çorum to the forest at higher altitudes and vegetable cultivation and especially
paddy rice growth on the fields on the Kızılırmak River basin. On the highway that
connects Çorum to the Black Sea via Osmancık, especially past Laçin, the forested
mountainous landscape attracts attention, since it is typical of the Central Black
Sea Region
Photo: Paddy rice fields in the west of Osmancık
The difference between Çorum city center and northern subprovinces is not limited
to that of climate. Despite the territorial adjacency and century old administrative
connection, due to the difficulty in transportation, these two territories are
separated culturally and followed different lines of development. Historically,
these two subprovinces are connected to Çorum via a difficult pass that surpasses
steep hills partly covered by thick forests and rising bare rocks, which contains
cave graves from Byzantium times. The difficult road, which could be passed only
with a one-day caravan journey kept economic and political relations between
Çorum center and northern subprovinces limited. An early traveler accounts the
road as follows; (Ainsworth, :99)
“We approached the Kirk Delim [Should be Kırkdilim] hills by a narrow pass,
flanked by nearly perpendicular cliffs, wooded at the base and the summits,
the naked sides of which displayed occasionally small sepulchral grots, but on
entering a narrow part of the pass, we were struck with the appearance of a
tomb …”
The actual highway safely connecting Osmancık to Çorum (59km) and reducing the
driving time to less than one hour has been only finalized in the summer of 2010.
Our unstructured interviews and experiences with local culture gathered through
participant observation points to the fact that people in Osmancık prefer to claim
themselves as not of Central Anatolia, but rather of the Black Sea.
MICROCLIMATE FEATURE OF OSMANCIK AND HACIHAMZA
Photo: The view of Kızılılırmak basin, near Osmancık
Yet, however the climate and fauna and flora have common elements with the Black Sea
Region in general, the lack of access to the sea and the striking influence of the Kızılırmak
River Basin on the local climate have left its peculiar mark on the region.
Photo: Kızılırmak dividing the town
The Kızılırmak River Basin that cuts Osmancık sub-province into half, which is also
a part of the Northern Anatolian fault line, which makes the subprovince a first-
degree earthquake region, implicates key impacts on the region’s climate. A key
climatic proponent of Kızılırmak River Basin shows itself in the form of humidity, to
which paddy rice cultivation owes its existence.
The river basin alongside Kargı, Hacıhamza (where Devrez creek meets Kızılırmak
river) and Osmancık is the main reason for this geographical and climatic
difference. In addition to the
expansive
river
basin,
the
mountain range did not only limit
Osmancık, Kargı, and Hacıhamza’s
transportation routes to Çorum
province center historically, but
also contributed to another set of
settlements
Map: The arch of Kızılırmak
on
the
north
of
Kızılırmak River basin approaching
the Yeşilırmak River basin.
As far back as the time of
Trojan
Wars
and
Anabasis,
states Xenophon, Osmancik was
a focal point that combines two
river basins namely Kızılırmak
and Yesilirmak in one single
passage-like
plain.
Hence,
Osmancik stays on the road
connecting Amasya to Tosya as
a natural extension of a route
Photo: The ancient trade road carved within the rocks
that connects Europe to Asia.
Osmancık had geographically played a passing point on one of the contributories of
the historical Silk Road connecting West, through Amasya and Erzurum, to the East.
Yet, however local population deemed themselves as part of the Black Sea, the
distance to the coast, and the blocking effect of the mountains surrounding the
Kızılırmak Valley makes Osmancık a unique location. Alongside the fertile valley of
Kızılırmak lies many hills and mounts: foremost among them are Çal Mountains-with
an altitude of 1,750 meters at “Büyük Çal” Mount- and Ada Mountains-with an
altitude of 1,770 meters at “Dedeçal.” The highest mount surrounding Osmancık is
the İnegöl Mount with an altitude of 1,864 meters.
Photo: The Kızılırmak River basin in between Osmancık to Hacıhamza
Approached from east-west axis, Osmancık is positioned at the entrance of
Kızılırmak Valley, with a metamorphic and volcanic rock structure. The peculiar
character of the town, and especially the castle at the midst of the town, owes its
existence to the metamorphic and volcanic rock structure. Geologically formation
at the end of the Cenozoic era bequeathed Osmancık with rich lignite coal veins,
and the Northern Anatolian Fault Line.
The fault line traverses parallel to the
Osmancık and Kargı town centers, and follows the Kızılırmak River basin.
Photo: A view from the basin, near Hacıhamza
With its relatively lower altitude from the sea level and with its encapsulated
location amidst surrounding mountains and hills there exists a microclimate in the
Kızılırmak Valley. This natural encapsulation and the added effect of centuries-long
paddy rice cultivation -which contributes to the humidity levels through
condensation at the valley base- have created a microclimate particular to
Osmancık. Especially during the summer months high humidity levels accentuate
hot temperatures. The continuous evaporation during daytime in the summer
meets with breeze from the mountains at late afternoons, and the ensuing high
pressure-low pressure strata produces heavy rainfall. This type of convectional
rainfall can be seen every late afternoon during summer months.
LOCUS OF THE RESEARCH
The locus of the research was determined to be Osmancık for two basic reasons:
Although the HEP power station is named as “Kargı HEP”, the reservoir will be on
the territory of the Osmancık sub-province and thus, it is Osmancık locality, rather
than Kargı, which will be affected to a greater extent by the project. Secondly, it
was observed that the rural population of Osmancık is already at the last stage of a
so-called industrial/modern transition which results in de-population of the rural
areas of Osmancık sub-province.
Considering the demographic data acquired from TÜİK, which indicates that there
is considerable immigration to Osmancık from villages in the vicinity of the dam
reservoir, the research team focused more on the sub-province center Osmancık
during the first month of the research, taking into account that Osmancık is the
sole center of rural-urban migration in the region. This has two dimensional results:
First, as figured out, de-population of villages of Osmancık. Second, transformation
of Osmancık from a town into a city. Thus, the locus of the research was decided to
be Osmancık town center.
The research team focused more on the social dynamics of the town center during
the first month of the research. This enabled the research team not only to
understand the dynamics of transition of a town into a city, but also to gather some
preliminary analytical data about the villages. After one month of ethnographic
research in Osmancık, the primary locus of the study was determined to be
villages, and Osmancık as a research locus became of secondary importance. Since
the beginning of July, research team began to pay visits to the villages, where the
owners of the lands which will be covered by the reservoir are residing. Namely the
settlements included to the study are Durucasu, Eymir, İnal, Kabala, Karaçay,
Kızıltepe, Ovacıksuyu and Sarpunkavak.
Map: The direct impact zone
Moreover, from the beginning of the research in rural areas, it is realized that as a
consequence of historical factors, some landowners who possess paddy fields in the
reservoir territory are residing in a small town called Hacıhamza, 36 kilometers
west of Osmancık and some 20
kilometer
distance
to
the
regulator site, officially within
the territory of the sub-province
of Kargı. Therefore, a one-week
ethnographic research was also
conducted in Hacıhamza in order
to integrate the view of those
landowners.
Map: Road map of Kızılırmak basin in-between Osmancık
and Kargı
HISTORY OF OSMANCIK
ANTIQUITY
OSMANCIK IN NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGES
Throughout history, the settlement today known by the name of Osmancık, has
been an important passage on the routes connecting Asia and Europe. Due to its
location, Osmancık has been host to many different cultures and civilizations. It is
known that Osmancık, as part of the Kızılırmak River arch, was the scene of human
civilization as early as late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. However, because of
the lack of archaeological excavations and extensive studies on the pre-historical
remains in the region, scientific knowledge is limited on the issue. Settlements
dating back to the early Bronze Age was noted and widely accepted in the
subprovinces of Osmancık, İskilip, and Dodurga, but yet to be archaeologically
excavated. Unfortunately, our research, as underlined below, has pointed to
looters (defineci -treasure hunters- in Turkish) active in Osmancık. In and around
Eminlik Area (Village of Gemici), Gürleyk Area, Öbekkaya (Village of Öbektaş),
Sarıkaya and Tencerekaya, it is deemed to be host to human settlements since
3000 BCE (Before Common Era). Kurbantepe (Berk Village) in Dodurga subprovince,
Upper and Lower Maltepe Burial Mounds in the village of Veletler in İskilip,
Külhöyük, Örentepe and Padişah Tepe burial mound are the sites where artifacts
from early Bronze Age and Iron Age were recovered.
The important geographical position of Osmancık points to a crucial role possibly
played by the settlement during the Hittite civilization. Hittite Empire was nestled
in the Kızılırmak River arch, and Osmancık presented an invaluable location both in
terms of commerce and security. Yet, due to the lack of aforementioned
archaeological excavations in the region, our knowledge on Hittite activities in
Osmancık is limited.
Photo: Kandiber Castle from the road towards Adatepe
The nearest and oldest settlement uncovered hitherto is the rocky area that lay to
the north-east of Osmancık town center and at the east bank of Kızılırmak.
Specialists point to the natural protection -from wild predators and other human
groups- provided by the elevation of the rock. With the introduction of agriculture
and sedentary life, the rock became a geologically enhanced citadel that permits
control of passage, taxation of transport, and conducting of commerce activities.
Even though the existence of castle in pre-history is suggested with claim that it is
first built by the Hittites, there are not any reliable source indicating the exact
time of construction nor the civilization who first constructed it (İlter, 1988; 536).
However, it is certain that due to its geographical location controlling a narrow
gorge of Kızılırmak arch at a focal point of trade routes and geological advantage
which enables settlers to built or enforce by additional walls, the Kandiber Castle
has been the most important structure determining the town center. As explicitly
described by Ainsworth, an early traveler:
“…what gives it its greatest peculiarity
are the cones of rock which rise out of it,
bearing the ruins of two different castles,
which loophole and casemated ramparts
following a zig-zag direction along their
precipitous sides, while another rock is
caverned with variously formed recesses
and sepulchral grots, and there are other
smaller and more pointed obelisk-like
summits, which are distinguished by
bearing on their peaks the great nets of
storks.” (Ainsworth, 98)
Sketch of Osmancık in Ainsworth’s travelogue
PRE-HELLENISTIC, HELLENISTIC, AND ROMAN PERIODS
The rock tombs still visible in our own day points to the fact that an advanced
civilization was already established in the area. With the advance of trade among
the silk road, gates and fortification were added to turn the citadel into a
stronghold to control the passage (İlter, 1988; 537). Ancient sources, coins found in
excavations and Strabo’s geography indicate that the citadel was known by the
name Pimolison (Πιμωλισων) and the surrounding fields to the north and south of
Kızılırmak (Halys in ancient sources) was named Pimolise (Πιμωλισαι). The fact that
the coins marked Pimolise was excavated in Bosporan Kingdom (in today’s Crimea;
Ukraine) implies that the settlement was not an independent city state but a
military fortress. Thus, the coins served as payments to the soldiers garrisoned in
the fortress. 4 The settlement had been a part of ancient Paphlagonia region. Since
being a part of traditional routes connecting the east-west axis through ErzurumAmasya-Istanbul centers have kept the region at the forefront of warfare, invasion,
and differing waves of settlements. 5.
4
5
For a detailed study of the issue and period coins see Callatay, 1991
Erdal Eser summarizes this process as: “The Paphlagonia region was ruled by Hittites during Iron,
in 14th century BCE Kashkas, in 1230 BCE Phrygians, in 630 BCE Cimmerians, and between 652-625
BCE Lydians took over the region. Although the region of Paphlagonia did not carry a particular
importance in history, its people have been one of the most ancient peoples in Anatolia and this
brings its particular importance. After the collapse of the Hittite Empire, Phrygians reigned over the
region, and they were followed by Cimmerians in 7th century BCE. Lydian King Alyattes (575-546
Map: Historical Paphlagonia region
As the region continuously changed hands between 7th century BCE and 3th century
BCE, Alexander the Great’s reign created a brief stint of order. Yet, after his
death, the region became a safe haven for marauders and rebels. As a result,
Mithridades Μιθριδάτης (Ctistes) (BCE 337-302) attacked the region several times. 6
Only after Mithridades IV (Eupator) (BCE 119-63) established his capital of Pontus
State in Sinope (BCE 170-150) area had some form of security and turned out to be
a stable settlement again. The town had become a key point of commerce for the
Pontus State. 7
BCE) ended the reign of Cimmerians over the region, and Kroissos (575-546 BCE) fortified Lydian
reign. However, this did not last long and in 547(or 546) BCE Persians took control of the region
from the hands of Lydians. Later, Alexander the Great (336-323 BCE) established his rule in
Paphlagonia in 333 BCE. After Alexander’s death Eumenes reigned over Paphlagonia. Until taken
over Pontus kings, Paphlagonia was ruled by the warrior princes of Pylaemenes –members of which
partook in the Trojan War.
6
Fletcher (1939) Argues that the town had no import of notice beyond being a military garrison.
7
For a detailed discussion see Hojte 2009
Leaf explains the role played by the region: “Across Halys the valley of Amnias
extends to the inner Paphlagonia, to the border of Bithynia. This is the main artery
of the Pontus Kingdom.” During the Hellenistic period Pimolise prospered by way of
trade and became a small town and embarked on to be ruled by the Pontus
Kingdom under the city of Amaseia (today’s Amasya). No historical documents
could be found to show a sustained town in the region after the collapse of the
Pontus Kingdom.
Strabo, who was born in the Roman city of Amaseia, in his book Geography –written
in CE 17- mentions the name of the region as Pimolisa: "Here is situated
Pompeiopolis, in which city is the
Sandaracurgium,
(or
Sandaraca
works,) it is not far distant from
Pimolisa, a royal fortress in ruins,
from which the country on each
side
of
the
river
is
called
8
Pimolisene.” In fact, the city of
Sandaracurgium was famous for
his
coal
mine,
spreading
poisonous red colored sulfide,
Illustration of slaves
Sandaracurgium
working
in
the
mines
of
responsible for the killing of mine
slaves forced to work in there.
Today the mine is still on operation in the sub-district of Alpagut, on the south of
the Osmancık town center The fact that neither the Roman, nor the Byzantium
sources mentioned the place in their travelogues, points that a systematic human
settlement did not exist around this time period.
8
See STRABO xII.3.15, 3.39-40
MEDIEVAL AGES
ARAB INVASIONS, SETTLEMENT OF TURKIC TRIBES, SELJUKID RULE
The onset of Arab invasions, the scattering effect of two great earthquakes in CE
968 and CE 1050 in Çorum, Amasya, and Kastamonu, and finally the devastating
looting during the crusades indicate that the region lost considerable population
alongside its connection to the central Byzantine state rule, and fell prone to
nomadic invasions. The Oguz Turkic tribes started their intrusion in 1074 by taking
over Çorum in 1074, and the vicinity of today’s Osmancık in 1075 (İlter, 1988; 537).
The conqueror of the area, Melik Ahmet Pasha of Danişmend, gave over the
lordship to Şerafettin Osman Gazi, from the Sorgun clan of the Oguz Alayunt tribes.
Şerafettin Osman Gazi used today’s Osmancık as his seat of power to control İskilip,
Hacıhamza, and the rest of today’s northern Çorum. The power of Sorgun clan,
centered in the town, led the place to be called Sorgun. In 1177, the Danişment
principality lost power over the area and the town went under the control of
Anatolian Seljukid State.
OTTOMAN RULE
The history of how Osmancık gained its name is contradictory and also of import for
history of the Ottoman Empire. In the first and also new edition of Brill’s
Encyclopedia of Islam it is noted that the sources are contradictory regarding the
name. Osmancık is connected with Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire
“and it is said that cOthman I took his name from this place which had been granted
him as a fief.” 9 Although this suggestion is refuted by Franz Babinger firmly in the
early twentieth century, it found wide circulation among historians. Babinger
suggested that Osman might be the Arabicised form of a Turkic name, Atman or
Azman, yet, Ibn Battutta emphasized that the founder of the empire called himself
“Osmancık” at one point, in order to differentiate himself from Osman, the third
caliph.
9
Martijn Theodoor Houtsma, E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936 (BRILL, 1987), 101213.
On the other hand, Ewliya Chelebi mentioned an Emir Osman, who was born in the
town, while Hadjii Lhalifa argued that it was another leader named Osman who
conquered the town from Byzantium. In the Derbeyan-ı Menakib-ı Zuhuru Ali
Osman, it is suggested that Osman I was born in Osmancık, on his father’s journey
to his timariot in Söğüt. However, the reliability of this legend is quite dubious
since, the Ottoman rule could only extend to Osmancık in 1392, when it was taken
by Bayezid I, who garrisoned and fortified the town with an additional castle. The
sources indicate that at that point in history there was a Bektashi settlement, built
around the tomb of the famous Bektashi saint Koyun Baba. As related by Hadji
Khalifa the residents of the settlement belonged almost completely to the Bektashi
order. 10
The region gained stability and recovered a long lost role as the passage way that
connects west to the east -it was on one of the two most important routes that
connected Istanbul to Persia- under Ottoman rule. 11 Beyazıd I’s commander Yörgüç
Pasha, as governor of Amasya took control of Osmancık, banished the Turkoman
tribe Kızılkocaoğulları from the area. Çorum and the surrounding region were partly
under the control of Kadı Burhaneddin Ahmet in the latter part of the fourteenth
century. Once Beyazıd I took control of Osmancık, Kadı Burhaneddin claimed the
region as part of his fiefdom, and requested the return of land for peace.
Afterwards, in the Battle of Çorumlu between Kadı Burhanettin forces and the
Ottoman army, Beyazıd I lost control of Osmancık. It took another quarter century
for Osmancık to be taken under Ottoman rule, under Mehmet I’s reign.
The Ottoman rule found its symbolic expression in two monuments, first is the
İmaret Mosque, built in 1430-1431 under the auspices of Koca Mehmet Pasha, the
grand vizier of Mehmet I, the second is the bridge now called Koyunbaba, built
under the orders of Beyazıt II between 1486 and 1491. After the final taking over of
Kızılırmak and Yeşilırmak river basins, Amasya, Sivas, and Tokat was conjoined in a
10
11
Ibid.
See also Suraiya Faroqhi, Halil İnalcık, and Donald Quataert, An economic and social history of
the Ottoman Empire (Cambridge University Press, 1997), 485. for a detailed account of the trade
routes of the Ottoman Empire. Osmancık was located on one of the two main routes to the western
Iran-the other one passing through the stepes of Anatolia, and was closely connected to the silk
center of Anatolia: Amasya.
single eyalet,
12
and named Vilayet-i Rum. 13 Osmancık, was organized as a kaza
under Çorum Sanjak14, which was composed of five different kazas and one divan:
Çorumlu, Osmancık, İskilib, Karahisar Demirli, and Katar kazas and Karım divan.
As studied by Üçler Bulduk, the Osmancık kaza of the Çorum sanjak, was the most
populous administrative division of Çorum in 1576 -including today’s subprovinces
of Dodurga, Laçin, and Oğuzlar, and composed of 130 villages with a population of
37,000 and a taxable income of 782,025 akches (silver coins). 15 The administrative
structure of the Osmancık kaza can be accordingly summarized:
Nahiye of Osmancık
Consisted of 11 Mahalles and Osmancık town center and villages to the
northeast of the town. Today these villages became a part of the town. The
Nahiye of Osmancık was the center of kaza, with a population of 3,000. Given
the fact that the town had 412 taxable population during the reign of
Suleyman I, this points to a significant boom. The most important items in
taxation in that year were taxes for bazaar and painting. Evliya Chelebi
mentioned in his travels that the town had many Turkish baths and inns.
Divan of İncesu
Consisted of 11 villages to the south of Osmancık town, on today’s border with
Laçin subprovince with a population of 2,200. The biggest three villages were
Saray, Yenice, and Sarık. 60% of its revenues were registered under the titles
of zeamet and has. This indicates that timariot and large landholdings were
especially noticeable for this district.
