January 11, 2021

“I have been working in this shop for 60 years. I first started in 1960, and spent most of my days here. I raised three children doing this job. We used to work a lot in the past, we used to work day and night and still couldn’t meet people’s demands, but no one uses hats nowadays. There used to be many people who made hats in Diyar Bakr, but now it’s just me, and I can’t continue and will stop after a short while. Then, there will be no one else that makes hats. These hats used to be a part of our culture, nowadays only senior people wear them, young people don’t really know much about it. There are many things that are fading away same as this, and I’m afraid that this will, too. I would’ve loved my kids to learn this job, but they are busy with their lives now. A big part of our culture is vanishing and will be erased from our memories”.