Fugitive and Village Emerge

Türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 28 September 2016)


Even eating steak could get old. How about hedgehog meat?

Ozan Bölükbaş, the married father of three children, was
convicted of 13 crimes that included "kidnapping", "resisting
authorities" and "threats while armed" while he was working
at a night club in Gelendost district of İsparta province.

Bölükbaş went to his father's home in Gökçeali village and lived
there for a period of time before fleeing to the mountains to
avoid jail.  During his 8 months on the run, Bölükbaş ate hedgehogs,
snakes and fruit to stay alive.  The Gendarmerie, though, did not
relent in its pursuit of Bölükbaş so he decided to turn himself in.


              İsparta province

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 28 September 2016)


          Back from the (watery) grave.

Eşelek village, located about 25 kilometers from Biga in
Çanakkale province, was founded by a group of Yörük
(Anatolian nomads) of the Türk-Oğuz clans, in 1561 A.D., when
the region came under Turkish hegemony.  In 1990 the village was
inundated when the Bakacak Dam was built.

Some of the villagers remained in Biga, while others were resettled
by the state on Gökçeada in the northern Aegean Sea, in a new
village also named 'Eşelek'.  The villagers had taken the minaret from
the mosque in the submerged Eşelek as a memento for their new home.

While the Bakacak Dam held the water, Eşelek remained submerged.
Now after 26 year the retreat of the dam's waters have exposed the 900
year-old village, together with its homes and minaret-less mosque.
Interestingly, despite the years and the water, the buildings, gravestones
and other structures in the village have not suffered damage.


Çanakkale province. Gökçeada is on the left in the Aegean Sea.