Divan of Çepni
Consisted of 11 villages to the northwest of today’s Osmancık town centertoday’s Baltacı Mehmet Paşa village is located here. Çepni is the name of a
Ottoman State organization was based on two administrative structures: central and provincial
organization. This bureaucratic organization which determined tax collection, military organization,
law, and other state functions had eyalet at the top of hierarchical ladder, eyelets were made up of
sanjaks, and sanjaks were divided into administrative unit of kaza, nahiye, and divan.
12
Rum alone was the Turkish term for describing whole Anatolia. Thus, in order to distinguish the
eyalet named Vilayet-i Rum-consisted of Amasya, Sivas and Tokat- was frequently noted as,
"Vilayet-i Rûmiye-i Suğrâ."
13
14 It is not certain when Çorum gained the status of sanjak; the documents dating back to the oldest
time period is missing. Yet, Çorum was known to be one of the most significant Turkish settlements
in Anatolia.
15
Üçler Bulduk, “Çorum Sancağının Osmanlı İdari Teşkilatındaki Yeri I,” OTAM (Ankara Üniversitesi
Osmanlı Tarihi Araştırma ve Uygulama Merkezi Dergisi) 3 (1993): 129-167.
Turkoman tribe, and thence the district got its name. In our own day, the
names of the villages are completely different than the records and it makes
it difficult to ascertain the exact location of the district.
Divan of Bayır
Consisted of 24 villages to the north of Kızılırmak Valley, foremost among
them Tekmen, Öbektaş, and Ağızsuyu on the way to Gümüşhacıköy, but is also
inclusive of Ardıç, Yağsiyen and other villages to the southeast of Kızılırmak
with a population of 5,563.
Divan of Öyücek
Consisted of 9 villages to the southwest of Osmancık town, with a population
of 2,569. The district is now a part of Osmancık town.
Divan of Pelitbükü
Consisted of 8 villages, Sarbun (today’s Sarpunkavak), Kızıltepe, and
Pirinçciyan (today’s Ovacıksuyu) to the southwest of Osmancık town, with a
population of 1,308. With paddy cultivation as far back as 16th century, this
district forms the backbone of our research in Osmancık today.
Divan of Saz
Consisted of today’s sub-province of Oğuz and surrounding villages
Sakız Divanı
Consisted of today’s Dodurga sub-province and part of Laçin sub-province.
Mihmadselam
Consisted of the southern parts of Laçin sub-province.
Yet, the commercial successes, rapid growth, and booming population of postSuleyman I years of the 16th century did not extend to the 19th century. An English
traveler in 1808 and 1809 noted that:
From an eminence on the road we first discovered the rock of Osmanjik,
forming a striking point amid the green and lively scene of the plain…
Osmanjik in its present state is only a large village; the distance from
Marcivan [Merzifon] is reckoned a march of fourteen hours. The plain around
is cultivated principally with corn and vines; it is thickly wooded and well
watered by the Kizzil Irmak… Very fine lands rise above it, along which, still
following the stream in all its windings, the road is carried, presenting to the
travelers at every reach new and striking pictures. Here and there we came to
fine collections of walnut-trees, and then crossed large plantations of rice,
which, for the facility of irrigation, were situated immediately on the borders
of water.16
Although the reasons for this stagnation are multifarious and deeply embedded in
the world history, chief amongst these reasons concerns us for the purposes of our
research. By the end of 18th century, the central Ottoman bureaucracy instigated a
new system of landholding. Contrary to the traditionally held -and bequeathed to
them by the Seljukids- system of timariot (in which, akin to the feudal knights of
Europe each landlord was required to raise and take part in the army), and another
novel system of iltizam (system of tax farming, auctioned in given intervals), the
system of malikane was instituted. These were lifetime tax farms, or grants of the
right to collect the taxes of an area in exchange for cash payments to the treasury.
For instance, three mosques in Osmancık were dependent on the malikane
revenues collected by the Vaqf of Baltacı Mehmet Pasha. 17 Unlike at any other
time, this revenue generating practice for the coffers of the Ottoman Empire
created local classes of notables endowed with the tax farms of vast areas:
Vizier and pasha households in the capital controlled the auctions of the
lifetime tax farms, letting and subletting them to the local elites of the
various provincial areas. In this way the Istanbul elites maintained a shared
financial interest with notable families while, since they could remove this
lucrative privilege, exercising control over them. Thus, in any test of power,
notable families ultimately either yielded or risked losing their lifetime tax
farms. 18
LATE OTTOMAN ERA AND FIRST WORLD WAR
The previous chapters clearly demonstrates how Ottoman past, determined the
main character and the way of life in the town of Osmancık. By enabling the
security of the trade channels extending from north-to-east and towards Caucasia
and
Central
Asia,
Ottoman
rule
bestowed
Osmancık
with
prolonged
16
James Justinian Morier, A journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in
the years 1808 and 1809: in which is included, some account of the proceedings of His Majesty's
misson, under Sir Harford Jones ... to the court of the king of Persia (Published by M. Carey, and
Wells and Lilly, Boston. G. Palmer, printer., 1816), 344-5.
17
Huri̇ İslamoğlu-İnan, State and peasant in the Ottoman Empire: agrarian power relations and
regional economic development in Ottoman Anatolia during the sixteenth century (BRILL, 1994).
18
D. Quataert, The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 48.
security/stability and a consequent vivid commercial life. Indeed, the memories of
old mansions and the existence of monumental buildings in the city centre and
archaeological remains in the castle reminds these old glorious times. However,
with the replacement of historical land routes; the spice and silk road, with sea
routes, and camel caravans with the stream ships under the control of European
powers, had a devastating effects on Osmancık economy. The city lost its
importance and left without the indispensible surplus from trade and left to local
agricultural produce as the only source of income.
Moreover, due to the continuous and unending wars and upheavals, the medium
sized glorious town started to decay and resolved into a relatively crowded small
town, which lacks the necessary economic potential to keep up its population. The
most dramatic event for the already shrinking economy was the First World War
and subsequent Independence War followed by the siege of Western Turkey by the
Greek Army. Total causality of just the Independence War is 324 for Osmancık,
added to that the effects of epidemic diseases and problems caused by the fugitive
soldiers who turned out to be robbers in the region, Osmancık started to lose its
population quite rapidly. Indeed an investigation of population figures between
1800’s and 1960’s will clearly demonstrate that it took a full century for Osmancık
to compensate its net population lost. According to Cuinet, who visited Osmancık in
1847, the total population of the city centre was around 8.000 (He gives the exact
number of 8940), which is reduced to half size within 80 years, (4132 in 1927, first
national census results) and the city could not reach the same population till 1960’s
(8296 in 1965).
Post card of late Ottoman period: Demonstrating the economic collapse and depopulation
The devastating effects of collapsing economy can be clearly observed in the
change of architecture, whereas the dominant form of settlement was mansions or
detached houses with a garden at the front yard during late Ottoman period; in the
early years of republic, the damaged mansions were left for lack of financial
sources for any kind of repair and instead new shelters are built in typical rural
Central Anatolian style. The rural style composes of a single room adobe detached
house, built on top of a cowshed, so that inhabitants of household living in the first
flour could benefit from the heating breath of the livestock. Though this cheap
solution solves the accommodation problem temporally, it is far from providing
stable and reliable housing for the town. Indeed, chronicles reports during the
earthquake of 1943, majority of such houses were collapsed.
ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ARTIFACTS
There are several archeological excavation sites and monumental buildings mostly
remained from Ottoman time. Below the most important of historical artifacts are
listed and in a summary their connection and relevancy to our research is given.
KANDIBER CASTLE
Photo: The ramparts of the castle
Owing to its prominent strategic position, being a gateway both into central
Anatolia and the Black Sea region, Çorum-Osmancık (then called Primolise) has
been used by many civilizations. In order to control the trade routes and conduct
proper taxation, the town was eventually fortified. It is claimed that Osmancık
Castle (also known as Kandiber) is first built by the Hittites as early as 1900 B.C.
Even though the claim makes sense, considering the fact that Kızılırmak basin is
mainly populated by the Hitites, it has not been verified by any archaeological
excavation nor archival studies.
Standing next to Koyunbaba Bridge by the
Kızılırmak River; the castle is situated on a massive set of rocks that are called
Fişekçi Kayası which literally means “fireworker’s rock”. It is easy to see the
building blocks belonging to house bases that were once dwelled in within the
frontiers of the complex. In various sources, the castle is said to have had about
200 houses, in addition to 80 houses out of the fortification in Osmancık. One finds
graven rooms made of stone, rock tombs, embossments and tube-shaped paths
inside the castle, which were claimed to be remains of the old Turkish bath.. The
castle has witnessed numerous wars and seen much plundering and demolition over
the centuries. Evliya Çelebi, an Ottoman traveler who journeyed through the
territory of the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century mentions the castle in his
famous travelogue called Seyahatname. Osmancık Castle is currently under official
protection as a national heritage.
KOYUNBABA BRIDGE
Photo: Koyunbaba bridge
The Kızılırmak (Turkish: Kızılırmak, "Red River") is known as the Halys River in
ancient texts. ( Áλυς) is the longest river in Turkey. It flows for about 1,150 km.
The river flows through Osmancık, dividing the town into two. Because it has a
considerably wide bed of stream it was not possible to build a bridge over the river
until the year 1486. Before that time, the transportation between the two halves
was secured by the Ottoman “gemicis”, meaning seafarers, who resided in the
neighborhood currently called Gemici Mahallesi. This fact verifies the argument
that Osmancık was once a significant juncture for the Ottoman system of
transportation. Sultan Bayezid II governed in Amasya as a prince, therefore he
knew how difficult Kızılırmak made travelling. Consequently, he ordered the
construction of a big bridge over the river after he was enthroned. The
construction process started in 1486 and ended in 1491 with an uninterrupted pace.
The bridge is on the main road of Çorum-Osmancık-Tosya and this very location is
considered as a result of a conscious logistic planning in terms of linking these
different spots. The length of the bridge is 205 meters while its width is 7.5
meters. Currently the bridge is used as a suitably strong point of transfer for
modern vehicles with its solid appearance that does not contain any adornments.
The bridge actually has nothing to do with Koyunbaba, yet the townspeople seem
to have matched the two’s grandeur and started referring to the bridge as
Koyunbaba bridge. There are also a number of myths that one can take into
account to make this naming issue more meaningful, one of them being that the
Sultan Bayezid had a vision of Koyunbaba telling him to construct a bridge over the
river. The fact that the inscription describing the bridge’s date of construction and
other specific details is set apart from the bridge itself points to a rather conscious
mentality of city-planning. Despite the long duration of time, many floods and
earthquakes, the bridge stands still with all its splendour as an architectural
monument.
KOYUNBABA SHRINE
Photo: The shrine of Koyunbaba
Koyunbaba is a renowned Turkish saint who is supposed to have lived in the 13th
century Anatolia. Historically speaking, those times were marked by internal
conflict, war and the Mongol invasions, and thus chaos. Numerous saints were
sources of psychological support and folk wisdom for people at the time.
Koyunbaba was a contemporary of a more famous another Turkish saint Hacı
Bektaş-ı Veli (1210-1271). Though both unknown, Koyunbaba’s dates of birth and
death are supposed to be close to those of Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli. Hearing about
Koyunbaba as he was a prince governing Amasya, Sultan Bayezid II had the shrine
built after his enthronement. Today the shrine is in the north of the town, on top
of a little hill next to the Arafat Hill. According to the inscription of the shrine
which is not in its proper place at present, the date of construction is 1467. It is an
octagonal structure with each brim being 2 meters. An archway entrance is
connected to the main conical structure of the shrine. A marble inscription on
which there is a two-line writing states that the shrine belongs to Koyunbaba. The
inscription goes; “Koyunbaba His Excellency was honored by having His shrine
made. The historian spoke the history of the sheikh of disciples for this sacred
gate.” As for the interior, there is Koyunbaba’s tomb and huge deer horns. This
practice stems from the old Turkic-shamanist conception of afterlife. The
significance of the shrine comes more from the mythical character of Koyunbaba,
rather than from its structural-architectural features.
IMARET MOSQUE AND THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL
Photo: The İmaret mosque
Imaret Mosque is the oldest historical structure which managed to reach the
present day. Located in a huge garden on the skirts of the castle (on the right when
entering by the old road), the mosque is reported to have been built alongside an
imaret (kitchen and lodge for Muslim pilgrims) which could not survive into the
modern times. The mosque and the imaret were built upon the order of Koca
Mehmed Pasha in 1431. The Pasha was a native of Osmancık. According to the
annals of Amasya, Koca Mehmet Pasha became a favorite of Mehmed II while he
was the prince governor in Amasya province and later gained acceptance into the
palace after holding several important offices. He was appointed governor-general
in 1415. Koca Mehmed Pasha died in 1438 and was buried in the yard of the very
mosque that he had built. His grave is still present in that location. Until as late as
1839, the imaret had served food to the staff and guests, thus fulfilling its function
for almost 400 years. A theological school connected to the imaret was founded.
The famous Akşemsettin (tutor to Sultan Mehmed II) taught as a scholar in this
school. As material for construction, bricks, rubble stones and lime mortar were
used. The structure shows a cubic character with its urchin-like fringes that end
each wall. The portal that symmetrically divides the frontal façade is made of
marble and it is crowned with three-part arches. This T-shaped structure displays
elements and ornamentation techniques of Anatolian Turkish art.
AKŞEMSETTIN MOSQUE AND THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL
Photo: Akşemsettin mosque
The mosque is to the north-west of Osmancık Castle and its southern façade is
contiguous with the castle. The structure has been damaged by stones that slid and
fell from the castle up until the 1960s. The mosque was made functional again by
lifting up the layer of stones and soil. At a first glance the building gives the
appearance of a T shape with the rising dome and the bulks stretching to the sides.
However, when looked at carefully, one encounters a single unit and a domed main
bulk. It bears a single dome on itself. Two chambers are situated on both sides of
the entrance part. The school which is made of stone is located in the yard of the
mosque. The rumor has that Akşemsettin himself built the mosque. However, the
recent research on the topic reveals that Akşemsettin was born in Osmancık and
taught in the school as a religious scholar. Hence the mosque and the religious
school are referred to his name. Although the structure displays conventional
mosque features more with the later additions, the plan of the overall structure
gives the impression that it was designed as a theological school (medrese in
Ottoman) Despite the fact that the theological school has been much decayed as a
result of various earthquakes and by the stones that fell off the castle, it still
endures its cultural-historical significance.
SINAN PASHA MOSQUE
One of the most important works of Sinan Pasha, the mosque after the eponymous
Sinan Pasha was built in 1507. It could stand with renovations until the year 1943.
But the mosque had been seriously
damaged and got cracked in the
dome because of an earthquake the
same year. Out of fear for its total
collapse, the local government had
the mosque demolished except for
its side walls. After the earthquake
in 1943, the mosque was rebuilt,
this time of timber and with a
Photo: The historical minerate of Sinan Pasha mosque
completely different interior design.
A dome standing on four relatively slim pillars and the place of narthex were
rearranged as two storeys. After it was realized that this wooden structure was not
capable of meeting the demand of the community, it was again demolished in
1986. In the same year Sinan Pasha Mosque was erected for the third time in the
same location. This current version is a three-storey, square shaped structure
which is more in the style of the Seljuk Turks rather than the Ottomans. The
interior ornamentation was created by a master from Van in 1988.
SINAN PASHA INN
Along with the mosque and some other artifacts, Sinan Pasha Inn was built around
the same time in 1507. The inn is in the south of the mosque and has an
appearance stretching from the east to the west. Hewn and rubble stones with flat
tiles were used as material in the construction. The first serious damage came in
1943, breaking down the inn’s complete frontal façade and the upper section of its
western façade. The upper part of the inn was covered by flat tiles in order to
protect the interior from absorbing water. It is possible to see the tiles altogether
in a photograph of the inn from the year 1952. However, all these tiles are lost by
now. Due to the lack of relevant excavation, it is not known whether the ground of
the inn is soiled or made of cobblestone pavement. Failing to bear the heavy snow
on it during a harsh winter in 2002, Sinan Pasha Inn finally caved in.
LOCAL PERCEPTIONS AND MYTHMAKING
People in Osmancık have a certain and accentuated pride in the history of their
town. Apart from two ears of paddy rice, Kandiber Castle,
Koyunbaba Arch Bridge and an illustration of an Ottoman house
are the figures that take place in the logo of the Municipality of
Osmancık. Those figures provide us hints on the historical motives
Osmancık logo
of Osmancık which are highly respected by locals.
The historical uniqueness of the town is quite eminent at the first glance. Rising in
the middle of the Kızılırmak plain, Osmancık town gives an impression like hugging
Kandiber Castle, by settling around this monumental rocky structure, thought to be
dated to the Hittites, the mythical precursors of Anatolian civilizations. Kandiber
Castle is simply a sign to confirm the noble past of the town. Despite its historical
past, Kandiber Castle does not fulfill the requirements of being an “historical
Turkish settlement”. In fact, only in recent years importance of non-Turkish
historical elements were begun to be given importance by locals. Even though
practically it is not working, there is a sign stating that climbing up to the castle is
forbidden. It is recognized as a place visited often by young lovers who wish to
remain hidden from the eyes from the locals, or used as a place to consume
alcoholic beverages. Bekir Yıldızcı, the mayor of Osmancık is aware of such usages
of the caste, and in an interview dated June 15, 2010 he had expressed his project
of transforming the Kandiber Castle into an entertainment area by renovating the
fortress of the castle and building a tea garden up the hill and lighting the castle to
make it to be seen from the Istanbul-Black Sea highway.
If Kandiber Castle confirms the historical nobility of Osmancık, it is Koyunbaba Arch
Bridge which is the proof of the Ottoman past of the town. Koyunbaba Arch Bridge
is the main figure of the Ottoman past in the town, which illustrates a unique
character of Osmancık. Anatolia had always been a land of local uprisings in
Ottoman history. Stephen Kinzer, a specialist on the history of Turkey points out
that it was the Balkans which was the heart of the Ottoman Empire, but not
Anatolia. 19 Osmancık is one of the few settlements in Anatolian heartland which is
characterized by Ottoman inheritance. The reign of Ottoman rule makes itself
visible through the characteristics of Ottoman architecture, which can be seen in a
set of settlements located on the northwest of Anatolia, like Safranbolu, Mudurnu,
Bolu, and Osmancık. Those settlements were annexed to the Ottoman Empire
under the reign of Yıldırım Bayezid. Being aware of the threat coming from
Anatolian princedoms collaborating with Timur, Bayezid had given importance to
those settlements which is reflected on architectural heritage.
19
Stephen Kinzer, Crescent and star: Turkey between two worlds (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008),
232.
Koyunbaba Arch Bridge, with 15 arches, that is built during the reign of Bayezid the
“Thunderbolt” I in the 15th century is the most visible architectural symbol of the
Ottoman character of the town. The name of the bridge is referred to the
historical-religious figure “Koyunbaba”.
Photo: Koyunbaba bridge and his statue
Koyunbaba plays an immense role in the regional awareness. According to our desk
research, he is one of the saintly figures whose ancestry is accepted to be related
to the 12 Imams of the Shia tradition, Hacı Bektash-I Veli (the founder of AleviBektashi religious tradition in Turkey), and mentioned by the legendary Ottoman
traveler Evliya Chelebi as the founder of a Sufi order whose disciples are known in
his name, as the Koyunbaba Dervishes. Koyunbaba Shrine in town is one of the most
important religious sites in the town.
The few remaining Ottoman-style historical houses are also recognized as having
symbolic and historical value, which is also visible on the logo of the city. After the
devastating earthquake in 1943, most of those houses were ruined. However,
mayor Yıldızcı talked about a project of re-building historical houses.
