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Villagers living in Yüksekova (Gever), in Turkey’s eastern province of Hakkari (Colemerg), face challenging conditions as they struggle through harsh winter conditions.
Turkey’s eastern province of Hakkari faces one of the coldest winters in the country due to the extreme geographic conditions of the region. Villagers living in the Yüksekova district of the city try to cope with the winter conditions even as they try to feed their animals. Residents of Yeşiltaş (Ştazin) village, located at an altitude of 2000 metres and 50 km away from the district centre, cut and collect the grass and dry it during the summer in order to feed it to their animals in the winter months.
“We collect the grass in bundles and stock it in safe places in the mountains for the winter. We have to make a hard journey to the mountains amidst harsh winter conditions to stock the grass for our animals”, said Nizamettin Atılgan, one of the villagers.
When winter approaches, the villagers travel along the mountain roads of the snow covered mountains early in the morning in order to reach to the grass and food stocks they had stored during the summer months. On their way back, they load the dried grass onto their sleds to transport it back to their villages, which means another tortuous journey along the mountain paths where the snow reaches up to a metre in depth.
