‘Stake a claim in your village, your water, your land...’

There are many stories unfolding all around us that will ultimately change the destiny of the nation. The story of Rıfat Şahin, a teacher, is just one of them. It is a story that brings to mind the words of Sheikh Edebali, who first warned, “Stake a claim in your home, your land, your ‘tekke’ [dervish lodge] and your water.”

Şahin, at the age of 66, left behind everything in his life to return to the village of Dereşemsettin in Bilecik, where he was born. After 28 years of teaching away from the village, Şahin and his wife, Emel, decided to return. And thus in the same village where for years the lights went out one after the other as the young population was replaced by a much older one, a new light was turned on.

It was by chance that in 2004 Şahin happened to head back to his village for a visit. It was a village that he had never planned to live in again. During this 2004 visit, Şahin saw that a guesthouse left to him by his father was about to collapse due to lack of care. It pained him greatly to see the legacy left by his father in such ruin. It was then that Emel made this offer to him: “We are tired of the heat in İzmir anyway, and of doing basically nothing at home. We always see the same people, do the same things. The climate here in the village is much like that in Uludağ. We can take walks here. We can grow and eat our own tomatoes and peppers. We are teachers, we need to be the leaders of society -- let’s rebuild this home. Let’s turn on a light here.” And so, this couple decided to return to their village to become an example to other villagers. They moved into their small village home -- which they renovated -- in 2005.

Once he had made the move to the village, Şahin rolled up his sleeves and got to work. He had always liked to make a difference wherever he lived so he headed to the regional agricultural directorate to ask for assistance in a project he had prepared that aimed to plant many more walnut trees in the area. The project was approved and, after the local villagers were convinced of the project’s merits, there were exactly 1,000 trees planted in Dereşemsettin in 2005. Planting another 1,000 trees every year, a total of 4,000 walnut trees have been planted so far. The local villagers were very pleased with the situation. They even wanted to name the walnut grove after him. It was an honor he refused to accept though, telling them that it is enough for him just to know that they are investing more energy into their own fields and trees now.

New vision for the villagers

In 2006, Şahin read a newspaper article about the breeding of black Anatolian goats and Saanen goats from Switzerland. The article noted that the Saanen goat actually produces milk 300 days a year and is much better than the black Anatolian goat when it comes to stock farming. Şahin decided he needed to learn much more about the subject and headed straight to the university to find out as much as he could. He learned how the black goat and the Saanen goat can interbreed and how the animals could be bred and kept successfully in Bilecik. He decided to visit the regional agricultural directorate once again and speak with authorities there about a new project to bring Saanen goats to the village. At the end of his initial meetings there, he was given approval for the project he had in mind but didn’t receive any financial backing. So after his own work on the project, he was finally able to set aside an initial TL 15,000 in 2007. At the same time, he and Emel worked as hard as they could, gathering more and more information about Saanen goats. They shared the information they learned with the deputy governor of Bilecik, Abdurrahman İnan. Bilecik Governor Musa Çolak then decided to back the project and TL 15,000 from the governor’s budget was set aside. During the first stage of the project, goats were given to seven or eight people. Şahin himself joined in as one of the participants in the project.

More retired people returning to the village

To echo the words used by Şahin himself, this retired teacher and his wife turned on a light in the village. Unexpectedly, in their wake, others began returning to the village. One of these was retired railroad worker Mustafa Albayrak. Albayrak, who made his living driving a dolmuş in the town of Bilecik after retiring, has known Şahin since they were children and heard that Şahin had returned to the village. He recalls: “I always dreamed of returning to the village, but for some reason, I never dared to try it. The fact that Rıfat Bey moved back reminded us all of something. Then I realized how the very place where my own father had once lived was now empty.” Albayrak decided to renovate his home in the village and participate in the new Saanen goat project. Then he and his wife, Behiye, moved back to the village together. Albayrak notes that they are now both healthier, saying: “When in Bilecik, my own personal troubles would drive me to spend time in the coffeehouse or in front of the television. But now we don’t have all that free time. I spend my time tending goats and my wife makes cheese. Thanks to Rıfat Bey, we also want to show that we can actually do things here in our village.”

After a wonderful meal prepared by Emel, we drink the tea prepared on the coal-burning oven heating the home. Şahin noted, “Our teaching experiences continue here in the village,” going on to explain. He talks about some of the changes in the village. “We have a new classroom of students here. Some of the names of our students are Küheylan, Ponpon, Çıtır, Dilber, Sülün, Süslü. …The goats are really like students for us. We know all of them by their voices.”

After we have our tea, we head straight for the goat pens. Here, the Şahins’ new “students” gather around us. They are all very excited because it is feeding time. Emel hugs these goats the way a mother would hug her children. Interestingly, though they began the project with only eight goats, the Şahins now have 60 goats of their own. In fact, even as I was writing this article, a pair of kids were born to the nanny goat named Sülün. Şahin says: “Before I reached this age, I had never milked an animal. I milked a goat for the first time at the age of 64. It is as though we have been reborn here. Look at our cheeks, how healthily they glow!”

And Şahin does not have any plans to stop. The couple’s new goal is to start up an organic farm in the village, with support from the regional agricultural directorate. They also want to see a milk collection center set up and a new barn built for the Saanen goats.