The most interesting historical figure in Osmancık concerns a relatively strange
character, Achilles of Trojan Wars. Even though the legend tells us that Achilles’s
body, after he was slain by Paris, was cremated and his ashes were buried
alongside Patroclus in Troy, there appears to be a belief in Osmancık that Achilles’s
burial site lies within the lands across Kızılırmak. This curious claim gives us a hint
of Osmancık’s split and contrasting identity, and will present us further clues
regarding the cultural clash that prevails in the region.
Furthermore, Osmancık is engraved in its locals’ minds as the hometown of famous
Ottoman, and later Turkish, military figures: Baltacı Mehmet Pasha. Baltacı
Mehmet Pasha is the sole Ottoman general who won in a war against Russian forces
in the history of Russo-Ottoman military history that is more than two centuries
long and laden with seven different wars and who has a special place in the dark
depths of Turkish popular history as the person who seduced Czar’s wife, later to
be Queen Catherine I, during the Pruth Campaign. In the popular perception of
history, it is believed that after a special meeting with Queen Catherine I, Baltacı
Mehmet Paşa settled for a peace treaty which did not reflect the victory of
Ottoman army. This arises some rumors that the intimate relations between Baltacı
Mehmet Paşa and Catherine I was more than a diplomatic one. Although, Ahmed III,
the Ottoman Sultan did not conceive the treaty as an unsuccessful one, the popular
rumors forced him to dismiss Baltacı Mehmet Pasha from his post and send him to
exile in Lesbos with the accusation of accepting a bribe from Catherine I 20. Despite
his infamous popular image, Baltacı Mehmet Pasha is recognized as a historical
pride of Osmancik, where a monument dedicated to him is placed at the entrance
of the town.
Another historical figure referring to Ottoman past of Osmancık is Danışmendoğlu
Koca Mehmet Nizamüddin Paşa, or popularly recognized as Koca Mehmet Pasha,
who served as grand Vizier in years 1429 – 1438. His historical significance is
evident in his tomb located in the İmaret Mosque in Osmancık.
In fact, the Ottoman identity of Osmancık is apparent in the name of the town
itself. It is believed that Osmancık was the birth place of Osman I, the founder of
theOttoman Empire. Moreover, it is also believed that the tutor of Fatih Sultan
Mehmed was also born in Osmancık. Salim Savcı, an important source of oral history
in Osmancık, in an interview carried out on June 24, 2010 points out the
importance of these characters on the identity of Osmancık, and he adds that these
20
Yaşar Yücel ve Ali Sevim, Türkiye tarihi: Osmanlı dönemi : 1730-1861 (Türk Tarih Kurumu
Basımevi, 1992), 259-262.
figures increase the motivation of the public, as well as himself to have certain
perception of “belonging”.
Since the Ottoman historical heritage is the main stimulus of “belonging” for the
public, it also has a function of directing the sense of belonging as an historical
connection to the “state apparatus”. This comprises a continuum of loyalty to the
Republic as well. A noticeable fact showing the evidence of loyalty to the Republic
is embodied by the figure of Ahmet Çörekçi.
Retired four-star general Ahmet Çörekçi, as the commander of Turkish Air Forces,
was one of the main actors of the 28th of February 1997 military intervention that
resulted in the resignation of Erbakan Government. As a native of Osmancık,
retired general Ahmet Çörekçi is being held in high esteem, and the main street,
the commercial hub of the town, is named after him. Hence, it can be safely said
that Osmancık, with certain reservations emphasized below, puts a distinguishable
importance on military figures that represented Turkish national, and nationalistic,
consciousness.
The historical heritage of loyalty to the state apparatus and the feeling of
belonging establish a certain kind of conservatism in Osmancık. As will be further
mentioned in the sections below on the political dynamics of Osmancık, the
conservatism in Osmancık does not tolerate any form of extremism, and progressive
dynamics can only be accepted if it takes place in a conservative form. That kind of
conservatism carries the risk of potential xenophobia derived from impervious
stand of Osmancık, which may not only be directed against different beliefs and
ideologies, but also against “outsiders”.
MODERN ERA
EARLY REPUBLICAN YEARS
Osmancık, historically one of the crucial cornerstones in trans-Anatolian
transportation, ended up becoming a small town located in a relatively deprived
area in the Turkish Republic. There are several explanations for this decline, both
at the national and international levels. Internationally, the emergence of the
Turkish Republic and USSR after the World War I, demolished all the remaining
meaning of the Silk Road, by detaching north-eastern Turkey from Caucasia and
Central Asia.
Map: Historical Silk Road
The iron curtain of USSR, and steel forced borders of modern age, disabled the
slightest chance of the long faded trade in the region. Besides these international
factors, at the national level, the change of the capital city from Istanbul to Ankara
and investments carried out on new harbours and railways changed the
conventional transportation channels. Consequently, Osmancık once on the crossing
point of north-to-south and east-to-west transportation routes; providing a safe
haven for travellers and merchants, turned out to be a secondary and less
preferred alternative, which is only used to reach provinces in the north-east of
Turkey.
At the national level, with the emergence of Ankara as the new capital, the old
north-south corridor shifted from Osmancık to Merzifon, which is 65 km east of
Osmancık and fortuitously located right on the main road connecting Ankara to the
biggest Black Sea City Samsun that has been increasing its power with its newly
built and enlarging harbour. Moreover, the development of the railroad system
connecting Istanbul to the eastern provinces via Ankara shifted the west-east trade
route from Kastamonu-Amasya-Erzurum (via Osmancık) to the southern alternative,
connecting Ankara-Sivas-Erzurum (via Yozgat). Indeed, this shift is partly caused by
the geographical advantages of the southern route, which alleviates railroad
construction and also partly caused by popular demand, since the southern route is
combining larger and more populous cities and serving more people. Whatever the
reasons this change resulted in complete lost for Osmancık.
Map: Turkish railroad network (Red point is Osmancık)
As a result, like the neighbouring cities of the central Black Sea region; Çankırı,
Sinop and Kastamonu, the population of Osmancık began to decline. Statistically
speaking, the surrounding cities, namely; Rize, Trabzon, Gümüşhane, Kastamonu,
and Çankırı, which are located in the north away from the newly constructed
railroad networks, were among the winners of migration until 1965, giving
significant amount of work force to the relatively industrialised centres in western
cities and Ankara. The effects of this demographic shift are still apparent in the
region, which contains a relatively old population and exhibit low productivity
ratios, much below the national average. The deprivation of the region in terms of
transportation can be clearly seen in the map below showing the road map from
1966.
Map: Osmancık as a dead-end in the Turkish highway system in 1966
The conditions of the 60 km long road connecting Osmancık to the city of Çorum,
the administrative centre, to which Osmancık is dependent on many levels (legal,
administrative, etc) were not improved from ancient times to the republican era.
Cevdet Saraçer (N.D, 15) explains this as;
The connection to Ankara was via the road which was only recently paved
with asphalt. Previously it was a very dangerous and winding road, which was
known as “Deve Bağırtan” (literally, the camel holler), “Eski Kırkdilim”
(literally the old forty stones). The road was one of the first nightmares of
charioteers, which had been forcing the passengers to get off and push the
car in order to help the horses and charioteer.
Until the 1940s, the road was still covered with large round shaped pebbles and
only with the introduction of the Marshal Aid in 1950s, it was improved gradually
into a paved road. It first turned out to be a causeway and eventually macadamised
and only recently, during our field research, it was widened and reached higher
standards with a better quality pavement with proper road signs.
Not just the road to Çorum, but also the road from Osmancık to Kargı via
Hacıhamza was not in good shape. Our informants lamented that they even
remembered the day when there was not even a dirt road connecting Osmancık to
Kargı, Kastamonu, and beyond. For centuries, 36 kilometres between Osmancık and
Hacıhamza was taken in 8 hours, and not much has changed for at least another
quarter century or so.
In the 1960s, the long sought Black Sea roads were finally completed, and however
rugged and twisted the curves of this road was, it was the first time in history the
Black Sea that coastal cities were connected to each other and to main urban
centres. Osmancık was now placed at a dead end street. Below map, which is
distributed via a daily insert about touristic places in northern Turkey in 1966,
clearly demonstrates how Osmancık was a marginal Anatolian town, which is left to
natural life protection and hunting in terms of tourism possibilities.
Map: New roads in central black sea, connecting the coastal cities for the first time
Due
to
population
extensive
of
hunting,
game
the
became
local
extinct.
Currently, there is a newly established
reservation area for Anatolian Antelopes.
On a regular basis, the institution releases
healthy adults to the surrounding forest
area. As it was the case in 1960s, Osmancık
has
the
hope
of
increased
Antelope
population, which will enable controlled
hunting, a very lucrative source of income
for newly developing tourism in the modern
subprovince of Osmancık.
Photo: Wildlife breeding and preservation area
for Anatolian Antelope
The daily life of the marginalised Anatolian villages was that of modesty, lacking
any luxury and alternative economic activities other than subsistence agriculture.
The informants and written sources, sharing their memories about this era
indicates the closed economy of the town and the relative poverty prevalent in the
life style. For instance, Saraçer (N.D, 298) while describing the daily life during the
1950s says “... a family with a sack of flour and firewood for winter would be
classified as a wealthy household”.
FROM 1960S TO THE MILITARY TAKEOVER OF 1980
During the 1960s, starting with the transportation facilities, the infrastructure of
the town began to improve. The most important of these developments were the
increase in basic health services, which subsequently skyrocketed life expectancy
rates. Finally, the population figures caught those of Ottoman times and enabled
the long-sought economic development. However, economic stability was disrupted
with the increasing political unrest and clashes, which divided the country into
conflicting groups, namely, left and right, which in many areas was also conflated
with sectarian divisions. Basically, those of Alevi origin supported left wing parties
and were overrepresented among radical left wing groups. In the same vein, the
Sunni groups of Central Anatolia were overrepresented among the radical right
wing organisations irrelevant of how marginal they are. Osmancık, having a
sectarian cleavage suffered greatly from political and sectarian clashes. The period
before the military takeover of 1980 is full of memories coloured with politically
and religiously motivated violence in Osmancık. Just an overview of the news
headings during this time, explains the terror in the memoirs of the elders who
were in their twenties during these events. For instance, on 27.04.1977, a group of
left wing youth wanted to carry out a protest against the murder of a student
leader by right wing militia forces. However, the attempt was forcefully prevented
by a crowd of 3,000 people. Similarly, on 31.07.1977 the dailies inform that the
local strike in a tile factory was disrupted by gendarmerie forces, who also took the
trade union leaders under custody. Again, on 12.12.1977, unknown subjects in a car
driving from Amasya started to fire randomly on the crowd, wounding ten and
killing four during a political speech delivered by the candidate for the mayor’s
office.
Indeed, in addition to the literature review, we came across many similar stories of
fear and terror from the locals of the town. However, due to the time passed by,
the critical details of the stories were long forgotten like, who was guilty, why the
event occurred in the first place. Nevertheless all events contributed to the
unforgettable residue in the collective memory, which still affects the mental map
of the residents. For instance, when asked about political mobilization in the town,
our informants insistently claim that, whereas in the town centre at the northern
bank of Kızılırmak, AKP and MHP is powerful, in the southern bank, where Gemici
neighbourhood is located, there is a considerable support for CHP. Statistically
speaking this is definitely not true since the figures demonstrate that the support
for AKP is not less in Gemici nor is there any significant inclination towards CHP.
When we challenge our informants by reminding them these election results they
disagree with us again and claim that political divisions are clear since, for
example, the influential leftist leaders like Erdal Otuzbir and Ali Bilginer (all
famous figures taken to the court by the military government for being members
and leaders of radical leftist organisations) were active in this part of the town and
affected local residents dramatically. Thus, it is quite confident to claim that the
cleavage differentiating the south and north bank is a social cleavage rather than a
political one, which is fixed in collective memory with the bloody events that took
place during difficult times.
Photo: Field team on the edge of the bridge dividing the left and right wing zones
The most shocking and bloodiest event affecting the town at large occurred in July
1980, when a mob of right wing gangs carried out a pogrom against the left wing
Alevi residents in Çorum city centre and killed 57 of them. Our informants were
informed that one amongst the dead was from Osmancık’s Gemici neighbourhood.
Our informants acknowledged that since then an invisible border was drawn
between two parts of the town –Alevi-Bektashi and Sunni- and the river had long
served as a natural border between those segregated parts. With the exact words
of our informant “two brothers, one waiting on the left bank, the other on the
right were killing each other at the time”.
POST 1980S
The turbulent decade of the 1970s witnessed a bloodletting between leftist and
rightist political organizations in the town, and after the coup of 1980 sides had to
come to terms under the liberal economic regime of Turgut Özal (the first prime
minister elected after the first free elections in the aftermath of the 1980 military
takeover). One informant put it bluntly that the “overnight [after the coup]
erstwhile enemies had become counterparts in competition for bread [money] at
the marketplace.” The erstwhile leftists were more advantaged in this
competition. With their university education, they left their town for big cities -or
for some unfortunate ones as political exiles in Europe- and engaged in the newly
burgeoning Turkish corporate economy. One of the frequently told stories concerns
aforementioned Erdal Otuzbir, as the college-educated son of the mayor (Dursun
Otuzbir), he was, as related to us, once a representative of a radical leftist
organization in Osmancık and worked as a lawyer defending the rights of the brick
factory workers. After 1980, he left for İstanbul, gradually climbed up the ladders
of the corporate structure and became a top-level executive of Turkcell-Sonera,
and changed his last name from Otuzbir to Durukan. 21 Although he is nowadays one
of the most favoured elites of Osmancık bureaucrats and notables, the workers he
tried to help during the 1970s are left disgruntled, and do not hesitate to criticize
him. Probably this small but effective population exchange resulted in the political
shift in the south bank. Our informants still claim that there are 1,500 guaranteed
21
See the addendum for archive on these turbulent years.
votes for the left wing CHP, which according to the last election result remained
only at 600, which represents only 10% the registered voters in Gemici which had
more than 6,000 voters in latest elections. Indeed, whereas the well educated and
left leaning voters left the town and were replaced by surrounding villagers who
are right wing voters, the balance of political parties changed inevitably in favour
of centre right. With the exodus of left wing elites, the remaining people have
significantly altered the elite controlled social structure of the town and tilted the
balance of political (perhaps also economic) power towards the new immigrants
from the surrounding villages. This shift can be seen in the subsequent victories in
municipal elections in post-1980 period, which firmly established right wing and
conservative domination.
HISTORY OF THE OSMANCIK MUNICIPALITY
Photo: The municipality of Osmancık
Osmancık had one of the earliest municipal administrations in Turkey. The
municipal organization was established in Osmancık in 1891, at which point only
Beyoğlu had some form of municipal administration in İstanbul. The mayors that
served Osmancık, their terms, and party affiliations are as follows:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
22
Gafiloğlu Mustafa Efendi 22 (1891-1910)
Kapusuz Mustafa Efendi (1911-1912)
Hasan Hafız Efendi(1912-1925)
Ali Efendi-(1926)
Osman Efendi (1927)
Hasan Hafız Efendi (l927-1929)
Hatipzade Mehmet Efendi(later took the surname Şahin),(1929-1935CHP)
Mehmet Çetin (Retired Gendarmerie Officer),(1935-1940-CHP)
Abdulkadir Güney (Merchant, Father of Gürsel Güney-currently living in
Osmancık, interviewed by our research team, father-in-law of retired
four star general Ahmet Çörekçi) (1940-1942-CHP)
Abdullah Derindere(1942-1943-CHP) (Derinderes are currently one of the
main benefactors and elite families of Osmancık)
Kamil Kaplan (Son of the second mayor)(1943-1945-CHP)
Kemal Erdem (1945-1953-DP)
Ahmet Ulusoy (1953-1954-DP)
Kemal Erdem (1955-1957-DP)(1957-1960-DP,Member of Parliament from
Çorum)Arrested and brought to the court after the 1960 coup, his MP
position was annulled.
Abdullah Özçelik (1957-1959-DP)
Mustafa Asım Okutan (1959-1960-DP)
İbrahim Argun-Governor of the Sub-province (Appointed by the 1960
Junta) (1960-1963)
Faruk Güçlü(1963-1968-AP)
Dursun Otuzbir (Independent, later a member of AP [Justice Party],
father of Erdal Otuzbir)(1968-1971)
Sıtkı Solak (Retired Air Forces officer)(1971-1973) Appointed by the 1971
junta.
Dursun Otuzbir (Independent)(1973-1977)
Necdet Yaşar (School principal-1977-1980-AP)
Mehmet Ali Türker-Sub-province governor (12.09-1980-30.12.1980)
Appointed by the 1980 junta
Raif Ekicioğlu (Retired Police Officer)(30.12.1980-30.10.1981)Appointed
by the Junta
Cevdet Ekmekçi-Sub-province Governor (30.10.1981-23.03.1983)
Appointed
Baki Öz (Turkish Republic Directorate of Roadways Official) 23.03.l98314.06.1983 Appointed
Before the introduction of law on the surnames in November 1934, males used “efendi” as an
epithet denoting social position.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hasan Eke (Retired Major) (14.06.1983-28.10.1983) Appointed
Mesut Sarıkaya Sub-province Governor (28.10.1983-27.03.1983)
Appointed
Durhan Ceylan (Manager-1984-1989-SHP (Social Democratic People’s
Party, successor to CHP, Republican People’s Party) Elected
democratically
Orhan Ertekin (Driver-1989-1994-DYP True Path Pary, successor to AP,
Justice Party, and DP, Democratic Party)
İ.Avni Kılıç (Teacher-1994-1999-MHP, Nationalist Action Party)
İ.Avni Kılıç (Teacher-1999-2004-MHP)
Emin Serdar Kurşun (Agricultural Engineer-2004-29.03.2009- AKP, Justice
and Development Party)
Bekir Yazıcı (Teacher-Lawyer-29.03.2009-AKP)
POLITICAL MOBILISATION IN OSMANCIK
As discussed in detail in the chapters dealing with history, the political
environment of Osmancık is deeply affected by the clashes that took place
between 1970 and 1980. After these years of turmoil, the 1980 military takeover is
praised by the Osmancık population as the sole provider of economic and political
stability. Consequently, right from the first democratic elections in 1984, Osmancık
started to demonstrate a consistent attitude of voting in favour of right wing
spectrum, irrelevant of sectarian divisions prevalent in the town or the previous
connection of local elites with left wing parties.
In other words, the starkest political reference point in Osmancık is its conservative
stance. In the last national elections, AKP (Justice and Development Party) and
MHP (Nationalistic Action Party) have gained %85 of the votes in Osmancık.
However, a cursory stance would have led to a false conclusion that this
overwhelming majority translates into a solidified conservatism. Yet, our
observations in the town would say otherwise. It is neither the religious
fundamentalism, nor nationalism, but, the search for a harmonious and peaceful
encapsulation that motivates the residents of Osmancık. Since, the votes of the
ruling party AKP is increasing in Turkey, so it happens in Osmancık. In sum, right
wing superiority in Osmancık should be grasped as a natural reaction for the long
anticipated strong state, which is right now crystallised in AKP.
Besides the seemingly impenetrable right wing block, there exist three religious
groupings in Osmancık: Nurcus, Süleymancıs, and Menzil. Due to the closed nature
of these Sunni religious orders, it is highly unlikely to meet with these groups,
though it is indubitable that they have contributed dearly to the %52 AKP election
success in Osmancık, their public appearances are highly limited and confined to
close-knit circles and limited to those willing to integrate themselves into the
circles.
Although the people in Osmancık belong predominantly to the Hanafi branch of
Sunni Islam, there are more than four Alevi villages, Baltacı Mehmet Paşa,
Kumbaba, Yasiyen, and Çampınar with an approximate total population of 2,000. It
is also our estimate that a total of seven to ten thousand people of Alevi belief do
live in Osmancık, in other villages, hamlets, and in the subprovince centre, which
makes CHP (Republican People’s Party) the third party in Osmancık. The political
mobilisation in favour of CHP is a common denominator of being Alevi in Central
Anatolia. Consistent to the distribution of Alevi residents, CHP votes spread
starting from Gemici neighbourhood and moves to the other Alevi villages, namely,
Yağsiyen and villages of Baltacı Mehmet Paşa on the north of Osmancık centre.
