Nurcan Yalçın-Mizgin Tabu/JINHA

SÊRT - Nomads, who have become part of a life which commune with nature, are intent on continuing their culture against the increasing pressure of the state. Summer camping grounds can be banned by the state. Nomads who live in the Eğlence (Kurdish name: Çemê Pirê) of Siirt, reacted the state's ban on their summer camping ground by saying, "No matter what happens, we won't leave our summer camping grounds."

Kurdish people's nomadic life culture has continued for centuries. Nomads live on summer camping grounds in summer and pasture areas in winter. Nomadic life is a communal lifestyle by avoiding from noise of cities and the stress of the social life. Nomads have tried to continue their life for 40 years despite the state's bans and pressure. When we talk about the Nomads,First the name of Siirt (Turkey's city) come to mind. Thousands of nomads react to the bans on their summer camping grounds. The nomads who live in Eğlence (Kurdish name: Çemê Pirê) which located on the banks of Botan watercourse of Siirt, are intent on continuing nomadic life.

Born in a nomad family Fatma Aksoy (35) said, "My family has continued their nomadic life for centuries. We have a really hard life. However, we are used to live like that so we are happy. We work all day nonstop. We look after our children in the tents. We cook food on the fire. We wash the dishes and laundry by hand. We take our sheep to mountains. We cannot milk the sheep this time. But we do that two times in summer. We pour the milk bins and we carry them to our tents. We boil the milk to make cheese or yogurt. We are happy to be nomads. We can only continue to live as nomads."

"Nomadic life is to live in nature," said 50 years old Besê Aksoy and continued to talk, "It snowed a lot this year. Our tents were buried under snow. We had difficult time. We begin to go our summer camping grounds when summer comes. We have gone to Van's Faraşin plateaus in summers. We walk to there with our animals. Sometimes, it takes one month to go there. We feel so happy when we arrive to plateaus. We feel as if we have gone to our homes. We have a life away from the heat of the summer months. The plateaus are cool and have fresh air. People say going to summer camping grounds has been banned. What can we do if that is true? No matter what happens, we will go to plateaus. The state has behaved unjustly toward us for 40 years. The state wants to take us away from our nature and our culture. We are a part of this nature. We want to live as nomad. We cannot be happy far away from the nature."

(mg/gd)