Portraits of Kars (2007)

The city of Kars, Turkey, is a melting pot. It lies near the closed border of Turkey and Armenia. Many Iranian, Russian and Georgian families have settled here. This area is the one in Turkey that is most densely populated by Kurds, moreover the Kars region is the much-liked hideout of the PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party). One of the most famous novels of the Nobel Prize-winning author of Orhan Pamuk, Snow was written about this colorful city.

Still, despite the possible tension the locals live side by side in peace in the center of this province of Kars, that is 1/10th the size of Hungary. They lead a busy lifestyle – more than 80000 people work from morning till night -, may they be receptionists, drapery mongers and tailors, kebab sellers, barbers, doctors, honey-shop owners, amusement park workers, or millers. They are the people called: patron (= owner, boss).

(Shot in digital.)