Villages of Girinoğlan and Kumbaba on the south are predominantly Alevi-Bektashi
settlements and support CHP instead.
So far, our observations in the town of Osmancık did not indicate a pejorative or
segregatory stance against these ethnic and/or religious minorities. Indeed,
Koyunbaba’s appropriation as a popular folk figure by the Sunni population in town,
even though being an influential figure in Alevi-Bektashi belief, points to a positive
development. It is crucial to underline the fact that another historical figure,
Baltacı Mehmet Pasha, is of Bektashi origin.
On the other hand, we can attest to the perseverance the MHP and AKP supporters
in the town have shown regarding the disappearance of the borders and
desegregation. The prevalent notion today is to overcome social conflict and to
uphold cross-cultural harmony via mutual respect that puts “security and peace” in
a privileged position. As mentioned above, it is a contrast that Ret. General Ahmet
Çörekçi had both been an active participant of the 28th of February Military
Intervention, and venerated through his name given to the main street by the town
authorities, since he is one of the townspeople. Although a source of underlying
contention for long, Çörekçi’s role -akin to the state authority that is accepted as
unequalled- points to the high esteem put on one of the deep-cutting conservative
mottos, “peace and security.”
LOCAL NOTABLES AND THE MOMENTUM OF ECONOMIC TOOK OF
Historical resources refer to Osmancık with praise for its impressive and elegant
mansions. As part of its Ottoman heritage, the town contained quite a number of
such houses. Unfortunately not many of them survive today. The municipality does
have a project for restoration of historical buildings and has re-built some of the
mansions.
Photo: A mansion in Hacıhamza
During our filed observation and interviews we discovered that the mansions and
mansion life still hold an important place in the social history and identity
structure of Osmancık residents. For instance, one of the former residents of such a
mansion, Cevdet Saraçer, describes the old mansion owned by his family as:
Right on the left from the entrance, there was a spacious barn, which till
today I haven’t coincided with any larger. Five distinct families moved to this
barn for living after the earthquake of 1943... Right next to the barn, there
was a woodshed, with tile roof and adobe walls on the three edges… It was a
mansion made of lath and plaster… The yard was covered with wild-grown
grass.
The first owner of the mansion was “Seyyit Es-seyit district governor Mehmet
Emin Bey of Saraç”, whose name was written on each and every hand-made
copper made saucepan, soup bowls, or trays.
The spacious barn, expensive kitchen utensils indicated the old prosperous mansion
life enjoyed by the local notables till the last quarter of the Ottoman life. Yet, the
source of income for mansions is still a mystery. However, historical resources
indicate that the main source of income for the notable families were nonagricultural.
1844 figures of occupational distribution of households in the town of Osmancık
When statistics of the eighteenth century is investigated in detail, we discover that
the main manufacture industry in Osmancık was textile followed by tanning and
food processing, i.e. grain mills. Moreover, there has been several blacksmiths and
households engaged in transportation. Our oral historical study reveals that there
was also a considerable size of land controlled by the notable families of Osmancık.
Still the town has never been a centre for agriculture but rather a centre of trade,
mostly specialised in small scale manufacture industry that utilised the produce of
its hinterland.
As discussed in detail elsewhere in the report, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the
series of military defeats that accompanied it, and the diminishing importance of
trade routes devastated Osmancık’s economy. Till the 1950s, the town was left
alone in an isolated agrarian economy that was only able to produce subsistence
income for its residents. During these years, the notables managed to keep their
power over the peasants and residents of Osmancık, despite losing much of their
wealth. In other words, the relative loss of wealth did not result in a parallel loss
of power.
Photo: Osmancık Municipal Council, 1938
The picture above more or less summarizes the transformation from the Ottoman
Empire to the Turkish Republic. The notables are intact, yet they wear new attires:
suits and ties and possibly also hats. Two women, as tokens of or gestures toward
gender equality, are amongst the members of the Municipal Council, which was
unimaginable before. Namely, Derinderes, Güneys, and Çörekçis are there, and as
notables who have carried with themselves an immense ownership of land,
sometimes upwards of 2,000 decares, they have laid the building stones for
Osmancık that reached our day. Though the notable families still own a significant
proportion of land, with the economic revival of Osmancık, they started to be
active in trade and manufacture instead.
One of our informants who is a distant relative of a notable family explains as
follows:
The natives of Osmancık are open-minded. They have a welcoming attitude
towards new migrants. The families of Derindereler, Hacıhasanlar,
Tevfikefendiler, Haytalar, Acarlar, Kalemler, Şerbetçiler (the addition of
“ler”, the plural suffix indicates the nobleness and authority) are indeed
relatives.
As a pivotal example, the history of the Aksan family is worth mentioning.
Basically, the family members follow up their history back to Sultan Murad II and
claim that it was with his orders that they settled down in the Evlik village near the
town centre of Osmancık. Besides agriculture and trade, the family developed
close relations with the government and provided Istanbul with lots of bureaucrats.
Eventually, they settled in the town centre, though they still keep their connection
to Evlik and own land there. They have a considerable weight in transportation
services in Osmancık, which enabled us to get in touch with them while trying to
solve the logistical problems of our field team. The mentioning of the name of and
the help of Aksan family have been crucial in finding minibuses, or accessing
villages and informants. However, though coming from a noble lineage, the Aksans
are not a representative example, since they lost the majority of their wealth in
the late 1950s as a result of the gambling addiction of the family patriarch.
However, our fieldwork and interviews with the elites revealed that even though
the system of elites and malikhane did not change, some families acquired their
status from scratch after migration. These families were mostly migrants arriving
from other regions with a considerable economic capital which they then invested
in Osmancık. Once they established affinal ties by marrying with local notables
they acquired a similar position similar to that of Güneyler or Çörekçiler.
The history of the Derindere family provides an ideal type that illustrates the steps
of the developments in Osmancık. Basically, the Derinderes are a family who
originally migrated from Malatya. Since then, six generations of the Derindere
family lived in Osmancık, which leads us to estimate the date of their migration as
the 1800s. They have three main lineages in Osmancık, namely Hacı Hasan, Hacı
Şükrü, and Hacı Aziz lineages. All lineages started to acquire land around the basin
of Kızılırmak and engaged in agriculture as landlords. Today the main income of the
family is that of trade, mostly rice and other processed crops produced in the
greater area of northern Çorum. Moreover, there are lots of shops owned by the
Derinderes in Osmancık. It is customary for the locals to pass the shop down to the
next generation. Our informant İbrahim Bey is a typical example of this tradition.
Even though he is a retired teacher, like other members of his family, he engages
in trade. Indeed, he owns a jewellery shop, as his father and grandfather also did.
While describing the economic life in Osmancık, he continuously makes reference
to family ties: “Do you see the bookie shop right across? It is owned by a cousin of
mine. Right next to it, there was a mansion which collapsed during the last
earthquake”. Indeed, those who listen to him feel as if the whole town is owned by
him and several members of his family. Not surprisingly, due to the endogamous
marriage pattern practiced by notable families, this feeling is not deceiving. As
explained by a distant relative:
“Even if their [referring to notable families] origins are quite distinct, they
built up affinal ties with each other, so that they could keep the wealth
within the family. Majority of family members are shopkeepers, tradesmen, or
clerks. Since they have enough source of income, they do not bother with
agriculture anymore. Although their land is spacious, it is kept idle.”
However the most important investment of the family in Osmancık is the initiation
of the water ark in 1948. Indeed, the construction of the water ark, close to the
current location of the Eymir village, initiated large scale irrigation on the north
bank and affected the local economy immensely. With the construction of the
simple ark, almost 3,000 decares of land started to be irrigated. Before, only some
segments of the south bank was suitable for paddy rice, though it was not possible
to cultivate in the large land mass on the north bank, where İnal, Eymir, and
Yağsiyen villages are located. The start of paddy rice cultivation in the whole
basin, in between Hacıhamza and Osmancık, created a significant surplus, which is
kindly shared with the local notables, who paid and enabled the construction of the
ark in the first instance. The sixth generation member of the Derindere family
remembers the construction as:
“We transferred the techniques that were used previously on Euphrates and
Tigris. By simply placing water arks on Kızılırmak, we enabled irrigation via
flooding. As a result, the produce in the surrounding fields increased, and
therefore, the share we acquired from the harvest. This was the initial phase
of investment which kept going on till then.”
The surplus acquired via increased agricultural productivity was invested back in
agriculture. The Derindere family made the most important investment, that of the
mills. Following the initial spark in the late 1970s, the number of mills in the town
reached five. The mills had the capacity to process 370 tonnes daily. The
investment in mills was followed by investment in tile factories and textile
workshops, and the town started to change dramatically. The political turmoil of
the 1970s, which led to a decade-long stagnation of Osmancık’s economy, was then
followed by yet another economic boom.
The year of 1982 is a memorable date in the history of Osmancık. In 1982, the
geographic marginalisation of the town came to an end, and finally the road
connecting Istanbul to Black Sea was constructed. Once again, Osmancık turned out
to be a junction welcoming passengers travelling on the west-east corridor. This
last development created the opportunity for a completely new source of income:
tourism, centred on rest areas constructed around the highway. Right after the
construction of the highway, Osmancık turned out to be a centre attracting inmigration. A typical example of such a mobilisation can be seen among the
Küçükali family, who were the first to invest in rest areas. The family, who had
migrated from Trabzon to Osmancık, established the first rest area called Anadolu
Facilities, though not being locals of the town. Rıza Bey, the successor of his
father’s business, explains the investment as follows:
“We have been looking for a place to invest. At that point, Osmancık emerged
as a viable alternative, not that far from Trabzon and quite lucrative. As a
result we constructed the Anadolu Facility, which paid off our efforts quite
generously. Later on, we completely settled down in Osmancık and sold out
shares to locals. Now we run a shop selling household durables.”
The foremost component of Osmancık’s economic development, however, remains
to be paddy rice cultivation and processing. However, the local notables also
played an important role in this lucrative investment. Basically, in the 1990s,
neither rice cultivation nor trade was sufficient for the growing town. As a result,
notable families initiated an attempt for the register the local rice with the
geographical indicator of Osmancık. Though it is not clear who was the first one to
initiate this attempt, since all families acknowledge their role, it is highly probable
that it was a collective initiative. Finally, in 1997, joint efforts paid off and the
common type of rice, cultivated in 85% of paddy rice fields in Turkey, was
registered as Osmancık-97, numbered due to the year of registration, i.e. 1997.
Now, the name is known nationwide and preferred over other brand names. It is a
lively source of identification of Osmancık. The reach of this identification extends
to hitherto uncharted territories, it is notable that bags of rice tries to find
customers as touristic items in the shops on the Istanbul-Samsun highway, next to
the bags of Çorum’s staple touristic goods of leblebi (baked chickpeas). The paddy
rice grown on the Kızılırmak River Basin is brought to Osmancık and polished and
packaged in the town’s factories. Thus, now Osmancık is a town, though not
producing much paddy in comparison to neighbouring subprovinces, like Kargı,
Tosya, or Boyabat, purchasing the whole produce and after processing sells it to
the Turkish market with a higher profit margin.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE: OSMANCIK AS A PROVINCIAL TOWN
Osmancık, the epicentre of our research endeavour and the main site of possible
impacts of the dam, presents us an interesting and yet peculiar Turkish context.
Indeed, inner land of whole Turkey is full of such small settlements, through which
thousands of passengers is passing for the sake of reaching their destination safe
and sound. They almost never hesitate to stop by for a short visit, unless some
unlucky accident or a sudden need forces them. Osmancık, by virtue of being right
on the edge of the Istanbul-Black Sea highway, lives this at its extreme. Each day
thousands of passengers in countless buses and private cars are passing by, without
knowing anything about the history or inhabitants of Osmancık. This lack of interest
creates a source of disappointment for the locals. As expressed clearly by the
current Mayor, Osmancık wants to attract more visitors, not just because of their
contribution for local economy but also for recognition. This quest for recognition
is not unique to Osmancık, but shared commonly among similar sized settlements
that are on the edge of the economic take off.
This peculiar ethos of pride and enthusiasm can only be explained by being from
“kasaba”, or with the correct Turkish phrase “kasabalı olmak”. Kasaba in Turkish which can be literally translated as Town- denotes a certain quality of lifestyle, a
certain mindset, a distinctive sense of self, and a notably distinguishable set of
political, economic, and cultural relationships. The Oxford English Dictionary
defines town as: “an inhabited place larger and more regularly built than a village,
and having more complete and independent local government applied historically
not only to a ‘city’, a town of higher rank, but also to an ‘urban district.” In
another note, it is significant to underline the fact that while town can be specified
“as distinct from or contrasted with the country,” in the Turkish context Kasaba
refers to a transitional locality between the country and the city. 23 Hence, the
urban-rural divergence has traditionally had a stop-gap in the form of Kasaba. As a
Kasaba that had gained importance only with the onset of the post 1980’s political
climate and modern undertakings in agriculture -especially paddy rice cultivationOsmancık belongs to a much less studied and scantily elaborated part of Turkey’s
administrative and municipal organizational structure.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Souvenir shops in Osmancık
Each day Osmancık welcomes countless passengers travelling on the east-west
route with a unchanging view; a series of leblebi (roasted chick pea) peddlers and
23
"town, n." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 21
June. 2010 See also (Williams 1973) For a detailed analysis of the relationship and metamorphosis of
meanings of the town and country
rice (only the certified “Osmancık 97” type) merchants, offering local products in
carefully prepared natural sacks and a set of rest areas servicing truck drivers, bus
passengers and families in their private cars.
However, unlike any other location on the Istanbul-Black Sea highway, Osmancık is
offering quite contradictory set of symbols, waving at the main juncture of town
with the highway. Right at the cross road, there is a gigantic F-104 erected on a
pedestal at the edge of a park named after Alparslan Türkeş (the deceased leader
and the founder of MHP, Nationalist Action Party). For those passengers getting
curious, there are more spectacles in Osmancık. Right in the midst of the park and
the F-104 monument stands the statue of Baltacı Mehmet Pasha.
As previous chapters demonstrated all these figures and symbols have their unique
meaning in the world view of the locals, though still unintelligible for outsiders.
Indeed, the F-104s, the staple Cold War fighter jets, is no longer in use, and was
granted through the personal effort of Ret. Gen. Ahmek Çörekçi, who is a native of
the town coming from a local notable family. The park was built by the previous
mayor from MHP and is almost on the edge of the historical town centre, which is
at the foot of the Kandiber castle. Like the castle, the most important monumental
structure, the Konyunbaba Bridge, is also hidden from the plain sight. Osmancık is
like a nut, offering a hard shell from the outside and a rich and surprising present
inside.
TOPOLOGY OF A PROVINCIAL TOWN
Administratively Osmancık has fourteen different neighbourhoods (mahalle).
However, like it is the case between Çorum and Osmancık, these administrative
divisions are far from coinciding with real socio-cultural boundaries and/or
connections. The only way to define and understand the socially defined
boundaries of the town is walking on the streets, circumventing the last houses
right on the outskirt of the town. Only with the power of participant observation
and countless conversations to ask for directions, small chats on the run and even
through spontaneous walks accompanied by local informants these boundaries
become clear. According to the cognitive map we draw during our fieldwork,
Osmancık can be divided into five assumptive areas. The detailed descriptions of
these assumptive areas shed light on the ethos of the Kasaba and enable us to
understand the world view of its residents.

Historical centre,

Gemici neighbourhood,

East of Kale (the Citadel),

The south of the Istanbul Highway,

The north of the Istanbul - Black Sea Highway
HISTORICAL ACROSS THE CASTLE
As it was the case during the medieval ages, the Kandiber Castle is still the most
important landmark in the city plan. With all its bizarre appearance, the castle
dominates the centre, where modern shops and traditional market place meets
each other. Not surprisingly, the local term used to describe this area is “kale altı”
(foots of the castle). The main street passing across the castle is Ahmet Çörekçi,
denominated after the famous general of the Çörekçi family. The street hosts the
majority of the town’s shops. Unlike the castle which is not in good condition,
despite its symbolic and historical importance, the shops are all clean and shiny,
aiming to attract possible customers.
The two supermarkets; BİM and Topçuoğlu, are also located on this street. Right
next to the markets, there are several restaurants, kebap shops, offering service to
the local shop owners and merchants. There are also several clothing shops owned
by and serving women only, accompanied by jewellery shops, banks and an
abundant number of mobile phone shops. The concentration is so dense that even
the first time visitors notice that this is the financial centre of the town, that every
resident should be visiting to satisfy his/her daily needs. This is the location where
the economic and political heart of the town beats.
Behind the municipal offices lies the Kızılırmak River emblazoned with coffee
houses on both sides. Neighbouring the mosque, the coffee houses on the north
bank serve the mosque crowds: older or middle-aged conservative male persons. At
that point Kızılırmak divides the town into two different zones like a blade. It
almost composes a natural border differentiating the old and the young, since the
30 metre away coffeehouses across the river, on the side of the Gemici
neighbourhood, attract a quite different target group.
GEMICI NEIGHBOURHOOD,
Another neighbourhood of importance, as mentioned above, is the Gemici, which
was not long ago a separate village apart from Osmancık. The growth of population
on both sides conjoined them into one single entity. Mostly made up of houses with
gardens, Gemici neighbourhood is starkly cut from the rest of the town by
Kızılırmak, and perhaps by means of politics, religion, and culture. Basically, the
neighbourhood is predominantly populated with residents of Alevi-Bektashi origin
and new settlers from the surrounding villages. During 1970s, this sectarian
difference translated itself into political cleavages and the Kızılırmak River worked
as the barrier preventing bloody clashes between the two sides. Though older
residents remembering 1970s still claims that south bank of river is neglected, the
majority of the government investments are concentrated there. Quite surprisingly
the administrative structure of the town demonstrates centrifugal dispersal. New
investments are quite separated around the historical town centre. Whereas, the
Governor’s Office and Police Station are on the Istanbul-Black Sea Highway, the
Gendarmerie Garrison is between the town centre and the highway and the most
notable signs of state services, the state hospital and military recruitment offices
are in the Gemici neighbourhood.
Neglected or not, Gemici and Kızılırmak defines another cleavage in Osmancık: a
cleavage of young and old, which symbolises respectively the liberal and
conservative world views. Especially during night, the sight of cafes full of
customers of mixed gender and shining river bank ornaments fills the town with a
completely new mood. A visitor, not knowing his/her location exactly might feel
visiting an east European city, generously honoured by Danube. This part of the
village functions like an entertainment centre with its god bestowed beauty and
adjacency to the centre.
Moreover, Adatepe, the small hill offering the panoramic view of Osmancık is
located at the Gemici side. Adatepe functions as a picnic area, where people grill
meat and consume alcohol. In this context, this place is the closest recreation area
where residents can enjoy being in the forest and socialise with each other.
THE EAST OF THE CASTLE
While looking from Adatepe, it is possible to observe the east slope of the Fişekçi
rock, where the castle and historical cemetery are located. This rocky area is
connected to the Gemici side with the elegant bridge of Osmancık. Right next to
the bridge is the old Turkish bath which is constructed with same locally cut
stones, like the Koyun Baba Bridge.
According to the legend, Koyun Baba stood right on the edge and threw a stone to
the other side, where his lodge is built. Like the stone bridge connecting two sides
of the river, the legend and imaginary existence of Koyun Baba function as a social
cohesion narrative for the villages, which symbolises itself in reference to the
stones. Basically, stones, like the Fişekçi rock, the castle, rock thumbs, the bridge,
and the Turkish bath all make up the collective memory of Osmancık.
