"Hurç Cemile" and Society

“HURÇ CEMİLE” AND SOCIETY

“Hurç” is a Kurdish word meaning “bear.” I don't need to tell you that Cemile is a female name. In this case, the Turkish equivalent of the title is “Bear Cemile.” This name might not mean much to you at first. Is it an insult, or a folk idiom used to describe a hairy woman like a bear? You might consider many possibilities, but unfortunately, as you will see only after reading the article, none of your assumptions will be correct.

I first heard the name “Hurç Cemile” in 2000 from my late Aunt Gurci (Selçuk), who was 90 years old, during an interview for my book Iğdır Sevdası (Love of Iğdır). She recounted the events in detail. As she spoke, she would involuntarily succumb to an indescribable pain and emotion that wrung her heart, and with difficulty, she would wipe away a few accumulated tears from her dry, faded eyes with the hem of her dress, trying not to let me notice.

In subsequent days, when the name “Hurç Cemile” came up in an interview I conducted with the late Turgut Sungar in Ankara, I realized that the story was a much-discussed topic not only among tribes but also in Iğdır of yesteryear. When I returned to Iğdır, I gathered information from the elderly and learned a great deal about Hurç Cemile.

GURCİ SELÇUK’S ACCOUNT

In the summer of 1930, the Turkish Army had completely surrounded Mount Ağrı from all sides. Among the fighters on Mount Ağrı were over a thousand civilians. When the soldiers attacked, the fighters broke through the encirclement and crossed into Iran, but the women, children, and elderly civilians they left behind were not so lucky. General Salih (Omurtak) Pasha’s order was absolute: “Not a single living thing shall remain on the mountain! Do not waste bullets unnecessarily; finish them with bayonets!” The soldiers obeyed the order flawlessly. The slopes of Mount Ağrı were covered with slaughtered civilians. There was no need to even dig graves. The dead bodies were left in the open to wild animals.

When evening fell, wolves and bears emerged from their hiding places. A female bear took with her a one-year-old girl whose mother had been killed, and who was hiding among the rocks out of fear. She climbed to a cave inaccessible to soldiers and left the girl among her own cubs.

As time passed, the girl grew up imitating the bears. She ate what they ate. She sat and stood like them, and her voice resembled theirs. She was stark naked. Since Mount Ağrı was declared a forbidden zone (1930-1953), there were no longer any people around. Wild nature began to reign. The wild girl walked on all fours like bears, and when necessary, stood on two feet to gaze into the distance. She was accustomed to eating raw meat. She had a deep, roaring voice like a bear.

When the Democrat Party came to power, the ban on the Mount Ağrı region was lifted (1953). Some of the Gêloî tribe, who had settled in villages like Karakuyu, Taşlıca, and Aliköçek, returned to their ancestral villages at the foot of Mount Ağrı: Adetli, Karahacılı, Kolukent, and Korhan. In short, Mount Ağrı was reunited with humankind after 23 years.

The Adetli, Karahacılı, and Hıdırlı region was entirely covered with human-height reeds. It was home to all kinds of wild animals, especially wild boars. Many villagers who returned to their villages would die in wild boar attacks in later years. Snakes and scorpions had already made their homes in the crumbling village houses. Korhan was full of deer herds. Bears and wolves reigned on Mount Ağrı.

It was not easy for the new villagers to get used to the wild nature that had taken root on Mount Ağrı. One day, shepherds grazing their sheep flocks in Korhan, never without their weapons, saw a human-like creature on the hill. It resembled neither a bear nor a wolf. They did not want to open fire and kill it. Whenever they took the flock up the hill, the wild-looking, stark-naked humanoid creature would watch them with curiosity. They decided to set a trap and catch it. Eight shepherds were grazing a giant flock. Since the area was full of wolves, there were also many dogs.

One day, the wild human reappeared on the rocks. The dogs attacked. Sounds of struggle and shouts were heard from afar. The shepherds followed the dogs and climbed the hill. The wild creature was throwing the dogs as it caught them, fighting them like a bear. Eight strong shepherds slowly approached the wild creature. They fired shots into the air to scare it. They all jumped on it together and tied its hands with a rope from the front. And what did they see! There was a woman before them. She was roaring incessantly, her voice echoing in the rocks. The wild woman struggled to free herself, but she was caught; escape was impossible.

