PART3: Migrations
Only about 15,000 people, scattered over a wide area, inhabit the valleys
permanently. A larger number of Hemşinlis live in the diaspora. The emigrating
trend started at the end of last century when Hemşin first came out of its
isolation
under Russian influence and many people went out to Batumi, Odessa and Moscow
mainly to work as pastry cooks.
Nowadays they own just about every pastryshop
worth its salt in
Istanbul, Ankara and elsewhere in Turkey, as well as some of
the top restaurants in the land. Other native boys include an illustrious line
of top bureaucrats and politicians.
Whatever their status and employment, most come back each summer for a few days
or months to be spent at the yayla. People talk about a strange, mystical tie
that pulls them back to the magic land of their ancestors. It is partly the call
of the wild, the feeling of exhilaration-and danger, both physical and
spiritual-at the outer edge of civilization; partly, one suspects, an
opportunity for people to meet and mate.
Starting in June, entire families, from aged grandparents to screaming infants,
make the long, 2-3 day trek to their respective yayla retreats. Some arrive in
trucks carrying family and goods-prize bulls, antique standup clocks and baby
carriages. Others show up in late model Mercedes which keep getting stuck in the
mud. Most walk. Women put on the traditional garb of bright orange silk scarves,
black woolen skirts and multicolored mountain socks. They carry babies on their
backs and struggle to keep the herds of cattle in line, while men stumble
behind-ready to heed the flimsiest excuse for another rakı break. Cafes are
located at convenient intervals along the way. They offer old friends not seen
in a year, decks of cards and often a few beds upstairs to accomodate the
stragglers.
The yayla-a cluster of ancient stone houses, usually above the timberline,
sometimes at the very edge of permanent snow-comes to life overnight in a total
confusion of knee¬deep mud, fiery bulls fighting to establish this year's bovine
hierarchy, the pungent smells of burning pine¬wood and tezek (dried cowdung) and
dead-drunk men running high on the
sheer excitement of the yayla. The festival season begins almost immediately,
each yayla holding its own vartavar on a different weekend, with that of
Ayder
as the crowning event of the year.
PART 1:
A Unique Land
PART 2: The People of Hemşin
PART 3: Migrations
PART 4: Çamhhemşin
PART 5:The Main Valley | 
