Boo! Door-knocking ‘ghoul’ scares Turkish locals

SAKARYA

According to Turkish myth, Gulyabani is a humongous ghoul with a long beard who wanders at night and scares people.

Locals in the northwestern province of Sakarya have claimed that an unidentified person dressed in white and who looks like a “ghoul” has been knocking on their doors and windows for the past 18 months with the aim of scaring them.

Mustafa Ballı, the district governor of Akyazı, authorized the gendarmerie to start investigating the matter due to an increase in the number of complaints, daily Habertürk reported Aug. 5.

According to locals, the person appears late at night and knocks on doors and windows, with some locals saying they could not leave their houses out of fear, missing prayers during the month of Ramadan.

“We don’t know if this thing is a human or a demon. When we hear these noises, we go after him. However, it is always too dark to see and he manages to escape. As we can’t sleep anymore, we decided to stay up and take shifts to wait for him,” said one local, Yücel Bektaş.

“We initially thought this person was a thief. However, no burglary took place over this period. This is why we contacted the authorities,” said Saffet Demir, another local.

The gendarmerie has sent its teams to begin searching the area, according to local reports.

Some locals draw a parallel between the appearance of the suspect and “Gulyabani.” According to Turkish myth, Gulyabani is a humongous ghoul with a long beard who wanders at night and scares people.

The myth was popularized by Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar’s 1913 novel, “Gulyabani.” Defending scientific thought, the modernist novel maintains that superstitious beliefs have been used to deceive naive people.

“Sütkardeşler,” a Turkish comedy film produced in 1976 which went on to achieve cult status, was based on the novel.