The shepherds took the wild woman to the flock. They tied her feet so she wouldn't escape. They offered her bread, but she wouldn't eat it. They offered her water in a zinc bowl; she only dipped her tongue in it and tried to drink like a dog. She didn't know how to drink water like humans. The shepherds tried to solve the mystery of the event. Who was this creature, what was it, why was it living alone here?

When the shepherds slaughtered a lamb and cut its meat, the wild woman groaned as if to indicate her hunger, asking for meat. One of the shepherds handed a piece of raw meat to the wild woman. The wild woman ate the meat with appetite. It was clear she was hungry. Soon, the shepherds began to understand what the wild woman wanted from her tone of voice. The wild woman softened in response to the mercy shown. The dogs also got used to her. She no longer saw anyone as an enemy. The shepherds untied the rope from her feet so as not to torment her. The woman moved away a little, relieved herself, and returned to sit at the base of the rock.

One of the shepherds was a religious scholar who had received madrasa education. He sat down for prayer. He raised his hands and prayed to Allah. “Oh Allah! Help this helpless servant who lives with us! Do not withhold your wisdom and blessings from her!”

The religious scholar said it was a sin for the wild woman to be naked. First, they tried to cover her private parts with a lambskin. Each time, the wild woman would throw off the lambskin. The shepherds, at the insistence of the religious scholar, repeated the same thing over and over, but the wild woman rejected the lambskin in the same way. One of the shepherds had an idea. He brought one of the empty sacks (made of linen) they had. He made holes in the closed side of the sack. They forcibly put the wild woman's head through the hole in the sack, and her arms out through the holes opened at the sides. The wild woman resisted, wanting to tear the sack, but she was also exhausted. She accepted the clothing fitted to her. She fell into a deep sleep at the base of the rock. They tied her feet again in the middle of the night so she wouldn't escape.

The Hoca untied the rope from the wild woman's feet, and sat beside her. He recited a few surahs from the Quran. He raised his hands to the sky and implored Allah:

“Xwedê, ez mirovekî reben im. Comerdiya û qenciya xwe ji wî afirandî xwe ra eyanbike!” (Oh Allah! I am a wretched human. Show your generosity and goodness to this creature!)

“Heger azadî dila wî ye bila dîsa here ser çiyayên!” (If freedom is in her heart, let her return to the mountains!)

The next morning, when they woke up, they saw the wild woman sitting at the base of the rock. If she had wanted to, she could have run away, but she had chosen to stay with the shepherds. Her fearful eyes had softened, and she looked around like a deaf and mute person. When the flock moved, she followed them from 20-30 meters away. The shepherds were generous. They found a container from which she could drink water and milk comfortably. There was always meat to fill her stomach. In this way, they spent the entire summer together on the mountain. Autumn was making its presence felt. Soon it would snow.

The shepherds began to make their way towards the Iğdır plain to take the flock to the village. The wild woman was also following them. The flock entered Iğdır city center from one end and began to make its way to the other. On such days, traffic would stop, and shopkeepers would watch the flock with curiosity and admiration. In those years, traffic was nothing more than a few phaetons and horse-drawn carts anyway. The flock exited the other end of the city and headed towards Karakuyu village. When they looked back, they couldn't see the wild woman. Two shepherds returned to the city, searched everywhere, but couldn't find the wild woman. They returned to the village in despair.

Some irresponsible youths, seeing this creature, half-naked and walking on all fours, dressed in a sack, managed to put a leash around the wild woman's neck and paraded her from neighborhood to neighborhood, announcing, “Bear woman! Bear woman! 25 kuruş to see her!” Later, they brought her back to the city center. The youth holding the leash dragged the wild woman behind him, pulling her amidst the strange glances of the shopkeepers. No one intervened. They couldn't make sense of what was happening.

The youths brought the wild woman in front of the Municipality Building. The crowd surrounded the wild woman; some tried to touch her, some kicked her, some imitated her. Mayor Mir Ali Ural, seeing what was happening from his office, quickly came down. He dispersed the crowd. He took the leash from the youths' hands and removed it from the wild woman's neck.

One of the shepherds, having heard the news of the wild woman's whereabouts, returned to Iğdır and appeared before the Mayor, recounting what had happened. Mir Ali Ural was a worldly, experienced man. He was a humanist who wouldn't hurt an ant. He reassured the shepherd:

“She is now under the protection of the Municipality. Don't worry at all! She is our child.”

