Gümüşdere is one of the rare villages in Istanbul where people are still engaged in agricultural activities.
Nearly 300 families live in the village where they first settled in the 1920s in the exchange of populations. The second generation people who left their homelands behind made a new life for themselves here. The land along the valley nearby the village is their source of life because they rely on agricultural production. This land was a desert back then; when they first settled there, the desert scenes of the Turkish movies were shoot in this area; now it is an agricultural oasis thanks to the earth they transported there. Every family has its share in the land where they perform organic agriculture; they sell their products in Sarıyer Bazaar. However, the families have faced a danger of losing their lands many times. Villagers say: “First, İSKİ wanted to create water purification plant here; then they confiscated
Gümüşdere Beach which was run by the villagers before. Now big corporations turn their eye on us and our lands because it is on the route of the third bridge.”
Fikret Semerci
“Six people including my kids rely on this land to make a living. We have to rely on our products we produce organically. We have spent 50,000 TL on our land; we even produced our own seeds. I am 56 years old; we will not be able to do another job if this land is privatized.”
Vedat Kasap
“We inherited this land from our ancestors; we grow different plants and vegetables depending on the seasonal conditions. We sell the products in Sarıyer Market. We are a family of four; I have kids at school age; I take care of their expenses by the money I make here. We are afraid that our lands may be taken away from us by privatization process after the construction of the third bridge.”
Süleyman Aslan
“Like everybody else here, I am also engaged in agricultural activities. I have a family of seven; I am 53 years old; I make a living by selling the products we grow here. We do not receive any incentive or financial support; we pay our taxes; we transformed this arid land into a fertile area.
The people have hard labor in every inch of this land. We are against privatization; we just want the delivery of this land to the people who spent efforts on it.”
Ramazan Armut
“The only thing we can do for a living is agriculture. I cover the expenses of my kids studying in college thanks to this land which connects us to the life. What would I do if they take away this land from me?”
Şenay Akgün
“We are a family of five; one of my kids is in high school and the other in college; I sell the products in Zekeriyaköy and Sarıyer. I received special training for organic agriculture. There are also others who received the same training. We hear news that organic agriculture is specifically supported in Europe. We just want that these lands should be sold to us at a reasonable price.”
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| • Children |