Next to the Koyunbaba, there is a restricted area of Osmancık, which contains four
taverns. This area is not used for residential purposes and consciously separated
from other districts with empty area of open air market, which is only used on
Thursdays. The keenly selected location keeps the tavern away from plain sight.
Basically, tavern zone is reserved to the inglorious activities of the seemingly
religious town. The alcohol-serving restaurants function as the main location in
which bargaining for sex work is conducted. The women employed by the taverns
reside in the hostels, located right behind and strictly separated from the town.
Though separated from the town, the distinct is frequently visited by the male
population, who are willing to drink a bear and flirt with the female stuff working
there. Servicing mostly the same target group, the bus terminal connecting
surrounding villages to Osmancık is also located in this district, like several
factories employing villagers accepting lower salaries than Osmancık residents.
THE SOUTH OF THE ISTANBUL-BLACK SEA HIGHWAY
On the other edge of the town, there are several neighbourhoods such as
Cumhuriyet, Yeni, Yazı and Yeşil Çatma, located on the south of the Istanbul-Black
Sea Highway. These neighbourhoods are strictly separated from the town centre,
and restricted to residential purposes. This area contains the majority of the
residential apartments and hosts majority of the population. Moreover, government
agencies like schools, the Headquarter of Gendarmerie Forces, etc. are also
located in this part. Due to its location, this area welcomes majority of the
newcomers, like those of the newly arrived Romas. Locals make continuous
reference to their music and wedding celebrations, which take place on the back
streets whole night. Though, somehow they found a way to integrate into the local
culture and recognised by the neighbours as well.
In addition to this, in the highway part of the district there are so many roasted
chickpea shops and rice merchants; which are not only selling roasted chickpea but
some other traditional products, like handmade copper teapots, etc. These shops
also offer tea and function as rest areas. With its central location, the area
functions like an informal bus station, where, buses stop, tickets are sold, and
additional customers are found.
THE NORTH OF THE ISTANBUL- BLACK SEA HIGHWAY
The town has followed the axis parallel to the Istanbul-Samsun highway as its
development path. North of the highway, TOKI (Literally, Mass Housing
Administration, counterpart to the Housing and Urban Development Programs in
the Western context) has recently built an apartment complex. Based on a grid
plan, this complex offers quite distinctive urbanization concept for a Kasaba.
Tough secluded, the area contains three neighbourhoods, namely, Şenyurt,
Esentepe and Koyunbaba.
In comparison to the south, the houses are relatively new in this part of the town
containing two rooms and a larger living room, which is considerably small in
comparison to the houses in other districts. In this respect, since the houses are
not appropriate for large families, majority of them are still empty despite being
bought by locals. Indeed, there are students coming to Osmancık for the technical
vocational school branch and willing to rent these flats. However, the conservative
landlords reject renting these apartments, with the idea that students would
damage the family atmosphere in the neighbourhood. Due to this segregationist
attitude of the locals, students are forced to live in private dormitories and in
special houses owned and offered by religious communities, which function as a
mobilization and propaganda mechanism.
The only attraction in this dead silent district is the Shrine of Koyun Baba, which
welcomes daily visitors from all around the region, visitors who are willing to
benefit from the acclaimed healing power of the saint. In addition to this, there
are several rest areas right on the edge of the İstanbul-Samsun highway, offering
low paid temporary jobs for the Osmancık youngsters. Among them, Asya Tesisleri
and İBD Park are also attracting local customers from Osmancık with their outlet
shopping malls and tea serving cafes.
DEMOGRAPHY
EDUCATION
In Osmancık, there exists one high school, one Anatolian high school, one technical
and vocational education centre, one vocational school for the training of imams,
one vocational school for health services, 54 primary schools, and one YİBO (Yatılı
İlköğretim Bölge Okulu / Regional Boarding School for primary and secondary
education). In these schools there are 6,690 primary school students, 1,539
secondary school students, 89 kindergarten and childcare kids are being taught. Of
the two kindergarten classes, two are located in the villages of Akören and
Öbektaş. There are sports fields in the province centre: one indoors with a seating
capacity of 450, and one outdoor field with a seating capacity of 300.
Schools in Osmancık and their student size
There is no significant difference in terms of education between the sub-provinces
of Osmancık and Kargı, as well as in terms of gender variants of the same
indicators. In both Osmancık and Kargı sub-province centres, 6% of the male
population is illiterate. The proportion is 19% for rural areas of these two subprovinces. In rural areas of Osmancık, illiteracy is 37% for the female population,
and in Kargı’s rural parts it is 39%. In both sub-province centres, female illiteracy
rate stands at 18%. In these settlements, the predominant education pattern is
primary school education. The primary school educated stands at 35 to 36%, the
secondary school educated stands at 16 to 17%, the vocational school trained at 4
to 5%, and the university educated at 4 to 5% among the male population. For the
female population those that have higher education stands at 3% in these two subprovince centres, yet in Osmancık proportionally more women have received
secondary school education and higher.
The level of schooling in Osmancık is quite high in comparison to the similar sized
towns in Anatolia. The increase in schooling has dialectical effects on the
population. Basically, Osmancık now functions as an important centre attracting
students from all over the region. This is partly caused by the changes in the
educational regulations, i.e. with the onset of education reform in the early 2000s
that combined primary and secondary school education, village schools were
closed. Instead, the system of “taşımalı eğitim” (literally, meaning education with
transportation, or school busing) was initiated. Therefore, the students from the
surrounding villages are all attracted to the Osmancık town centre. Indeed, the
attractive power of the town is not only limited to the elementary education. The
vocational education centre attracts students to Osmancık from all over Turkey.
This change not only affects the population and education figures, but also deeply
affects the socio-cultural attitudes in Osmancık. Our observations have indicated
that the opening of the university campus, a sub-branch of the Hittite University,
has spread out a more liberal attitude to the previously more conservative town.
As stated by our informants; right after the first students arrived in town, more
restaurants and kiosks were opened targeting the students. The student mass
created a higher demand for traditional coffee-houses which dominated the spare
time activity of the local male population previously. Furthermore, it also
embarked the establishment of modern spare time places like billiard saloons and
French style cafes; “Galip’in Yeri”, literally meaning the place of Galip is one of
the earliest examples of such kind.
Just like the students affect the political climate in the town, the conservative
town has also some effects on the newcomers. As discussed in the previous
chapters, the relatively conservative circles of local population are reluctant to
rent their apartments to students. As a result there is a shortage of accommodation
and transportation facilities for students. An informant working in the vocational
training centre explains the situation as follows:
There are currently more than 350 students. Since there is a shortage in the
public dormitories, the majority of the students have to stay in the
dormitories owned and operated by Islamic circles. Mostly, they are those
that are owned by Fethullah Gülen. Similarly, transportation is an important
problem for poor students, who had to walk the 4.5km distance between the
town centre and the school. There are lots of poor students who cannot afford
to pay 1TL requested by shuttle rings.
HEALTH
There are the following healthcare facilities in the town: a State Hospital with a
bed capacity of 100, a Social Security Services Hospital with a bed capacity of 25,
and 2 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHC) in the Osmancık sub-province centre, in
addition to one PHC in each of these villages: Akören, Ardıç, Kamil, Karalargüney,
and another one in the municipality of Başpınar.
POPULATION
Osmancık deserves special attention for its steady population growth, especially in
a region where rural structures have been rapidly undergoing a process of
dissolution. While population growth, as witnessed in the rest of Turkey, inasmuch
as the rest of the Third World since the 1950s except sub-Saharan Africa, is a
consequence of the developments in healthcare (a constantly rising birth rate with
a diminishing mortality rate), immigration have played the utmost role in reshaping
the Turkish demographical landscape. On the one hand, Osmancık villages
continuously shed population through the 1980s and 1990s to metropolitan centres
like Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. On the other hand, Osmancık town did not only
lose population, but steadily grew throughout this period. It is partly due to the
newfangled manufacturing sector -paddy rice processing mills, brick and textiles
factories- in Osmancık that gave this impetus, and partly thanks to the relatively
low levels of living costs prevalent in the town. Istanbul, for instance, no longer
presents the Horatio Alger type rags-to-riches stories to Osmancık people, and
indeed with its precarious job market, and inaccessibly high costs of living, stands
as a bulwark against new immigrants -especially comparatively educated ones.
Therefore, unlike other Kasabas in Central Anatolia, Osmancık succeeded in
attracting at least a sustainable portion of population from its surrounding villages.
Another crucial factor has been the construction of the highway connecting
Istanbul to Samsun and the northern Black Sea. The proximity of Osmancık to
Istanbul and to other urban centres, have definitely contributed to the steady
increase in population. Yet, while the erstwhile notables and well-offs moved to
the metropolitan centres, they have been replaced by immigrants from the
villages. And this has brought a tangible change in the dominant culture of the
town as noted by our informants.
Although Osmancık has escaped the population drain, the rural areas bore the
brunt of rapid population change. In the villages of Kızılırmak Valley, it is a rarity
to encounter any children or teenagers. The overwhelming proportion of the
population in these villages is made up of aged persons and pensioners. From a
distance, villages seem to house a significant population, with mosques and
minarets still intact. Yet, a closer inspection would reveal that these villages are
like ghost towns, having fewer than 100 residents, most houses empty, with a daily
prayer attendance of 5 to 6 old men at the mosques, and hardly ever a sight of
young children. In the late 1970s, a journalist from the daily Milliyet reported from
the selfsame villages wherein pictures revealed a much different story than our
researchers have witnessed. In the last three decades, these villages were
emptied, not least indebted to the rapid advances in the mechanization of paddy
rice cultivation. One of our informants put it bluntly: “Once upon a time, long long
time ago [he is around sixty years old and refers to his 20s] we were slaving to grow
paddy. Now, we just have to spray twenty different herbicides at specific times…
And then harvest the crop with combines and sell it to the paddy processing
factories… Two is enough to take care of 10 decares of land.” Thus, an excess
workforce arises in the rural area: people who are young, people who do not want
to toil at the paddy fields from dusk till dawn, and people who never had that kind
of experience before and who would prefer the life in the city to the idyllic life of
the village.
ECONOMY
According to the State Planning Organization’s (Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı) 2004
report on the socio-economic development index, Osmancık is the second most
developed administrative unit of Çorum, after the city of Çorum proper. Among 872
sub-provinces in Turkey, it is positioned at the third level, showing a considerable
improvement in the last decade; in which it climbed from place 359 to 342,
meanwhile jumping from the 4th level to the 3rd level (Dinçer and Özaslan 2004;
Dinçer 1996). The figures indicate that starting from the 1980s, the economic
structure of the town started to develop rapidly. On the contrary, the nearest subprovince Kargı, where the actual body of the regulator is to be constructed, is
comparatively a less-developed administrative unit. On the basis of the
aforementioned State Planning Organization (SPO) study, Kargı is a much closer
sub-province to the median development indices, a feature common amongst the
typical Anatolian landscape. The comparison of Osmancık to the nearest subprovince Kargı would reveal the role of entrepreneurship in the development of
Osmancık. If the statistics provided by the SPO between 1996 and 2003 are
investigated, we discover that while Kargı was losing its position in the
development index with 6 points, Osmancık improved its position by 16 points. The
already existing economic gap between the adjacent sub-provinces is deepening.
EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE
In the Turkish administrative structure, centres of sub-provinces, like Kargı and
Osmancık, and municipalities, like Hacıhamza that are surrounded by rural areas
are more often than not function as centres of dispensing public services such as
health, education, finance, pensions, law and security. Thus, in these three centres
public, social, and personal services are the most important sources of
employment. In Kargı and Hacıhamza, commerce is the second sector in terms of
proportions; however in Osmancık, manufacturing sector, with a proportion of 12%,
is neck to neck with the services sector. This tells us that Kargı sub-province centre
has a much simpler economic structure, built around simple goods and commodities
exchange. Indeed, Kargı functions as a market place for the surrounding villages,
which has a considerable amount of agricultural produce. More concretely, Kargı is
the closest centre for a vast number of small paddy rice growing villages, who
regularly visit Kargı town centre, for buying basic equipments and receiving
services, like hair dresser, etc. Osmancık, on the contrary, proves to be a potential
centre for industrial development in the region, which is known to attract
investments from the surrounding regions as well. Osmancık, with a higher
proportion of students and lower proportion of pensioners stand to be a more
dynamic and potentially developing centre in comparison to Kargı.
In Kargı and Osmancık rural areas, approximately two thirds of the male population
and three quarters of the female population in working age are employed in
agricultural activities. In both rural areas, agricultural activities are of paramount
importance. For the Kargı and Osmancık subprovince centres though, small-scaled
manufacturing,
construction,
commerce
and
public
services
sectors
that
predominantly serve rural areas is emergent. In the sub-province centres only 5 to
7% of the male population in working age, and 3% of female population in working
age are employed in agricultural activities. In the rural areas an overwhelming
proportion of women are at work as unpaid domestic labourers in the agricultural
sector (more than 80% of females declared themselves as engaged in agricultural
production as either employer, waged, or self-employed). On the other hand,
women in the urban centres are mostly positioned as housewives. The institution of
unpaid labour, otherwise known as “housewives,” is peculiar to the urban areas.
Given the fact that a significant portion of women in the towns are either
unemployed, or students, or pensioners -hence out of the workforce- we can gather
that less than 10% of women in these urban centres are actively participating in the
labour force. In sum, part of urban female workforce is employed in the local
manufacturing sector, and another portion is public officials (public services) who
came from out of town.
The sectoral distribution of the male population in the workforce gives us a much
more thorough picture of the local economy. In both of these sub-provinces’ rural
areas approximately two thirds of men are active in the agriculture, and about half
are positioned as self-employed small-scale farmers. Again, some men are at work
as unpaid domestic labour as women are. Yet, the portion of employers and
salaried workers in the agricultural sector is significantly low. Therefore, we can
argue that in Osmancık and Kargı there prevails small-scale family-based
agricultural enterprises which are not entirely embedded in the market economy.
The ongoing trend of youth emigrating to the metropolitan urban centres and
leaving behind elders can be assumed both to be the cause and effect of this
situation. There exists a limited monetary base in the villages as the significantly
low proportion of rentiers and pensioners suggest. Apart from Durucasu, no villages
have a significant source of employment in either the manufacturing or in services
sectors. The relatively higher proportion of non-agricultural employment in
Durucasu does not necessarily point to an economic activity, on the contrary it is a
peculiarity of limited statistical universe in the village (the village has only 17
males at the working age.)
AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY
PADDY RICE CULTIVATION AND PROCESSING, GRAIN MILLS
The foremost proponent of Osmancık’s economic development is paddy rice
cultivation and processing. Registered as Osmancık-97, numbered due to the year
of registration, 1997, the widely adjusted type of paddy has for long been a crucial
source of Osmancık people’s self-awareness and identification. The reach of this
identification extends to hitherto uncharted territories, it is notable that bags of
rice tries to find customers as touristic items in the shops on Istanbul-Samsun
highway, next to the bags of Çorum’s staple touristic goods of leblebi (baked
chickpeas). The paddy rice grown on the Kızılırmak River Basin is brought to
Osmancık and polished and packaged in factories in town.
Osmancık has approximately 26,000 hectares of arable land, out of which 8,700
hectares are high grade irrigated soil-which is suitable for rice growing. Especially,
Ovacıksuyu, after Osmancık sub-province centre, with 622 hectares of irrigated
land for paddy rice cultivation, thanks to its proximity to Kızılırmak, stands to gain
from rice cultivation. Rice cultivation appears to be a lucrative business: annual
production is 18 metric tons of paddy rice, and it is estimated that with current
market prices around a thousand rice growers -and their families- share an annual
sales of 18 million TL including state subsidies.
The paddy rice processing mills in Osmancık, 9 of which existed at the time of the
research and one was idle due to economic issues, have the capacity to process
30,000 metric tons of paddy rice annually. Of these 9 mills, Derindere is the biggest
-with an annual capacity of 5,000 metric tons- and the oldest -established by the
late family patriarch in the late 1950s- of those mills. Today these mills charge
80TL for processing a ton of paddy rice and they also serve as warehouses for
processed paddy rice. The paddy rice belonging to the villagers from around is in
stock at these mills, and they serve the function of a bank for the villagers. Each
bag of rice, 25kg in weight and each currently sold for 50TL is tagged with its
owner’s name.
Our interviews with the local paddy rice processing mill owners and managers have
indicated that the beginnings of the paddy cultivation have laid the foundations of
economic growth in Osmancık. In other words, we can safely argue that paddy rice
cultivation and processing is the backbone of the local economy, especially for the
last three decades. The Derindere family founded the first local grains and paddy
rice processing mills in close proximity to the river Kızılırmak. The local
stakeholders told stories of how successful the establishment was at the time, and
as the pioneer of a burgeoning agricultural industrial sector, the mill was the
pinnacle of local economic transformation. It is told by the locals, in an applauding
manner, that Derinderes have harnessed the river for electricity generation by
using a small-scale turbine.
BRICK AND ROOF TILE FACTORIES
In addition to the rice production facilities that portends as the backbone of the
regional economy, brickyards and roof tile factories can be counted as industrial
enterprises. Like that of rice production the existence of brick and roof tile
factories are only enabled by Kızılırmak, that has been carrying tons of argillaceous
earth on the flood plain on both sides of the river bank. The clay collected from
the river basin was the source of encouragement for three entrepreneurs form
Çorum city centre to invest in a brick factory. The first brick factory in the town of
Osmancık was opened in 1950 by the trio; Orhan Erten, Mehmet Terlemez, and
Turan Çorbacıoğlu. After the first example, local entrepreneurs of Osmancık also
started to investigate this growing industry. Right now approaching from the south,
visitors are first welcomed with the sight of bricks towers and small hills of roof
tiles waiting for loading.
However, despite its contribution to local employment and surplus, locals in town
have largely complained of the wage levels prevalent in the industry. At times it is
even argued that the pay goes below the minimum wage, and more often than not
social security payments are skipped or never planned and employees are forced to
work illegally. The owners of the factories have a completely another flow of story,
which criticises the work ethic and willingness of work among the local workforce.
Basically, they have strongly grumbled about the lack of willing workers, and
suggested that workers are not “humbling enough” for the kind of jobs they have
offered. Thus, they argued that they tap into the labour sources that exist in the
surrounding villages. This is especially true for the side industry of coal mines.
Whereas, Osmancık has some important source of brown coal, the coal mine was
not able to find anybody to employ in the tough mine shifts and was forced to
recruit workers from Alpagut, a nearby district by providing transportation with
additional costs.
There are ten brick and roof tile factories, employing more than 1,000 workers in
total. Hence, the brick factories are by far the biggest employers of Osmancık.
Each factory employs more than 100 workers on average, the necessary minimum
number for running each brick furnace. Since manufacturing bricks is still a highly
labour-intensive process in the region -in which only at the point of brick moulding
machines are used- a stable and dedicated workforce is required to keep the
furnaces burning for the whole manufacturing season. The manufacturing season
begins with the end of rains in March and goes on until early November, when rains
start anew. Due to this climatic handicap in the industry, the owners and workers
are quite anxious about the possible changes in the climate due to the dam
construction.
Like in the coal mines, interestingly though, the majority of the workers employed
in the brick factories do not come from Osmancık. Instead, a complex but working
labour processes of sub-contracting system is preferred. This sub-contracting
system means that only a minimal portion of personnel is hired by the actual
enterprise, and those hired are typically
either office workers, accountants,
secretaries; or low-rung and low-paying staff like night guards, janitors, office
assistants 24, and cooks. These would not comprise more than five percent of the
overall employees at the enterprise. The rest of the positions, workers who ran the
furnaces, the kiln tunnels, the stockyard, the moulding stations are contracted out
to work gangs. These work gangs are composed of approximately 20 to 30 workers,
led by either the eldest person -with the most experience at the brick factories- or
by the richest person who can procure the transportation of workers from far away
villages, and can provide the initial settlement costs of his work gang. Each work
gang is responsible for a single task, that is, the burning of the furnace is done by a
particular work gang, another one work the moulding machines, other work gangs
are responsible for running the kilns. And each work gang is supervised and
organized by their respective leaders.
