Women of Anatolian nomadic tribe lead yearly migration

AFYONKARAHİSAR

The Sarıkeçili tribe treks the cool highlands of Anatolia every year come spring, grazing their animals, and the women of the Yörük Turkic ethnic group are indispensable to this tough migration.

Continuing their stay in the cool and fertile Tuğlu Plateau in the western Anatolian province of Afyonkarahisar’s Hocalar district, Sarıkeçili nomads spend every day working in makeshift tents in difficult living conditions.

Yörük women wake up every morning with sunrise and prepare breakfast for the shepherds who will climb pastures to graze their goats.

Later, women start housework, cook and make cheese from milks, complete milking the goats returning from the pastures towards sunset for use in cheese making the next day.

“This lifestyle continues the same for six months of the year,” Firdevs Şahin, a Yörük woman, said.

“Our only source of income is from small ruminants and the products we obtain from it,” added Şahin.

The Sarikeçili are a tribe within the Yörük group, a semi-nomadic pastoral Turkish people that is one of the oldest in Turkey. They have been crisscrossing Anatolia for centuries.