Photographs: Fatih Pınar / Atlas Magazine

Who are the Sarıkeçililer? Literally translated into English, the name means 'With yellow goats.' Now, amid the numerous problems Turkey faces, shall we deal with goats and sheep? But why not?

The Sarıkeçililer are one of the oldest of the Yürük groups of Anatolia, one of the few nomadic cultures surviving today. Their nomadic lifestyle can be traced back more than 1,000 years. They are descendants of an ancient tradition, culture and experience. However, rather than protecting and supporting the Sarıkeçililer to prevent the loss of such long established and unique traditions and morals, the state has done the opposite, blocking their migration and increasing pressure on the group to force it into a sedentary lifestyle.

The issue was brought to the agenda within the framework of a project to revive the millions of Anatolian folk tales that are fading away, one at a time. The 'Lost Tales Project' is being carried out by Atlas Magazine and the Buğday Association, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Coca-Cola Company. As a first step in the project, a three-member team traveled to different parts of Anatolia and visited Yürüks in their camps. The Sarıkeçililer are one of the Yürük tribes.

Reporting about the Sarıkeçililer, Çağlar İnce, from Atlas Magazine, said, 'in all the Yürük villages we visited, we saw the pain of being forced to settle. For instance, in the Yağcıoğlu village of Poltalı... Initially 30 households were forced to settle there. In the first year, 17 children died. Residents of the village of Cankurtaran, near Akşehir, described the year they became sedentary as the year when 'their teardrops were frozen in their eye.' A new geographic location and a new way of life that they had no acquaintance with made them vulnerable, even to weather conditions.'

TRADITION OF MILLENIA The nomadic tradition of the Sarı keçiciler is falling victim to the rapid urbanization of the country and the state policy of forced settlement of the tribe in apartment blocks.

Are goats harmful?

As part of the 'Lost Tales Project,' the three-member team visited Yürüks who have settled into a sedentary life in Ankara, Konya and Mersin over the last 50 and 60 years. What they discovered was that only Yürüks over the age of 60 knew the folk tales, but had forgotten them, having not told them for years. But, as the Yürüks say, 'deşeledikçe,' that is to say, once you 'go further down,' the tales begin to surface one by one.

According to the team's travel notes, 'in the final days of our journey, we were together with the Sarıkeçililer, those Yürüks who still keep to their nomadic lifestyle. We were in the Aydıncık district of Mersin. We talked with them about the state's settlement policy. What the state was trying to do was to make the Yürüks settle again without preparing the necessary economic and psychological conditions. As a matter of fact, the Yürüks were also fed up with moving from one corner to another for years because there remained no places for Yürüks to move anymore. They were prevented from entering forests because their goats were harmful to the forests. Passing near villages or camping there required paying money to the village headman, the ‘muhtar.''

Are goats genuinely harmful to forests? İnce posed this question to Mehmet Can, a Yürük, who was preparing to migrate from Aydıncık with his remaining six camels. Can replied, 'if goats fade away in Turkey, then forests fade away, too. There is an area down there. They banned goats from entering that area. But lately, a fire burned down the whole forest there. Even 10,000 goats would not do such harm to that forest. In summers, the 'pürs' (pine needles) of the pine tree touch dried grass and burn the whole forest all of a sudden. And you just cannot stop it. If goats were allowed, they would flatten out the 'pürs' of the pine trees and therefore prevent possible fires.'

Some of the Sarıkeçililer were housed by the state in a residential site called the 'Yellow Residences' in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman. Hacı Atar, 77, is a Yürük who has not adjusted to his new life in a stone building. 'It has been six years that I have lived here, but I have not slept in it even for a night. I sleep in a tent that I pitched near the house.'

Nowadays, the Sarıkeçililer are preparing a festival to make their voices heard. Organized by the Sarıkeçililer Solidarity Foundation and the Aydıncık Municipality, the festival will take place on April 12-13. Çoban Sarvan, president of the Foundation, called on everyone to visit the festival in Aydıncık and support the Sarıkeçililer.

Özcan Yüksek / Turkish Daily News, April 10, 2008