4 Kasım 2018 Pazar
Gölköy's Cable-walkers - Like NY's Skyscraper Mohawks
türkçe links to original Turkish article
(Hürriyet Newspaper, 4 November 2018)
NY Skyscraper Mohawks click here for the story of
the Mohawk Native Americans who built New York's
skyscrapers.
Acrophobians need not apply.
In Ordu's Gölköy district, 68 years ago İzzet Yiğit taught
the ins and outs of high-tension wire work to the other men
in Gölköy, after he had learned it himself in Europe. Since
then, more than 5,000 of the district's men have worked
high above the ground to earn a living. They work like
fearless tightrope walkers in the circus on the electrical
cables and ride bicycles on the cables to ensure that one
cable doesn't touch the other.
Many of the Gölköy workers have become bosses and
run million-dollar projects in Turkey, Central Asia, Iraq,
Lebanon, Germany, Russia, UAE and Armenia. Gölköy
Mayor Ali Kemal Mert noted that the most important
profession in the district is high-tension wire work. He
said that "we have 3-5,000 workers at projects around
the world. In Turkey, 80% of the high-tension wire
workers are from Gölköy and it's 40% abroad."
Understandably, high-tension workers are energized
about their profession.
Burhan Hacet (38) has worked in the energy line
industry for 26, learning the trade from his brother-in-
law. He said that "I learned the work in 3-5 months
and became a master, teaching others the profession.
We have people working in Turkey, Germany, Iraq,
Nigeria and other places. There are work accidents,
though. I have a one-year-old son and I never want
to teach him this profession."
According to research done by Akdeniz University,
Gölköy district residents are in Turkey's top-10,
as far as length of life and health are concerned,
living to an average age of 82. However, between
10 and 15 young high-tension cable workers from
Gölköy die each year in work accidents.
Gölköy district is in south-central Ordu.
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