The mountians of our land is of emerald. Everywhere is full of lapis, agate and jade." These words belong to a Afghanian Turcoman who was forced to leave his country. We had decided long before to report to you those wonderfull pieces of jewellery for this issue of our magazine. Then the horrible incident of September the 11th happened and Afghanistan suddenly became the focal point of our lives. We took the road to the Grand Bazaar for the jewelry that came from Afghanistan but then we found our selves discussing the state of the world with one of the Bazaar's most interesting colours Afghani Turcoman.
There are more then furty Afghani Turcoman tradesmen in the Grand Bazaar. Most of them are involved in carpet and silver trading. A short wile ago leather was popular too but when the customers from the Eastern Block gave up this bussiness, they had to stop as well. Most of their shops are based at the Grand Bazaar's Terlikçiler Street. Ensari Carpets, Kuyumcular Trading, Buhara Carpets, Turcoman Touristic Gifts, Lebab Carpets, Leather and Silver, Şafak Import, Mahdumlar Silver and Işan Carpets are some of these. Afghani Turcoman are no very talkative people. But they constantly have a smile in their faces while acting very timid. The strangest thing is that they drink green Chinese tea all the time. They know each other well and most of them live in Zeytinburnu.
The duty of introducing us to the Afghani Turcoman of the Grand Bazaar was on the Secretary General of the Afghani Turcomans' Association Hekim Öztürk's, who seemed a very kind gentlemen indeed. The first shop that we visited was the shop of Alla Murat and Nabi Mahdum wich is called Mahdumlar Silver and sells Turcoman, Afghani and Kazakhi jewellery. At the shop, even though we were very busy looking at the bowls full of rings Mahdum Bey answered our questions with patience, drinking his green tea. Mahdum Bey was in Pakistan before he came to Turkey five years ago. The common thing betwen them is that all have lived in Pakistan before coming to Turkey.
Mahdum Bey was doing silversmithery in Pakistan too. Coming to the Grand Bazaar with

the help of his friends wich have come here before, Mahdum Bey still has a silver workshop at the city of Peshawar in Pakistan. Besides this they collect jewelry from the villages of Afganistan and Pakistan and they bring them to the Grand Bazaar. The strings wounded around the ring draws our attention. We understand that the women in the villages rap the rings with strings wich are too big for their fingers.
The most popular piece of jewelry in the shop are the rings. Necklesses and bracelets follow them, but earrings are not so

tomorow, they may not." they say. Business is getting worse even with their most loyal costumers: the Americans have stopped coming to the Grand Bazaar.
Managing the shop Kuyumcular with his brother Said Abdülrahim, Alla Murat is one of the Afghani Turcoman tradesmen at the Bazaar saying that bussiness is bad these days. Murat Bey says that silversmithery is his family job. He came to Turkey a couple of years ago and his shop only only two years old. They too, still have a workshop in Peshawar. The most popular pieces in the shop are old and antique looking new silvers. They mostly use 90-94 karats of silver. If the karat value of silver is high it bends, so they keep the karats of the silver low.
The most attractive jewelry in the shop was a very elegant nose ring named ısırga. Isırga has a very interesting story: Once there were two women who were very jealous of each other. One of the women made a hole on the others nose to spoil her beauty. Having a hole on her nose, she started to wear an ısırga to camouflage it, but this way she was even more beautiful... For the Afghani Turcoman another trade after silver is carpets.
The carpets weaved in Afghanistan come to the Grand Bazaar over Pakistan and are very popular these days and they have oversold the Turkish carpets. This is the common opinion of the people in the Grand Bazaar who are in the carpet business. The Afghani Turcoman Fazıl Halimi who works the İşan Carpet at the Terlikçiler Street in the Grand Bazaar sells these carpets. The Afghan carpets have a lot of costumers because of their reasonable prices, bright colours and contemparary patterns. Well, at least this how it was until the 11th of September crisis...
Fazıl Bey has been in the carpet business for five years now but he says Afghani carpets have been sold here since 1982. Halimi, first came to Iran when the Russian War started after a very hard 24 hours horse ride. After staying seven years in Iran he decided to come to Turkey. Being a Turkish citizen since 1990, Halimi says the incidents in America has affected

 

the bussines here a lot, because the Americans were the biggest costumers of the Afghani carpets.
Halimi is afraid of the possibility of a war like anybody else and he wishes that innocent people won't die. Pointing out that the low crime rate between the Afghani Turcoman in Istanbul he says that they are definitly against the Taliban regim

popular.Tourists come to the shops more then the local costumers but dollar is the most used cash at the shops. Apart from their usage as jewellery, these jewelleries have another use: Because they have a weight ranging between two or three to ten kilograms, they are also used as decoration. For example newly wed women only wore these at their own weddings and at other weddings, then hung them on their walls. Well, it's impossible to spend their lives with such heavy jewelly anyway. Young unmarried girls wearing these jewellery are frowned upon so they use lighter jewellery. By the way, they say that the women of the past who wore those jewelleries were well built. These interesting and heavy jewelleries require high skills to make and they carry names like "tumar", "sümsile" and "göncük". Gold is barely used because it's expensive. If the family is wealthy, gold plated silver is preferred.
Precious stones preferred on silver are agate, turquoise, lapise, emerald and jade. At the Mahdumlar Silver you can find domestic utensils made out of silver too. Once used to make a hole in the bread (dürtgüç) or used as a scent box, these objects are now used for authentic decorations. Mahdum Bey has a workshop at Zeytinburnu and custom made jewellery as well. He makes silver belts, hand bags and 'seven gap' barecelets.
We ask Mahdum Bey the difference between the Turcoman language and Turkish. "There's a little difference; we use Persian words a little bit more" he says. Maybe that's why all of the Afghani Turcoman say that they have no problems in adaptation and Turkey is the place where they feel comfortable. The Afghani Turcoman come under bias in Pakistan and Iran, plus they are not welcomed by their homeland, Turkmenistan.
The Afghani Turcoman mostly live at Northern Afghanistan near the border between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Mezar-ı Şerif, Meymene and the foot of the Hindikuş

Mountians are places were they are densely populated.The story of the immigration of these people goes back to the time when Afghanistan started to war with the Soviet Union, but the people whom they love are still in Afghanistan. For this reason they are terrified of the posibilty of a war between America and Afghanistan."The people who have money and know how to read and write have managed to leave the country already.The ones who were left behind may find something to eat today but ,