Mir Ali Ural had a small wooden hut built in a corner of the Municipality garden. As the shepherd had said, raw meat was given to her every day, and her water was placed in a deep bowl in front of her.

Days passed like this for a while. Every morning, when Mir Ali Ural came to work, he would first stop by the hut and jokingly ask: “Lady Bear! When will you consult with us?”

The loving words had an effect. The wild woman's communication with people increased; she tried to talk to them by making strange sounds.

One day, as Mir Ali Ural was about to enter the Municipality building, he saw one of the municipal police officers picking up a stone and threatening the wild woman. He secretly approached the officer from behind. He grabbed the stone in his hand and spoke sharply:

“If I see you frightening this poor creature again, I will hang you upside down by your feet from one of these elm trees! I'm not joking!”

The entire town learned of Mir Ali Ural's protection and compassion. The wild woman also slowly emerged from the hut and began to wander the streets. Some offered her watermelon, others showed their friendship with a smile. The smell of meat reached her nose. She stopped in front of a butcher shop. The butcher was Kurdish. He gave her meat until she was full. The wild woman made it a habit to go to the same butcher every day. The butcher tried to talk to her. He taught her the phrase “Ez bircime! Goşt!” (I'm hungry! Meat!). Whenever she was hungry, she would go to the butcher and say “Ez bircime! Goşt! Goşt!” in a strange tone of voice, and the butcher would put the meat he had set aside for her in a bowl in front of her.

Then one day, a man from one of the mountain villages appeared. He came before Mir Ali Ural. With tears in his eyes, he recounted what had happened. Mir Ali Ural listened to the villager with great respect. The villager explained:

“Mr. Mayor, the events are long. I'm sorry to tire you. This wild woman is my sister. Her name is Cemile.”

Mir Ali Ural became curious about the villager's definite tone:

“Kirve, tell me everything from the beginning so I can understand it well.”

“My name is Hasan. I am a member of the Elemıho Tribe. It was the last days of the Ağrı Mountain Rebellion. The soldiers attacked unexpectedly from all sides. The men resisted for a few days with their weapons. Airplanes were coming from everywhere, bombing and leaving. No more food or weapon aid was coming from Iran. The lives of the fighters and civilians were becoming increasingly difficult. The fighters held an emergency meeting one day. I was a young man of 17-18 years old. One of the fighters spoke, ‘Let's break through the front, otherwise they will either kill us all or capture us.’ Bıro Heski Telli strongly opposed this: ‘We will resist until death! There are 1500-2000 civilians here. Are we going to hand them over to the soldiers? Let them die by my sword and my bullet, rather than by the Turkish soldier's bayonet and bullet. I will kill them with my own hands and then go to Iran, but I will come back and take my revenge.’”

Two different views had emerged. There was no time to lose. Bıro Heskî Telli, as if mad, began to slaughter his own relatives with the sword he held. They stopped him with difficulty.

“Soldiers do not touch civilians. They are coming to kill us. If we also leave the region, there will be no problem.”

Bıro Heski Telli was convinced by this explanation.

İhsan Nuri Pasha and his wife Yaşar Hanım had already taken refuge in Iran months ago. Immediately afterwards, Sheikh Abdülkadir had also crossed into Iran with his fighters. When two important figures of the leadership cadre disappeared, Bıro Heskî Telli took command. The remaining fighters were able to resist for a few more weeks. The army was now very close. One evening, Bıro Heski Telli gathered the team commanders. He lined them all up in a single row.

“We are completely surrounded on all sides. We must cross into Iran tonight, otherwise we will all die tomorrow. Now tell me which team will go first, break the encirclement, and we will follow them.”

There was no sound from the team commanders. The silence lasted a long time. Finally, Ferzende stepped forward. “I will break the encirclement with my team (60 people). Follow us!”

I was a fighter in the team of Nadir Bey, the son of Kör Hüseyin Pasha. That evening, all the fighters crossed into Iran without being caught, wounded, or killed. However, on this side, we had left thousands of civilians to their fate alone. Among them were my mother and my one-year-old little sister.

A few days later, we heard that the soldiers had captured Mount Ağrı and slaughtered all the civilians. I had to somehow cross the border and find my mother and sister. I passed through secret paths and reached the “hill of death.” Everywhere was filled with corpses. I looked at every woman's face, trying to understand if it was my mother. Finally, I found my mother. Wild animals had torn her stomach. Her throat had been cut with a bayonet. I recognized my mother from her clothes and the tattoo on her face. I searched for my sister Cemile, but I could not find her clothes or her body. I dragged my mother to the base of a rock. I covered her with piles of stones. Since I was afraid of being caught, I couldn't stay long and returned to Iran.