The work gangs come from the nearby rural areas, especially from the north;
Durağan and Boyabat, which are both sub-provinces of Sinop. We have been
informed by several managers from the brick factories, and also by local
journalists, that nobody from Osmancık received contracts from brick factories.
This is due to two main reasons: First, the pay is below the average, actually less
than the minimal wage for the unskilled workers. And, second, compared to other
employment options available for Osmancık residents and villagers, the work is
extremely onerous. The labour process in the brick factories require unspecified
work hours under the scorching heat of the summertime, next to the furnaces
burning at 800 degrees Celsius, manual labour at its extreme. So, for the
uninitiated, for those who are not accustomed to the burdensome work at these
factories, the work is hard to endure.
24
These positions are reserved mostly for men in Turkey, who are otherwise unemployed, or
unemployable due to several reasons, and are typically the lowest paying employment at an office.
Hence, the work gangs can be likened to extended families -and at times, they are
made up of real extended families- or a clan from a particular village. Due to the
continuous process necessary for keeping the furnace burning and to effectively
utilize the relatively short season for manufacturing, the workers stay at their own
quarters on the factory land- provided by the owner of the enterprise. Children and
women are also natural parts of these work camps. Actually, women and children
also take part in the labour process, adding up the columns of unpaid family labour
in national statistics. We are informed that it is women’s responsibility to put dried
bricks into the kiln for the final burning process. Thus, these experiences gathered
through life cycle are carried onto generations, and making outsiders’ initiation to
the contract employment highly unlikely.
The general acquaintance based recruitment model closes the doors of brick
factories to some ethnicities, like the Kurdish migrant workers from Eastern
Anatolia, our informant told, yet, they were not as reliable as workers from the
Black Sea Region. However, some Kurdish workers still find employment at these
brick factories and their existence in Osmancık creates ethnic tensions at times. In
late August, 2010, when a Kurdish worker with two of his children attempted to
dine at the local soup kitchen -organized by the religious Koyunbaba Foundationhe was denied service. He was told that the organizers of the soup kitchen did not
want any Kurdish persons at their premises. This, however, created a stir among
the people who witnessed the event, and they have brought in the local media to
raise awareness for the apparent injustice. 25
TEXTILE AND GARMENT FACTORIES
There are 4 currently active textiles and garment factories in Osmancık. These are
Ekip Tekstil, Sumteks, Ay Grup, and New Tekstil. Among these, Ekip is the biggest
enterprise, employing 350 workers currently, with an idle capacity for 650 more
workers. Overall, the textiles and garment industry in Osmancık employs 700
workers. Yet, unlike the brick making industry, textiles sector primarily taps
Osmancık labour market. And, more prominently, these workers are mostly female
25
See also http://www.osmancik.com.tr/public/news.aspx?id=2545
youngsters, typically between the ages of 20 to 35. We will grapple with the longterm effects of female employment in Osmancık in the section below.
Apart from the four garment factories mentioned above, we have also been
informed that many small and medium-scale workshops were established and
closed throughout the years. Some skilled workers who spent time at these textile
factories were inclined towards setting up their own workshops, some were indeed
successful in doing that, however, their enterprises did not bide well.
Among the four textile and garments enterprises, Ekip has been the most successful
one. Established in 1998, the factory was a considerable investment in Osmancık
for its time. Then named as Görkem Tekstil, the factory had at times reached full
capacity, by employing 1000 workers. Yet, by early 2000s, with the onset of the
economic crisis and ensuing recession the company changed hands, and current
owners bought the factory and equipments. The owners today are not Osmancık
locals. The enterprise is run by entrepreneurs from Istanbul, who also own a textile
and garments factory in the neighbourhood of Bağcılar-the garment district of
Istanbul. The owners’ hometown is Ünye, a town of Ordu province, and they have
explained their new venture thus:
“The production is merely based on women’s clothing. The company has 11 share
holders. Each partner has the same share. They are from different places such as
Osmancık and Ordu. The product is directly exported to foreign countries. It is
forbidden to market the products in Turkey. The company was called Görkem
before Ekip Tekstil. Ekip Tekstil was founded as a continuation of Görkem. It has
been running in this name for the last two years. The previous employees of
Görkem keep working in Ekip”
The process of apprenticeship training for those who get into textile is 3 years for
secondary school graduates, and 1.5 years for those with a high school degree. The
ones who have completed the apprenticeship phase pass to the production line.
While apprenticing, they are given apprenticeship wage and apprenticeship
insurance. The wage is started as 350TL and it increases 50TL per month. At the
end of the year, a salary of 700 is reached upon. As one starts working, the regular
insurance is returned.
According to our interviewee Aynur, the only proper place to work in Osmancık is
Ekip Tekstil for the salary, promotion and schedule it provides the worker with:
“It’s enough to come from a background of the folk-education chambers or the
vocational high school. They organised the work by assessing the performance.
There is over-time work for the work incomplete, yet there is not that thing called
unpaid-overwork. The employers do not support it either. We are informed
beforehand when there is need for over-work. It is determined by the congestion of
work. There is not a dominant age-group amongst the workers of Ekip Tekstil. All
who can do the job can get into it. There is no worker under 18. They intend to
employ the worker permanently. There are not many workers coming and going.
There is neither sacking on the employer’s part nor willingly quitting on the
worker’s. The relationship between the worker and the employer is pretty good.
There is no problem about the work being properly done. Problems between the coworkers are tried to be solved in gatherings led by the supervisors. There is mutual
aid among the workers. The bosses also work as experts and even help the workers
on their table when the need arises. There might be one worker and one partner at
each line”
Another of the accounts is as follows:
“Youngsters without job, they just wander about. The textiles factories want to put
them to work for low payments. When they show objection, they are easily
dismissed for there is high unemployment around. So no one really wants to work
here. Ümit Tekstil was closed after a year. The enterprisers of the factory are from
Istanbul. The production is devoted to men, women and children outfit. There are
in the factory, mechanics, illustrators and errand boys”
The interviewee who made the above remarks worked in the company for 9
months, the first 6 being without insurance and the rest with insurance. Although
they agreed on minimum wage and insurance payment at the beginning, the
employer failed the agreement, paying him 400TL and delaying to pay his insurance
cost. Our interviewee Olcay worked in the factory for almost a year. He was
regularly paid for 4 months but the rest of his salaries were paid in fragments. The
factory still owes him 2 months’ wages and 3 months’ over-work payment. After
the factory was closed, many workers applied to Ekip Tekstil for work. It is said
that the attitude of the works played a part in the factory’s closing down. The
workers absenteeism and carelessness about the working hours made the firm lose
money. Flawed production due to the lack of skill and getting behind the targeted
numbers in production slowed down the processes immensely.
Summing up the textiles business in Osmancık, one can comment on it with
conscience that the textiles production is neither standard nor monolithic in terms
of the different factories’ diverging attitudes towards payment and work conditions
issues. When relatively esteemed Ekip Tekstil is kept aside, the people in Osmancık
do not count on the textiles industry in general, nor do they show much enthusiasm
for getting a part in it.
SERVICES INDUSTRY
TOURISM IN OSMANCIK
Osmancık, having a rich historical background, does also have a potential for
tourism. However, Orhan Güçlü, a local journalist, complains about the lack of
touristic infrastructure of the town. He says: “If two tourists come to our city, who
will welcome them? The venders in the city center will…” Looking from a critical
and journalistic point of view, Güçlü underestimates the current touristic potential
and activities in the town.
As mentioned above, the mayor of Osmancık, Bekir Yıldızcı has got some projects
to revive the touristic potential in the city by renovating some historical houses and
the Kandiber castle. If mayor’s efforts to revive tourism in the town shows the
administrative initiative, the current touristic structures on Kızılırmak riverside and
the rest services on the highway shows the economic one.
REST AREAS AND GAS STATIONS ON ISTANBUL-SAMSUN HIGHWAY
Rest areas and gas stations, not only by employing considerable number of people
from Osmancık, but also being important investments, are of importance in terms
of economics of the town.
Turkey is a country of long distance roads which are not serving for the
transportation between populous cities, but also being located on ancient Silk
Road. The country serves as an important international and even inter-regional
transportation route for goods and services. In this sense, slightly different from
those of in European countries, rest areas serve as important places of employment
and capital investment. “Gas station” or “rest area”, both of them together
located at the same place is a dream of every local businessman who has a wish to
make an investment which would carry him into an upper level in the league of
businessmen. For example, Sakin Bilge, representative of the Chamber of Industry
and Businessmen of Çorum in Osmancık, while paying attention on the importance
of those rest areas and gas stations, he also mentions the need to invest on
constructing shopping malls relying on the fact that not only coach companies, but
also individual passengers travelling by their private cars stop by in there. There
are already some textile outlets in one of them, namely IDB Park, and local
markets in every rest area which shows the potential of local investment. The
standpoint of Bilge shows the awareness of the potential of rest areas and gas
stations by local businessmen.
In this sense, employing considerable amount of employers, being an attraction for
local investment, rest areas and gas stations have also to be mentioned with the
fact that, they even attract investment from other localities. There are seven rest
areas and gas stations in Osmancık sub-province zone: Three of them are owned by
locals from Osmancık, three of them are owned by businessmen from Trabzon and
one of them is owned by a businessman from Sivas. Since Osmancık is on the midpoint of the Istanbul-Trabzon direction, it is considered as a natural locality for
establishing rest areas, like other places such as Afyon-Sandıklı, Niğde-Aksaray,
Bolu-Kaynaşlı as other different examples in Turkey. In summer season, up to 50
people in each service area is employed. It has also to be mentioned that leading
coach companies in Turkey stopover in those rest areas: Varan Turizm coaches
stopover in IBD Park, Ulusoy coaches stopever in Asya Tesisleri which is owned by
Ulusoy company itself. Metro Turizm, another leading coach company in Turkey has
also own its rest area called Ganita Tesisleri. Derindereler, Alışkanlar, Acer, and
Anadolu are the names of other rest areas.
ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES IN OSMANCIK
In addition to the rest areas in the administrative territory of Osmancık sub
province, there is also handful of places in Osmancık in tourism sector. Obviously,
the most modern one is the Merkez Otel, which has been in service for two years.
Merkez Kale Otel is located in the very center of the town with 27 rooms which can
host up to 62 guests. Hotel has rooms for guests who has allergy on different type
of textile and there is also one room with equipment for handicapped guests, which
can be considered as signs for a modern perspective on tourism. At the top of the 4
storied hotel building, the café and restaurant serves for the modern looking
customers, mostly businessmen and high ranked officers or their wives. Fikri
Sağlam, owner of the hotel says that he had invested 1.900.000 TL for the hotel,
which is a considerable amount in Osmancık. Hotel serves as a place of gathering
for the local women belonging to upper and upper middle classes, for their tea
parties.
Another new and modern looking touristic place is İnci Café named after the
manager of the café, İnci Hanım. Furnished with modern style tables and chairs,
Inci Café looks like one of those trendy cafes in Istanbul or Ankara. It has to be
noted that the owner of the café is of Alevi origin and moreover she is a woman.
That might give us some hints about the social transformation of a conservative
Central Anatolian town. Inci Kafe serves for wedding parties as well. Even the
conservative families, who prefer wedding parties with religious rituals, do prefer
to organize their weddings in Inci Café.
Locals seem to be attracted by those two new and modern places. During our
fieldwork, we have observed that those two places had been reference for a
“modern” way of life. However, it has to be mentioned that those two places do
not serve beverages. Beverages are only served in those night clubs on the southeast part of the town, nearby Kızılırmak’s northern bank. Located quite away from
the settlements, the night clubs are not considered as places for families. It has to
be mentioned that those night clubs are not only serving for the locals, but also for
those who come from nearby villages or cities and towns like Kargı, Hacıhamza,
Gümüşhacıköy and such. Despite the fact that those settlements have restaurants
which are serving beverages, the night clubs in Osmancık employ waitresses and
escort ladies for male guests. Thus, for the locals, the night clubs have a vision of
being places of prostitution.
If men looking for some fun with escort ladies and drinking beverages prefer the
night clubs and on the other side upper and upper-middle class families prefer to
enjoy in İnci Café and Merkez Kale Otel, we can easily claim that middle and even
lower classes enjoy the tea gardens by the Kızılırmak.
CAFES AND RESTAURANTS ON RIVERSIDE KIZILIRMAK
According to the mayor of Osmancık, Bekir Yıldızcı, besides the Kandiber castle,
Kızılırmak is the most important feature of Osmancık which donates her with a
distinct identity: “Kızılırmak is God’s biggest gift to us.” He reflects his vision by
some kind of projects by the river bank. Recently, the municipality began to breed
peacocks by the river; the pedestrian bridge over the river was renovated. Two jet
skis and a pedalo are visible by the river bank, but because of the stream they
cannot be used on the river. But, Kızılırmak seems to be the biggest gift for those
who enjoy sitting on tea gardens on both banks. We can easily define two
stereotypes of people enjoying in different banks of the river. Simply, the right
(northern) bank is for elder, and the left (southern) bank is for the youngsters.
TEA-GARDENS ON THE RIGHT BANK OF KIZILIRMAK’IN
The tea-gardens on the right bank of Kızılırmak is merely populated by elder
people, mostly those who come to have a tea and chat with old friends after the
pray in the nearby mosque. The tea houses are mostly owned by NGO’s like the
Association of Retired Officers, Osmancik Sports Club, or Association of Fenerbahçe
Fans. The elder come at early in the morning for morning pray, and they sit in teagarden chatting about daily life, politics, etc. and after the noon pray they go
home. During that time, music is not played in the tea-gardens until when the
elders go to their homes. Around noon, the tea-gardens are mostly not very
populated. However, after five o’clock the officers come and begin to play cards.
In the evening, after dinner, families with their children, drinking tea or eating icecream are seen.
TEA-GARDENS ON THE LEFT BANK OF KIZILIRMAK
There are four tea gardens on the left bank of Kızılırmak, and compared to those
on the right bank, the territories of the tea-gardens are well figured with fences.
Two of those tea gardens have to be mentioned: Asil Café (The Noble Café), and
Paytoncu Kâmil’in Yeri (Kamil The Coachman’s)
ASIL KAFE
Asil Kafe is the haven for the youngsters in the town, especially for the teenagers.
The genre of the music, which is played in high volume, reflects the social profile
of the guests in Asil Kafe. The music is played from Osmancik FM, the local radio
station, and Power XL, both playing Turkish pop music. Both young girls and young
boys sit on the same table together. In fact, Asil Kafe is not only a place for the
youngsters, but is also preferred by the young families. The children’s playground
just next to the tea-garden might be a reason why young families might prefer to
come to Asil Kafe. Serving smoking pipes (nargile), and special dishes like pancakes
with aubergine and being an attractive place for both youngsters and families, Asil
Kafe is always with full of guests especially in the evenings, and at the weekends.
Locals mention that the owner of the café, Asalet Bey’s efforts to open a modern
and good serving place is one of the key points behind the success of Asil Kafe. We
observed that tourists who visit Osmancık also prefer to have a rest in Asil Kafe.
During the days, despite the tea-garden is under the direct lights of the sun, when
sun-proof umbrellas are not enough to avoid hot weather, the café is relatively
silent but still at least 5-6 tables over approximately 20 are full. It is also
remarkable that a waitress is working in the café while the cashier is also a woman.
At the first instance, when you compare the conservatist outlook of the town, it
might be a contradictory scene. However, this is exactly what we meant in the
previous section about local perceptions in Osmancık.
PAYTONCU KAMIL’IN YERI
Paytoncu Kamil’in Yeri is the second most popular tea garden on the left bank of
Kızılırmak. However, it has to be noted that compared to Asil Kafe, it is not that
much preferred by youngsters and families. Women are seldom seen as guests in
Paytoncu Kamil’in Yeri. The tea garden is mostly preferred by single men of
different age groups with more traditional than modern outlook. The music played
in the café is usually “arabesk” or traditional folk music from Central Anatolia.
However, despite it does not fall into the category of “modern” and new way of
life, Paytoncu Kamil’in Yeri is also a point for entertainment for the locals of
Osmancık.
FINANCE
There are five local branches of national banks in Osmancık: Akbank, Halk Bank,
Yapı ve Kredi Bank, İş Bank, and, the staple of every provincial town, Ziraat Bank. 26
These banks have their own residential quarters for their employees, since these
26
Ziraat Bank, meaning Agriculture Bank, is owned by the Turkish state and primarily provides
credit for farmers and it is the oldest and most extensive national banking institution in Turkey.
employees are frequently from out of Osmancık, or Çorum. Our estimate is that
approximately hundred to hundred twenty persons are employed by these banks,
and they make a tangible economic contribution to the local economy.
HISTORY OF HACIHAMZA
GEOGRAPHY
Hacıhamza is administratively a part of Kargı which is one of the two northern
subprovinces of Çorum. Hacıhamza is located on the road connecting Istanbul to
the Black Sea Cost via Osmancık. Following the highway on the east end, it takes
approximately 25 minutes to reach Hacıhamza. The town is located at a narrow
point of Kızılırmak valley, where the river makes a wide curve in-between Aladağ
and Köse mountains. The town is on the south bank of the river and is established
on the foot of the Köse Mountain. Geographic peculiarity of the town made
Hacıhamza an important outpost for protection during the tiresome Silk Road.
Previous chapters defined the closed, micro-climatic features of the region, which
is deeply cracked by Kızılırmak and surrounded by sharp mountains and high
altitude plateaus. If Osmancık is the main gate to the basin, Hacıhamza constitutes
the back door, or vice versa. After passing any one of these towns, travellers are
left with a spread out valley reserved for vast agriculture and lack of population
due to extreme heat in summer and shortages in drinking water. The vast plain is
only reserved for agriculture and kept away from human touch.
Although, the distance between Hacıhamza and Kargı is only 19 km, in the mental
map of residents of Hacıhamza, the distance of 36 km to Osmancık is perceived to
be less than the distance to Kargı. Unlike Kargı, which is connected to the highway
with a dirt road, Hacıhamza is connected to Osmancık and to the metropoles with
the newly established and well-conditioned highway. In addition to this, the
political and commercial potential of Osmancık is surmounting those of Kargı,
which makes Osmancık as the point of reference in identification for residents of
Hacıhamza.
HISTORY
The first-sight impression of the town itself, gives the image of a noble old
settlement. In fact, the archaeological findings indicate that, the history of
Hacıhamza dates back to antique times, when the area is known as Paphlagonia.
Even though it was an important passage point back in those days, Hacıhamza was
utilized as an important area of settlement only during the Ottoman era. The
region was occupied by Ottomans in 1392 under the reign of Bayezid the
Thunderbolt (Ekmekçi: 22). The first written document on Hacıhamza as a
settlement dates back to October 21, 1567 in Ottoman archives, though
architectural evidence shows that the town was already populated in the beginning
of 16th century. The Sinanpaşa Mosque, the most important building of the town,
was built in 1506, according to the inscription on the main gate.
Being located on a narrow part of the Kızılırmak Valley, the region around
Hacıhamza used to be a safe haven for bandits. According to the commonly
accepted legend, the Ottoman sultan assigned Hamza, a renowned soldier, to
establish a “derbent” (literally guard) in order to secure the trade route from the
threat posed by the bandits. Consequently, the settlement was denominated after
his name; Hamza. Afterwards the name was changed to Hacıhamza, which indicates
that this soldier succeeded in making a pilgrimage to Mecca during his life span.
If Hamza is the denominator, Hadım Sinan Pasha (of Bosnian origin, died in 1517
during the Ridaniye Campaign in Egypt) is the figure who built it up to prominence.
