The Yayla principle is comparable to the Alpine pasture and dates back to times, when many people in Anatolia lived as nomads (Yörük). Any Turkish tribe had a river and a mountain. While places at the watercourses were used as winter home, the windy mountain residence was useful during the summer season. This principle is still in use, especially older people from the villages prefer to spend the summer time on the hills and mountains.

In former times many nomadic tribes resided over the year at four different places: “Yazlak” in the spring, “Yaylak” in the summer, “Güzlek” in autumn and “Kışlak” in the winter. 
Nomadic life came with the Turkish tribes from the steppes of Central Asia to Anatolia. In the Seljuk era during 13th Century and especially during the 16th and 17th Century, because of political and economic stability in the Ottoman Empire it changed more and more to urban life in the cities and more permanent settlements with agriculture and animal husbandry in the villages or to seminomadic lifestyle. Today some seminomads are still living in the Toros Mountains and in Southeastern Anatolia.

Those people who live and work in the so-called Yayla, the anatolian high plateaus are characterized from the hard life of their surroundings. They are known as friendly and quiet contemporaries, but like the nature, especially the weather, they can be sometimes very fickle. However, the people on the high plateaus have strong characters. An old proverb says: “If a shepherd really wants something, he can make milk from felt.”

© Photos and writing by Jens Helmstedt

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