My Village
The Village of my Father and Grandfathers
I've found this photograph by pure chance. It was shot in 1947 during a trip of a member of the parliament from the party CHP (Republican People's Party). Among other villages of Zonguldak, they visited our home village Karabasli.
This single photograph tells a lot of things. Karabasli was a poor forest village in Zonguldak, on Black Sea coast. This is officially the oldest photo of our village. It was the year that my father was born. He's definitely not in the picture neither is my grandfather Alim. At that time, he was working in the coal mines of Zonguldak and probably was not in the village.
As you may notice, there are no women in the frame which was the typical case in conservative rural areas.
People of Karabasli
in 1947