During his administration, this small guard village turned into a tiny medieval city
which rendered quite prosperously with the addition of a mosque, a caravanserai, a
public bath, and a school (Ekmekçi: 32). The stories of Hadım Sinan Pasha are well
remembered by the inhabitants, and the “urban past” of the town is still utilized as
a source of nationalist pride. The locals simply state that Hacıhamza had never
been a village but was constructed as a town right from the beginning. This
attitude and continuous emphasis on prevalent urban culture is a way of signifying
an imagined noble past. In contradiction to this proud historical discourse, the
current condition of historical heritage sites is strikingly poor and a majority of
them were not able to survive until to this day. For instance, the Sinan Pasha
Mosque was ruined by the devastating earthquake in 1943, and instead of
renovating it, a new mosque was built on its place. Today only the historical
minaret stands as the sole reminder of the glorious structure that once stood there.
“Medrese”, the acclaimed theological school accompanying it, is almost invisible
today because of the newly added “Quran recitation school” which is in-part
constructed on top of the historical structure. The public bath still stands;
however, during the last five centuries it was renovated several times without
paying any attention to maintaining the authentic features. The caravanserai has a
sad recent story: Despite resisting the destructive effects of centuries and
numerous devastating earthquakes, the caravanserai finally collapsed as a result of
the extreme weight caused by heavy snow fall on January 7, 2002 exactly at nine
o’clock. The words of Salih Gökkaya, the head of the municipal department of
technical services of Hacıhamza, express the effects of the recent collapse of the
building on residents’ psyche: “I sat and cried next to the ruins when I saw it was
finally collapsed”. The caravanserai was reconstructed by the Regional Directorship
of Endowments. However, Gökkaya mentions that the restoration is not fully loyal
to the original form and style. Our field observations indicate that this view is
commonly shared by the majority of the residents. The condition of the fortress,
which reached its final form in 1734, is not an exception. The walls have almost
completely disappeared since the material was reused for the construction of new
dwellings in late 1800s and early 1900s when Hacıhamza lost its importance as an
outpost in the protection of the fading trade in northern Anatolia.
HACIHAMZA AS A MUNICIPAL TOWN
Kargı was administratively connected to Kastamonu until 1954, since then it
became a subprovince of Çorum. 1972 was a turning point for Hacıhamza. The town
was not only connected to the national electricity grid, but also became a
municipality (belediye). Since then, with the support of the local landlords, all of
the mayors of Hacıhamza were elected from the right wing parties, as can be seen
in the following list: 27
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
27
Lütfi Kurşun (Justice Party): June 4, 1972 – December 9, 1973.
Hasan Özden (Nationalist Movement Party): December 9, 1973 – 1980.
Ali Buğ (appointed by the military government): 1980 – February 16, 1981
Recep Uzal (by procuration): February 16, 1981 – July 22, 1981.
Kamil Uslu (Motherland Party): July 22, 1981 – March 26, 1989.
İsmail Çınar (True Path Party): March 27, 1989 – March 28, 1994.
İbrahim Açıkgöz (Motherland Party): March 29, 1994 – August 29, 1996.
Information compiled from Ekmekçi (131) and personal communication with Hayati Bahçevan.
8) Hayati Bahçevan (True Path Party): August 30, 1996 – November 3, 1996
9) Hayati Bahçevan (elected when he was member of the Motherland Party, then became member of
the True Path Party in 1999): November 3, 1996 – April 18, 1999.
10) Bahri Özbek (True Path Party): April 22, 1999 – March 28, 2004.
11) Hayati Bahçevan (Justice and Development Party): Since March 29, 2004.
As can be seen from the list above, the general political tendency of Hacıhamza is
right wing conservatism. The form of conservatism is visible even just by having a
glance at the town especially during the month of Ramadan. Although a group of 40
to 50 men were sitting in the central tea-house of Hacıhamza, none of them were
drinking tea or smoking cigarettes.
Hayati Bahçevan appears to be a considerable figure and he served as mayor from
three different political parties. He explains his switching of party alliances by
reference to the primacy of local politics in the region. He states that in localities
such as Hacıhamza, it is not the political parties but the individuals and the
relationship with individual local politicians and their parties are important.
Bahçevan says that he became a candidate of the True Path Party after the party
leaders in Ankara had promised to help him in getting Hacıhamza the status of
subprovince (ilçe). He was disappointed when the promises were not fulfilled, and
joined the Motherland Party. Finally, to benefit more from government funds and
aid, he became a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party
TOPOLOGY OF A FADING MUNICIPALITY
Hacıhamza municipality consists of 5 neighbourhoods (mahalle):





Kale,
Zeynel,
Bahçelievler,
Obruk village,
Değirmendere village.
The last two are the villages that gained the status of neighbourhood (mahalle) and
were administratively connected to Hacıhamza, in 1996 and 1998 respectively. As
part of this administrative arrangement, services to these former villages are
offered by the municipality of Hacıhamza.
The name of the Kale neighbourhood is derived from the historical “fortress” which
used to exist on the higher hill controlling the narrow passage on the river bank.
The oldest known settlement in Hacıhamza is around the now ruined fortress which
can be guessed from the existence of ruined walls, the historical minaret of the
old-mosque and the recently renovated caravanserai. The two storey houses made
of adobe and wood are typical of Kale neighbourhood. Hacıhamza is divided into
two main parts by the İncidere Creek, a small branch of Kızılırmak. The town
centre of Hacıhamza is at the juncture of Baghdad Street stretching from west to
east all through the town, and the İncidere Creek. There lies the marketplace and
tea-house, the majority of convenience stores and offices are around the centre.
While walking on the Baghdad Street, late Ottoman style architecture draws
attention. Although they are not finely preserved as the ones in cities like
Safranbolu, Mudurnu, or Beypazarı, the old houses are noticeable. The spatial unity
of late Ottoman style buildings exhibits an eclectic scene with the dwellings and
shops built in republican architectural genres. Municipal courtyard, which is built in
1970s, draws attention with its marble-surfaced petty garden surrounded by palm
trees where two tables and several chairs provide inhabitants the opportunity to
have a chat about daily politics and share gossip in the neighbourhood.
The İncidere Creek composes a natural boundary, separating two neighbourhoods.
Whereas the east bank is called as the Kale neighbourhood, the west bank is named
as the Zeynel neighbourhood. Even though historically, the majority of the
population used to live within the city walls, it is known that some houses were
located in the Zeynel neighbourhood in the early 20th century (Ekmekçi:134).
Afterwards, the river basin turned out to be a new development area and houses
were started to be built. Indeed this new development zone is denominated as the
Bahçelievler neighbourhood (literally; houses with gardens), geographically it lies
on the east side of the Zeynel neighbourhood. More often than not, locals call
Bahçelievler as “Harap” which literally means “ruined, slummy”, as the settlement
extends to west of the Asar Creek, which is usually dry and looks like a “ruin”
because of the large-size pebbles filling the dry channel. Bahçelievler is mostly
populated by “landlords” who had to move their houses from the water course of
the İncidere Creek because of the frequent seasonal floods. Similarly, because of
the floods, many people left the flat settlements near water channels and moved
to the upper hill skirts, extending the Kale neighbourhood towards further south.
Even though not an integral part of the town centre, the service stations and onroad restaurants constitute an important element in the socio-geography of the
town. Whereas all neighbourhoods are located in the south, the rest-area
restaurants are in the north, right next to the highway, functioning as a buffer zone
separating the crowd of the road from the town. Right on the opposite side of the
road, there are repair services for truckers who pass by the town on a regular
basis.
HACIHAMZA AND THE LANDLORDS
The guards, who were assigned to secure the trade route, had certain privileges in
the Ottoman system. They were not only given right to cultivate the lands around
the “derbent”, but were also exempted from tax revenues. This system enabled
the people of Hacıhamza to build up their own fiefdom, which allowed the
accumulation of capital and led to subsequent economic and social boom in the
region. As a result of tax exemption and holding of military and political power by
specific families through subsequent generations, the land management system of
the Ottomans which normally denies the right of private property was
circumvented and guards started to develop a peculiar form of landholding
mechanism. Needless to say, the military equipment and political power they
acquired from the central government enabled the guards to protect their property
rights. They even managed to enlarge their sphere of influence at the expense of
the competing villagers in the region.
Despite the economic and social crisis in the Ottoman Empire at the end of 19th
century and in the beginning of 20th centuries, Hacıhamza enjoyed a kind of
relative prosperity since it was far away from the frontlines. This was also
reflected in the social life. The inhabitants of Hacıhamza still remember those
“good and old days” when the tea-houses owned by landlords (Ağas) were full of
people, and the sharecroppers who came to town from surrounding villages used to
overnight in the hostels. Indeed, the emergence of the republic did not create a
disadvantage for the wealth of landlords. The failure of land reform to materialize,
as well as capitalization of agricultural production functioned well for keeping
property and agricultural surplus at the hands of Hacıhamza.
In addition to this, paddy rice production as a cash-crop contributed greatly to
further capital accumulation in Hacıhamza. Paddy rice cultivation was already
practiced in the Kızılırmak valley. However, it was only possible to irrigate paddyrice fields using the water from springs or from the creeks, as lack of watermills
made it impossible for irrigation from Kızılırmak.
By late 1930s, watermills made it possible to irrigate the paddy fields by using the
river. During that time, irrigation with the help of watermills was practiced in
Boyabat which is a city further downstream on Kızılırmak. During a focus group
meeting in a tea-house in Hacıhamza, Recep Boyvat, a 60 year-old retired teacher,
told that his father was the first to construct watermills on Kızılırmak in early
1930s. His father hired engineers from Boyabat to construct a watermill which was
about five meters high. Since he had close connection to Boyabat, he gained his
nickname as “Boyvat”, a nickname which was taken by his family as a surname
following the drafting of the Surname Law of the Republic of Turkey was adopted
on June 21, 1934.
Mehmet Bahçevan, the current Hacıhamza mayor Hayati Bahçevan’s father, is
recognized as another initiator of watermill construction in Hacıhamza. Hayati
Bahçevan tells that his father brought engineers to build a simple form of watermill
in 1930s and began to irrigate paddy fields using the water from that watermill.
This motivated him to construct a dam for irrigation which was considered as a
risky and an expensive investment in that time period. However, Şavku Bey, one of
the most powerful landlords of Hacıhamza opposed the construction of dam.
Mehmet Bahçevan was warned by Şavku Bey that the irrigation system would also
benefit the small land owners and this would reduce the relative power of the
landlords. The dam was finally constructed in 1944. Today, Hayati Bahçevan
regretfully admits that Şavku Bey was right in his warning: “Those who used to
stand up and salute the Ağas when they entered into teahouses no longer pay any
respect to their existence” (Hayati Bahçevan, August 20, 2010).
The first two decades of the republican era can easily be identified as a prosperous
one for Hacıhamza. Dursun Eken emphasizes the existence of numerous teahouses
in Hacıhamza, whereas there were only two in Osmancık (Dursun Eken, August 19,
2010). During that time period, the landlords foresaw the importance of politics
and higher education in maintaining their relative wealth and status. Thus, sons of
Arslan Pehlivan, not only because they were attracted by the rich cultural life in
the town centre, but also probably because of their political networks and
involvement and having the possibility for their sons to have better education,
preferred to move to Hacıhamza town center, if not for the whole year, at least
during the winter seasons.
A typical example of this system of absentee landlords can be followed up from the
story of the Pehlivan family. Born in Hacıhamza, Arslan Pehlivan was a wrestler
serving in the Ottoman sultan’s Palace in Istanbul. The exact time period when he
lived is not fully known, but he is remembered as an important figure in Hacıhamza
at the end of the 1800s. Because of his successful performance against foreign
wrestlers, he was award with a gift of land by the sultan upon his retirement. This
land is located in today’s Ovacıksuyu territory. Three sons of Arslan Pehlivan,
namely Nuh Bey, Nuri Bey, and Hasan Bey are recognized as landlords of
Ovacıksuyu. In that period, an inevitable demographic change occurred in
Ovacıksuyu after the resettling of a considerable number of Kurdish-speaking
people originally from Haymana (a subprovince of Ankara). Whereas Arslan Pehlivan
was making pendulum migration, summers in the village and winters in Hacıhamza,
his sons were not so keen on keeping with the hard standards of rural life. The
cultural reforms of the republic changed the vision of landlords where full-time
“rural life” did not constitute a good deal for the sons of Arslan Pehlivan. Instead
they remained in Hacıhamza and also enjoyed the advantage of cash-crop
agriculture when the new republican government secured the trade routes and
promoted commercial activities.
However, the story of prosperity in Hacıhamza has its ups and downs. Especially
after the 1980s, the position of landlords started to change dramatically. Mehmet
Bilir, aged 77, still remembers the “good old times” before the fall of the
landlords. Being an orphan, he is not from a noble family of Hacıhamza. However,
he complains that there is no respect to the landlords anymore, and in fact there
are no more landlords (August 25, 2010). There used to be three hostels in
Hacıhamza, owned by Rüstem Bey, Yahya Bey, and Şavku Aga. The last two are
recognized as the most famous landlords of Hacıhamza. İsmail Çınar, the ex-mayor
of Hacıhamza emphasized that Yahya Bey was the strongest “ağa” of Hacıhamza
(August 23, 2010), which is also confirmed by Necati Çağatay: “Yahya was the
owner of İskilip, Kargı, and Osmancık” (August 21, 2010). Çınar adds that Yahya Bey
was a hardworking and clever man who arranged for his daughter to marry a local
lawyer, and further strengthened his political and administrative power.
THE END OF PROSPERITY FOR HACIHAMZA
The prosperous era of Hacıhamza lasted until the 1980s. The accumulated capital
financed a relatively lively social and cultural life in the small town, and turned it
into a small centre attracting nearby villagers which in turn further developed the
local service industry. Ali Rıza Uslu, remembering the old days, makes the
comment that during those wealthy times swimming was an activity only elites
could do and residents of Hacıhamza were regular swimmers. After stating that this
is no longer the case, he finishes his comment with a satirical question, “now I
really doubt whether youngsters are able to swim at all?” (Ali Rıza Uslu, August 21,
2010). For İsmail Çınar, the “high culture” of Hacıhamza was very much related to
the number of “literate” people. According to him, this ratio is the gift of the
locals, who studied in different fields and willingly turned back to serve as teachers
in Hacıhamza. While talking, he easily counts the names of five people, namely
Necati Çağatay, Kamil Uslu, Şevket Keleş, Mustafa Evkuran and Muammer Sert, who
were trained in the Köy Enstitüsü (Village Institutions), prestigious rural schools
established by the republic. He adds that as a result of increase in the level of
literacy, the number of civil servants and university graduates from Hacıhamza are
significantly higher in comparison to surrounding villages (İsmail Çınar, August 23,
2010).
Similar to the comments of Ali Rıza Uslu on swimming, Ahmet Serttaş makes a
similar comparison by giving the circulation figures of daily newspapers in the
town. He used to sell newspapers while working as a barber in his shop during the
1970s. At that time, he was selling up to 200-250 newspapers per day, which
drastically dropped in the 1990s. As a result, he quitted newspaper delivery and
sale. He adds that now, newspapers –those which provide football news or tabloidstyle news- are sold in the rest-place-restaurants and daily sales are not more than
50 (Ahmet Serttaş, August 23, 2010). For Serttaş, another indicator of the end of
the “good old times” is the number of people visiting the barber each day.
According to him, number of people who frequently visits barber to have a shave or
a hair cut is not only a sign of economic prosperity, but it is also a sign of “high
culture” and “good manners”. He states that in the 1970s, there used to be 25 to
30 customers daily, which recently dropped to 5 or 6. Another indicator in the
collapse of the old agriculture-based economic prosperity is the extinction of
hostels one by one in the 1980s. Indeed, the disappearance of hostels coincides
with the time of highway construction and infiltration of liberal economy into the
semi-feudal structure of the town.
The average size of fields and economic productivity decreased in the region since
the hereditary inheritance system prescribed the partitioning of the land equally
among the sons. By the 1980s, this resulted in the emigration of the landless and
relatively more educated locals to the metropolitan centres of Turkey for better
employment opportunities. When the highway was constructed in 1982, liberal
economy further penetrated Hacıhamza once the improvements in transportation
exposed the town to national and global economic forces. In addition to this,
because of the hereditary inheritance system, the lands were divided into many
pieces which resulted in sharp decline of per capita incomes. Ali Rıza Uslu, explains
the fading out of the old landlord system with the failure and tardiness of landlords
in investment. According to him, with the increase in the population and lack of
investments in sectors other than agriculture, many landlords were left on the
brink of survival, which eventually gave way to mass emigration.
Locals make the comparison to Osmancık and claim that while Osmancık turned out
to be prosperous Hacıhamza diminished. Ahmet Özkan, a retired teacher, mentions
that while Hacıhamza was losing population because of emigration, Osmancık
enjoyed immigration from the villages in the vicinity. In addition to this, he
emphasizes the dynamic role of the incoming villagers from Zeytin region to
Osmancık, who contributed to the economic development of Osmancık with their
continuous investment in commerce and industry (Ahmet Özkan, August 27, 2010).
Dursun Eken also examines the role of brick factories in Osmancık which
accelerated the non-agricultural production facilities and capital flow, and created
a new source of employment.
Ali Rıza Uslu emphasizes the role of emigration in the fading out of Hacıhamza. He
mentions that there are approximately 120 households from Hacıhamza living in
Çorum city centre who were in pursuit of better education options since this was
the only possible way out of subsistence economy (Ali Rıza Uslu, August 21, 2010).
Recep Boyvat adds that the total number of households, who immigrated to
different cities in Turkey, made up a sum of approximately 300 households (Recep
Boyvat, August 27, 2010).
Hayati Bahçevan draws attention to administrative problems that Hacıhamza may
likely face because of the steady decrease in population. With the recent
introduction of a law which stipulates that those towns with less than 2,000
registered residents would lose the status of municipality, the locals began to
worry. This is currently one of the biggest fears of Hacıhamza: losing the status of
municipality and being “demoted” to the level of a village instead. This would
clearly be perceived as a great insult to the old high culture town of Hacıhamza. In
fact, the population figures prove that Hayati Bahçevan is right in his fears. There
seems to be a gradual but consistent decrease in local population since 1990
28
,
with an negligible exception in 2000 and 2009. The slight increase in population can
be explained with the enthusiastic efforts of Hayati Bahçevan, major of the time.
He devoted his time and effort to registering residents to make sure that the
population of Hacıhamza remains higher than 2,000. It also has to be kept in mind
that within the last decade Kargı’s rural population also has dropped. Some of
these émigrés might have settled in town centres like Kargı and Hacıhamza.
The locals of Hacıhamza are complaining about the inefficiency of agricultural
production and insufficiency of the agricultural income for living. According to
them, there are three components of the loss of agricultural income. Firstly, they
believe that the prices of agricultural products are getting lower and lower with
time. They mention that the most profitable agricultural crop is paddy-rice. If
wheat is cultivated on one acre of land, the profit made by a villager is 30 to 40
TL, if beetroot is cultivated, it can be as high as 60 TL. Dursun Eken mentions that
for an acre of paddy rice, 105 kilograms of fertilizer is needed, and when the
28
See the appendix for the figures
expenditures for the pesticides are also included, expenses accrued for one acre of
land is roughly 500 TL whereas the income for the same proportion of land is 700
TL. In sum, around 200 TL profit is made from one acre of paddy-rice field (Dursun
Eken, August 19, 2010). So, according to the locals, almost 100 acres of paddy-rice
field is needed for the wealth of a nuclear family. Since, the total amount of land
is divided into smaller proportions because of the hereditary inheritance system,
the producers do not have sufficient amount of crop to sell in the market. As an
example, Ahmet Serttaş’s 3 acres of paddy field is cultivated by a share cropper
and around 900 kilograms of crop is divided into two parts. 250 kilograms of rice is
gained from 450 kilograms of paddy crop and he says that he distributes that to his
sons and daughters (Ahmet Serttaş, August 23, 2010). Şeref Ekmenci, a 61 year-old
retired teacher, adds that until recently the expenditures for agricultural activities
were not as much as today. He thinks that the alluvial of the Kızılırmak river used
to be enough as a source of fertilizer and synthetic fertilizers were not needed
(Şeref Ekmenci, August 25, 2010).
