Antique sellers raise their voices for bazaar

ADANA - Doğan News Agency

Antique seller Mehmet Özgöz calls on officials to make a closed bazaar area. DHA Photo

The antique sellers on Adana’s Ahmet Kalfa Culture and Art Street have demanded a covered antique bazaar to protect them from hot summer weather.

While the antique sellers have sold their pieces in shanty booths for 11 years, they now want the municipality make them a bazaar area. Speaking to the Doğan news agency, Mehmet Özgöz, an antique seller on Kalfa Street, said: “When people do not know their past, they will not have a future. This is our job: to make people remember their past.”

Özgöz said they needed a better venue. “We have to deal with the rain and mud during winter and during summer we again have hard times because of the very hot weather in Adana.”
People and representatives were not prioritizing the issue, according to Özgöz. “We want to raise our voice,” he said.

Özgöz said they were not doing this job for money. “We do not want antique pieces to vanish or be damaged. These are the valuables of our country.” He said people should protect the street and their cultural heritage by protecting the antique sellers in Adana.