KEBABBLE Pigeon love
and hate in Turkey By Fazile
Zahir
FETHIYE, Turkey - A Greek member of
the European Parliament, Yiannis Glavakis, caused
a furor in Turkey recently by asking the European
Union to step in and pay for pigeon-prevention
measures at the Ayasofya Mosque in the heart of
historic Istanbul.
According to the motion
he put in Parliament, on his last visit to the
former Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia, as it was
known until 1453, he found that the aforementioned
birds were damaging
the
structure of the building and creating a stink
inside. He said he had witnessed large numbers of
pigeons around the building and some had nested
inside the main dome.
Glavakis explained
the great spiritual importance of Ayasofya to the
Greek people and tried to persuade the EU that
despite being outside the Union's current borders,
the mosque was "a work of art that constituted a
bridge between civilizations - Ayasofya belongs to
all humanity".
According to his research,
the building's life span could be reduced by up to
50% if it became a place where pigeons gathered,
and he claimed that the windows, architraves and
ground floor had already been left to the mercy of
the feathered pests. Glavakis asked the EU to fund
wire barriers that would prevent nesting, similar
to those already used on historic structures in
London and Venice.
While these aims may be
noble, for the Turkish population he confused the
issue when he added that the building had
sustained other "major damage during the Ottoman
period". An unnamed source on the staff at
Ayasofya admitted there were two or three pairs of
pigeons that had entered through broken windows
but said they posed no threat to the ornate
internal decorations. He stated that Glavakis had
exploited a legitimate problem for political
ends.
Whether his motivation in drawing
attention to the plight of Ayasofya is innocent or
not, pigeons and their mess pose problems all over
Turkey. Despite being an international symbol of
peace and goodwill (better known as doves in that
context), their droppings seem to create exactly
the opposite atmosphere. In February, Nuray Gulec
finally won a two-year case against her upstairs
neighbors whereby they were ordered to pay her
6,000 liras (US$4,600) in reparations and remove
the basket that she claimed was a feeding box for
the flying vermin. They insisted it was a
clothes-peg holder.
The defendants, the
Haracci family, protested their innocence, saying,
"Our balcony is shuttered and closed off; we are
not bird breeders but our local area is full of
trees. It is the seagulls and pigeons that perch
on these trees and the roof that create the mess."
Gulec, who claimed to have suffered at the hands
of the family for 14 years, took exception to the
excuses and sued them for damages. Despite having
won the case, the clothes-peg basket/bird feeder
at the nub of the dispute is still in place, as
the Haracci family are appealing the court
decision against them.
Nuray Gulec should
count herself lucky that her neighbors are
sticking to their recriminations within the legal
system. Saban Olker from Istanbul was not so
fortunate. In the same month that Gulec won her
case, Olker lost his life after a fight over a
pigeon. He had gone to visit his friend Adnan
Sezgin, and in an act of sadistic cruelty ripped
the wings off of one of Adnan's pigeons.
Furious, Adnan swung at him and punched
him in the head. Saban returned home with a
bruised face and depressed spirits and told his
wife about the argument over the bird. He went to
bed shortly after eating his dinner and never rose
from his bed again. His wife Nurhan found him dead
the next morning. Sezgin was arrested pending a
post-mortem to ascertain cause of death.
Adnan Sezgin is not the only Turkish
person to hold pigeons in great esteem. In Konya,
central Turkey, Sedat Kocak recently set up the
Sebap Pigeon Lovers Society, which already has at
least 194 members. Tumbler (or roller) pigeons
were first imported to Konya from Syria a few
years ago, and in auctions held by the society,
pigeons have fetched prices ranging between 250
and 25,000 liras (the purchase price of a new
car). Kocak claims there are 10,000 people
breeding pigeons in Konya alone.
There are
even those who claim that pigeons can be a tourist
attraction rather than a repellent pest. In
Giresun, Dursun Tasdemir is fighting to save the
public toilet he runs from demolition. The toilet
has been earmarked by the city council to be
destroyed as it was built on land designated a
green-belt site, but Tasdemir insists it is a
tourist attraction.
He has taken a
building formerly in ruins, renovated it, kept it
neat as a pin, festooned the wash-basin area with
ivy and flowers, and installed two aquariums, 30
canaries, a pair of parrots and seven pigeons. No
wonder tourists can't miss this eccentric photo
opportunity. With demolition imminent, Tasdemir is
asking the council to give him an alternative site
to relocate his latrine menagerie. Perhaps the
Ayasofya pigeons should ask for the same.
Fazile Zahir is of Turkish
descent, born and brought up in London. She moved
to Turkey in 2005 and has been writing full-time
since then.
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