Ahmet Özkan, on the other hand is not so
pessimistic about paddy-rice cultivation. He talks about increased fertility of this
year’s crop, and he thinks that it is because of the unusually hot climate and the
rain fall in June. Özkan has 200 acres of land and he cultivates 30 tonnes of paddyrice per annum. He adds that he sells the total amount of harvest to the
middleman / merchants as he cannot do it himself, since he cannot trust anyone in
bigger cities (Ahmet Özkan, August 27, 2010).
As mentioned above, Hacıhamza gives the image of a small town of pensioners.
Although paddy-rice is recognized as the main source of income, it is apparent that
pensioner salaries are substantially significant for economic survival of many
households. A visitor, or a passenger passing by the town, would also recognize the
rest-area-restaurants in Hacıhamza. There are six of them: From east to west;
Akbaba, Hacıbaba, İkinci Bahar, İpekyolu, Kaptanlar, and Manolya. The owner of
Akbaba Restaurant is from the Güneyköy village of Hacıhamza, and the owner of
the Manolya Restaurant is from Kalinsa village of Osmancık, which is about 8
kilometers to Hacıhamza. It is observed that Akbaba, İkinci Bahar, and Manolya are
relatively more popular among truck drivers, and these three have considerably
more guests than the others. Manolya is most often advised by locals, whereas
İkinci Bahar is not only a restaurant for the truck drivers, but also for the private
cars.
İskender Göker, who is the owner of İkinci Bahar, says that before these rest-arearestaurants, there existed kiosks which were established around 1995-96. After a
while they turned into restaurants where beverages were also served. The first kind
of such a restaurant was the one which is now Manolya Restaurant. Göker mentions
that, Hacıhamza has always been a service place. Before the Istanbul – Black Sea
motorway was in service, the caravans used to stop by Hacıhamza to overnight.
Afterwards, it was followed by trucks. In this sense, Göker draws attention to the
historical background of Hacıhamza as the rest-area in the region (İskender Göker,
August 27, 2010).
Another non-agricultural economic activity can be identified as the textile
workshop which occupies the historical caravanserai. About 5 to 10 women are
working in the workshop which is a sub-branch of Sunteks textile factory in
Osmancık.
THE IMPACT ZONE OF THE KARGI
HEPP
The Kargı HEPP project is going to be constructed in the area that administratively
belongs to two northern subprovinces of Çorum, namely that of Osmancık and
Kargı. Whereas the actual power plant is within the administrative borders of
Kargı, the main body and the reservoir area lie within the borders of Osmancık.
Despite of the fact that geographically the project is mostly located in and
affecting Osmancık, the project is named after the subprovince of Kargı, due to
legal-administrative reasons, which defines HEPP according to the location of
actual power plant, not that of reservoir nor regulator.
Map of the impact zone and the simulation of the reservoir area
GEOGRAPHY
Kızılırmak, consistently flows towards north and after reaching Osmancık, turns
west quite sharply creating a valley covered with set of mountains and hills in the
north and south. While passing in-between hills, Kızılırmak is supplied by several
small creeks and streams flowing down and creating tiny valleys of their own by
corroding the covering mountain sets. These tiny valleys host villages, cultivating
paddy rice fields, located on edge of Kızılırmak. As a result of the elevated
positions, villages enjoy rather chilling weather and the view of Kızılırmak from
above. Due to the elevation and distance to the river basin, the actual settlement
area of the villages are immune from direct impact of flooding, though the
majority of the arable land located on both banks will be affected to a great
extent.
The most important stream supplying Kızılırmak is Devrez, where roughly the town
of Kargı is established. Whereas Devrez is supplying Kızılırmak throughout the year,
creeks in-between Osmancık and Kargı are flowing only seasonally. Thus, Kızılırmak
is the only reliable source of irrigation for the villages located from Osmancık to
Kargı. After Devrez joins Kızılırmak, the river once again changes direction and
leans towards west where it creates a similar valley with a wider base. As a result,
the paddy rice fields in the valley up north are larger in terms of size than those at
the south valley. Indeed, the project plans to create a tunnel carrying the water
from the valley in the south to that of north. Therefore the greater area of western
Osmancık and Kargı is included to the SIA study.
Therefore, the project has different layer of impact;
1.
2.
3.
4.
Reservoir area; direct physical impact of Kargı HEPP
Osmancık town; socio-economic impact of Kargı HEPP
The valley in between the regulator and the town of Kargı; indirect impact of Kargı HEPP
The valley between Kargı and the village of Maksutlu; the marginal impact of Kargı HEPP
DIRECT IMPACT ZONE
Throughout the project 4,271,254.90m2 land belonging to the villages located in
the reservoir area will be expropriated. Even though the expropriation area is not
large in comparison to project in comparable size, significant percent of the arable
land will be lost. It should be noted that the majority of expropriation area is
reserved for paddy rice cultivation. Though paddy rise is not the only crop
harvested in the area, it is the only cash crop, generating the majority of
agricultural GDP. Thus, the project will affect the economy of villages to a great
extent. There are 7 settlements located in the reservoir area namely, Durucasu,
Eymir, İnal, Karaçay, Kızıltepe, Ovacıksuyu and Sarpunkavak. Due to the unique
socio-demographic characteristics of the villages and size of expropriation area,
the impact of the project varies greatly among villages. Therefore, a detailed study
in each and every village is conducted during SIA study.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT ZONE
The town of Osmancık is the location, where the produce of the valley is processes
and marketed to the country. Insuppressibly, there will be a decrease in the total
amount of produce which will affect the economy of Osmancık, based on paddy
rice mainly. Moreover, as the most developed centre in the area, Osmancık serves
as an important point attracting the younger population of the villages in the direct
impact zone. Therefore, it is highly likely that there will be further migration and a
subsequent demographic change in Osmancık.
INDIRECT IMPACT ZONE
Though would not be affected by reservoir area, the villagers located on further
west of reservoir will be impacted, since the amount of water and organic
sediments in Kızılırmak will decrease to a greater extent. Since the stream of
Devrez will mitigate the loss for those villages in the south valley, those villages
located between the regulator and Kargı will be affected to an extent. In order to
integrate those villages into the study, the water plans and possible impacts on
irrigation structure is required. However, since that actual water plans and their
possible effects on irrigation facilities in the downstream are still to be determined
during initial phase of construction. These villages were not included to the SIA
study yet.
THE MARGINAL IMPACT ZONE
Though again indirectly, the villages located in the southern valley will be affected
by the project, via the discharge of water. However, a simultaneous HEPP project,
the Boyabat HEPP is going on in the south valley, which will create immense
physical and social impact in the valley. Indeed, the Kargı HEPP project is planned
accordingly and the Kargı HEPP will be discharging water directly to the reservoir
area of Boyabat. Therefore, the impact of Kargı to the southern valley is indirect
and ignorable at that level. However, there is a rather small area to be affected
directly by Kargı HEPP. A total land of 66,206.64m2 of Maksutlu village in the north
valley will be expropriated. Expropriation area belongs to the state and registered
as forestry, and well detached from the village area. By the virtue of being away
from the main settlement area and cultivated land, the impact of expropriation is
marginal and incomparable to that of Boyabat, which will be changing the total
land composition in the village. Therefore, Maksutlu village did not included to the
SIA study, though several visits to the village are conducted.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF KARGI HEPP ON OSMANCIK
As the statistics and our field observation indicates the direct impact zone has
depopulating via subsequent sets of emigration. According to the survey study
conducted during the last month of SIA, the total population actually living in the
settlement located in the direct impact zone is; just 759. Indeed, 701 more people
have ongoing connection with their village though residing somewhere else, either
for education or for working. In sum, direct and indirect people affecting from the
expropriation and construction site is 1.460 in total. Indeed, concerning the mass
migration experienced in the region, the total number of emigrants from area
should be higher, but since they lost their contact with the area, they are not
represented in the survey study.
POPULATION
As a result of the decrease in crude birth rates in Turkey and specifically in the
region, and simultaneous increase in life expectancy, the population in the direct
impact zone is rapidly aging. The basic demographic rule in the zone is, the
younger, the more prone to migrate; whereas the mean age of the in-residents is
47, though reaching to 55 in some villages, the mean age of out-residents is 37.
Indeed, the majority of the villagers has either the appearance of deserted/ghost
villages or the appearance of a retirement home. The ratio of population over 45 is
61,8% among in residents.
The statistics indicate the population in the direct impact zone will continue to
decrease and Osmancık, as the closest urban settlement, is likely to attract a
significant proportion of prospective migrants. The construction of the Kargı HEPP,
though not causing, can accelerate the already happening demographic shift, the
depopulation
of
the
countryside.
With
the
existing
infrastructure
and
accommodation facilities, the migration of elder population from direct impact
zone to the town of Osmancık is negligible.
EDUCATION
It is hardly possible to see any youth or children in the villages and the total
number of students enrolled currently in education is 90 (including 8 in the
university). As a result, none of the villages in the impact zone has a school still
operating, instead students are directed to Osmancık or regional boarding schools.
The mood of education among the total population is primary school graduates,
which makes half of the population. There are only 36 university graduates, making
2.5% of the total. Nevertheless those educated more, are migrating more. Indeed,
the second demographic rule of the area is, the more educated, the more prone to
migrate. Whereas the ratio of illiterates among in-residents is 39%, it is only 3.1%
among out-residents. Added those never enrolled to official education though
literate (learned reading and writing via public education), the ratio of the
population, without any formal education reaches 55.1% among in-residents. Not
surprisingly it remains at 7.3% among out-residents.
As a result of the demographic shift, the education facilities in the direct impact
zone cannot be developed, since there isn’t any population in schooling age.
However, the current education facilities in Osmancık town centre needs to be
improved to meet the requirements of the town. The most important problem of
education institutions in Osmancık is accommodation. As discussed in previous
chapters, there is a shortage of dormitories, which forces students to rent flats.
However, due to the conservative nature of the town, such solutions create
tensions or forces students to pay unrealistic amounts for rents. The construction
of a dormitory, or any assistance to the construction, would be a good solution to
alleviate social tensions and help to increase the quality of education in Osmancık.
ECONOMY
As a result of aging population the majority of the in-residents (60.1%) cannot or do
not work and either live with the help of their children or with pensions. Those who
still work are self employed farmers. As it has been in the history, the region is still
determined with paddy rice cultivation. Despite of aging population, still %74,2 of
the farmers, who can still work are cultivating paddy rice. The direct impact zone
is producing annually approximately 1.200 tonnes of paddy rice in a land mass of
approximately 1.900 decares. The productivity of paddy rice is 806 kg/da according
to national statistics, but in the zone this ratio is only 627 kg/da. In fact, the
productivity ratio of the zone remained in those of 1980s. The reason of low
productivity and underdevelopment is obviously insufficiency of agricultural labour.
Map: Annual paddy rice produce and geographic distribution in Turkey
There are several reasons for the emergence of paddy rice as the monoculture.
Basically, as can be seen in the map above, the arable land suitable for paddy rice
cultivation in Turkey is very limited and annual produce of Turkey is not sufficient
(approximately %70) to meet the
demand. Therefore, rice is one
of the few products that increase
its price, despite inflation or
economic crises. The table at the
right
demonstrates
projections
for
the
proceeding
decades.
Projections of rice consumption (annual average per capita
7,5 kg)
More importantly, with the initiation of agricultural chemicals, namely those of
herbicides and insecticides, the labour needed for paddy rice cultivation decreased
significantly. Whereas child labour or unpaid family labour was a crucial element in
picking up weeds, now all this toilsome job is handled with regular application of
chemicals. As a result even the senior farmers can take care of their fields, which
is providing approximately 4200$ per paddy field (Avg is 10 decares) annually.
Gross Domestic Product acquired via paddy rice is 822,215$. Since the majority of
the paddy rice fields located right on both banks of Kızılırmak, the major effect of
the reservoir area will on paddy rice cultivation. With a rough estimation, the
expropriation area of the reservoir; 4,271,254.90m2, will be flooding approximately
40% of paddy rice cultivating area. By assuming same level of productivity in all
fields, the total loss in terms of GDP would be 362,215$.
Since the total amount of material loss is insignificant, concerning the economic
potential of Osmancık, the effects are ignorable. Indeed, the decrease in income
can be easily subsidised with the improvement in productivity levels and
introduction of modern agricultural techniques; like controlled irrigation and catch
crop cultivation. Neither controlled irrigation, nor catch cropping is in use in the
direct impact zone. Moreover, due to continuous cultivation of paddy rice, the
quality of sole and organic composition is decreasing, affecting the total produce
negatively.
SOCIAL-IMPACTS OF KARGI HEPP
As discussed in detail in the previous chapters, paddy rice cultivation is more than
its material outcome for the region. With the finalisation of the construction, there
will be insurmountable effects to the current village life and the meanings
attached to it by the residents. In order to understand social impact of the project,
the stake holders and possible social tensions should be analysed in a holistic
approach.
KEY STAKEHOLDERS:
Introduction of herbicides and pesticides and the mechanization of agriculture have
drastically reduced the number of individuals who live in the impact zone.
However, one should also keep in mind that in addition to in-residents, there are
also other individuals who live outside the area but who still own land and property
or who have legitimate claims to land, property, and resources through customary
arrangements, such as family ties or kinship relations. Flooding of land, elimination
or reduction of irrigation opportunities, expropriation of land and property, and
disappearance of various work and subsistence arrangements will possibly have a
negative impact on both groups, namely in-residents and out-residents, including
those not represented by the SIA study. Therefore, analyses and social mitigations
should be addressing both parties.
KEY ISSUES:
Depopulation of rural areas and the ageing of residents are the key socio-economic
dynamics in the impact area. In addition to the current residents of the
settlements, it can also be envisioned that a certain percentage of those villagers
who left the area for metropolitan centres plan to return to their villages when
they retire or reach a certain age. Retirement income levels are generally low in
Turkey and private retirement accounts are not only a recent introduction but also
quite uncommon (especially in the region). Significant number of individuals in the
impact zone can only qualify for the lowest paying pensions or even lower paying
old age pensions or disability pensions. The relatively low living costs in the villages
and the presence of extended family networks and complementary subsistence
opportunities are a key retirement resource that individuals take into consideration
in planning their family members’ retirement and eldercare arrangements. This
means that for the aging population, the direct impact zone is and will be a crucial
component of their subsistence, retirement, and aging strategies. Therefore, social
impact mitigation should address the legitimate concerns of the locals who will be
forced to develop new strategies in the absence of conventional rural arrangements
that they have come to count on for many decades. Moreover, the current
condition of health services in the impact zone is insufficient to meet the needs of
elder population. Therefore, the social mitigation should also address the
increasing health problems, associated with seniors.
A HOLISTIC SOLUTION
A viable solution to the key issues in the impact zone requires an intervention that
addresses local concerns and offers a remedy that complements, and NOT replaces,
local responses in a manner that befits the local cultural logic.
In Turkey, the General Directorate of Social Services and Child Protection
Institution (Sosyal Hizmetler ve Çocuk Esirgeme Kurumu Genel Müdürlüğü) is in
charge of establishing and administering nursing home services. In addition to
public facilities, there are also private facilities which are often prohibitively
expensive for the target population. Overall, there is a severe shortage of nursing
homes around the country and especially outside of metropolitan areas. This is also
the case for Çorum where there is only one public nursing home, namely Çorum Atıl
Üzelgün Huzurevi ve Rehabilitasyon Merkezi, which has sufficient capacity only for
32 individuals in a city of 540,704 (TÜİK 2009). The situation is even direr in
Osmancık. Although there are 8,316 individuals residing in the subprovince of
Osmancık who are over 60 (TÜİK 2009), there are no functioning nursing homes. In
the next decade, 5,000 more individuals will join the cohort of 60+ in Osmancık
further escalating the problem. An earlier attempt to establish a nursing home in
Osmancık by the town’s prominent philanthropist Ömer Derindere failed and the
5,000 m2 structure built and endowed to house a nursing home was then donated to
Gazi University to be turned into a two-year technical vocational school of higher
education. This school which was established in 2006 now functions as part of the
Hittite University. Currently, there are no known plans to establish a public or
private nursing home.
A high-impact corporate social responsibility project for Statkraft could be the
building of an assisted living facility in Osmancık that provides both retirement
home services and nursing home services. This facility could be built by Statkraft as
part of its construction activities in the area, and after the signing of a protocol
with the General Directorate of Social Services and Child Protection Institution, its
administration and running costs could be transferred over to the Directorate or
partly to the Municipality of Osmancık, or civil society organisations established
and run by the local notables. Statkraft’s generous initial contribution could be
made visible in the years to come by the name given to the assisted living facility
at the discretion of Statkraft officials. The memorandum of understanding signed
with the General Directorate of Social Services and Child Protection Institution
could stipulate for the eligible pensioners and elders from the Kargı HEPP social
impact zone to have preferential access to the facility. This could be a major
contribution to the locals’ retirement and aging needs and ease the local worries
concerning the negative impact of the Kargı HEPP on their future plans. Since the
assisted living facility could be planned to serve both residents of the impact zone
and the land and property holders of the impact zone who emigrated from
Osmancık, it could play a positive role in mitigation of socio-economic risk in a
broad sense and help sustain a positive attitude towards the building and running of
the Kargı HEPP.
One complementary project that Statkraft could choose to implement in addition
to the assisted living facility is the establishment of a foundation (Vakıf) to provide
financial support to the assisted living facility and its residents from the impact
zone. Since there will be individuals in the social impact zone who have little or no
social security provisions, it might be necessary to provide additional financial
assistance for the duration of the period they spend in the assisted living facility.
The foundation could be endowed with a commercial building containing shops and
offices to be constructed by Statkraft in Osmancık on a plot of land provided by the
municipality. The rent from the shops and offices could provide the resources
necessary to support and develop the assisted living facility and its residents in the
years to come. Since the institution of foundation (Vakıf) is a centuries-long
tradition widely used in the Ottoman and republican period, it will be appreciated
and supported by the locals. Moreover, the foundation could facilitate further acts
of philanthropy by the locals and transfer know-how and best practices from
Norwegian foundations through transnational cooperation.
A third component of the social impact mitigation could be the capacity building
initiative to be launched at the local technical vocational school of higher
education, namely Osmancık Ömer Derindere Meslek Yüksekokulu. Assisted living
facilities require trained staff that can fulfil the various responsibilities associated
with eldercare and healthcare. With the assistance from Statkraft, new
departments addressing the trained personnel needs of the proposed assisted living
facility could be established. Once the infrastructure for these departments is
developed, the departments could be administered and sustained within the
institutional and financial framework of the Hittite University with public funds.
Unemployed and underemployed individuals from the social impact zone could be
trained in these departments to be later employed at the assisted living facility,
further contributing to the mitigation of social risk in the impact zone. An
additional contribution by Statkraft could be the facilitation of an exchange
program between the Osmancık vocational school and relevant Norwegian schools
that specialize in training staff for eldercare and nursing. This could allow the
transfer of know-how and best practices from Norway to Turkey while also
contributing to intercultural exchange, interaction, and understanding.
Overall, the proposed holistic solution addresses issues of subsistence, retirement,
eldercare, occupational training, and intercultural understanding and dialogue in
the social impact zone through the building of an assisted living facility, endowing
of a foundation, and the development of a technical vocational school of higher
education in partnership with relevant Norwegian institutions. The components of
the social impact mitigation project are integrated in a complex manner to
maximize the efficacy of the proposed solutions and the visibility and sustainability
of Statkraft’s social responsibility initiative.