A NEW SILK ROAD: THE RETURN OF THE SCARVES
Economist
europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10609214
Jan 31 2008
UK
Rural Kurds revive an old Armenian tradition
FOR centuries Armenians in the village of Agacli, in south-east Turkey,
cultivated silk. With it they wove fine carpets and flowing scarves
that were traded all along the silk road from China to Europe. That
was until 1915, when Ottoman forces slaughtered most of the villagers,
and hundreds of thousands of other Armenians. The village was taken
over by Kurds and, in the 1990s, became a target for terrorists from
the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Residents began to flee when the
PKK started raiding the area demanding food and shelter.
Weary of the violence, Agacli’s 62-year-old mayor, Yusuf Bayram,
decided two years ago to try to revive the silk trade. He was inspired
by his wife, the daughter of two Armenians rescued as children by
Kurdish neighbours during the 1915 massacres. But a lone pair of
gnarled mulberry trees planted by the Armenians were all Mr Bayram
had-until the European Union rode to the rescue with a big grant.
New mulberry trees were planted, silkworms and looms brought in. Some
15 teenage girls have been trained to spin, weave and dye the silk.
Despite finger-numbing cold, they have just produced their first
batch of scarves. Gulay Aslan, a former seamstress who trains the
girls, says their biggest challenge is sustainability. "The EU money
is finished. We need to stand on our own feet, to find markets,"
she declares.
The women have formed a co-operative, but their only customer is
Diyarbakir’s chamber of commerce. At $35 each, the scarves cost
far more than those of competitors in China and India. "They use
machine-spun silk, our girls make everything by hand," boasts Mr
Bayram. Just like the Armenians, he adds.