Recently, while chatting in the village, someone said that there was a wild woman in the garden of the Iğdır Municipality. They had found her on Mount Ağrı. I involuntarily came to Iğdır. I approached the wild woman. As soon as I saw her little finger, I knew it was my sister Cemile. Once, when my mother was grinding wheat in a hand mill for flour, Cemile's little finger got caught between the two rotating stones and was half-cut.”

Mir Ali Ural raised his hands in prayer, murmuring something. His eyes were watery, but he didn't want to show that he was crying. Together they went to the wild woman's hut. Mir Ali Ural, in a sweet voice, said, “Oh Lady Cemile! Look, your brother has come!”

The villager approached his sister and spoke to her, but he was very saddened when he learned that she didn't know the language. He pleaded with the Mayor, saying he wanted to take his sister to the village with him. Mir Ali Ural kindly accepted his request. He reached into his wallet. He pressed a sum of money into the villager's hand: “You'll need it! If you have any problems, come to me!”

The villager respectfully kissed Mir Ali Ural's hand, and holding his sister Cemile's arm, they left the garden together. The people of Iğdır, upon learning the story, empathized, and their hearts were filled with an incomprehensible feeling of pity because human tragedy had no ethnic origin or sect.

The villager bought clothes for his sister Cemile and asked her to wear shoes. Cemile resisted everything and opposed it. Walking barefoot was more natural for her.

They rode in a tractor wagon for quite a distance. Then they got off and started walking. Soon they reached the village. Since the villagers knew what had happened, what stood before them was not a wild woman, but the very embodiment of a failed rebellion. They cursed the so-called fighters who, during the rebellion, did not think of civilians, could not protect them, and abandoned them to their fate and fled.

“If they had died fighting, they would have been greater heroes for us. At least they would have left a spiritual epic for the next generation. Cemile's sin is not on the Turkish army, but on the shoulders of the fleeing Kurdish fighters. Not a single team leader was wounded, killed, or captured. They fled without resistance. This is a disgrace! Those who calculate to save themselves when in trouble should not pursue a cause.”

Cemile stayed in the village for a while. This village on the mountaintop reminded her of her old days and loneliness, and she was bored. She felt more comfortable and free among people. One midnight, without anyone noticing, she set off towards Iğdır, whose faint lights were visible from a great distance. She came and entered her hut in front of the Municipality.

The next day, the municipal police informed the Mayor of the situation. Mir Ali Ural came in front of the hut: “Oh Cemile, welcome! You have a place on our heads and eyes!” Cemile, with this sweet tone of voice, tried to love humankind and cling to life for their love and trust.

Mir Ali Ural tried to educate, civilize, and socialize poor Cemile for a whole year. Despite all his insistence, he could not fully tame Cemile. She did not sleep in a bed, but on the floor. Whether it was summer or winter, she refused to use pillows or blankets. Her speech consisted of a few sentences.

Years passed. It was 1959. One morning, as Mir Ali Ural was going to the Municipality, one of the municipal police officers approached him, tearfully: “Hurç Cemile is dead!” Mir Ali Ural's heart also ached. Hurç Cemile was buried in the İdirmava cemetery. A large stone was placed at her head, but there was no inscription on it.

TURGUT SUNGAR’S ACCOUNT

During the years of the Ağrı Mountain Rebellion, a girl child, somehow, took refuge alone in a cave. Due to ongoing conflicts and other fears, the girl remained trapped in this cave for many years. This girl, named Cemile, according to one rumor, grew up under the protection of the bears on the mountain. Years had passed.

I was a young man of 18-20 years old. One day, shepherds caught a semi-wild woman on the mountain and brought her to Iğdır. This woman was none other than this child named Cemile. Semi-naked Cemile, with her demeanor and behavior, acted exactly like a bear, walking and sitting like a bear. The news of the “bear woman's” capture spread rapidly in the district. People gathered in the municipality garden every day, watching Cemile with curious eyes. Cemile wore a huge sack as clothing. Her head and arms protruded from the opened holes; in this state, Cemile would spend the night in the park without getting cold. When Cemile was hungry, she would go in front of butcher shops, extending a watermelon rind she used as a bowl, and plead with the shopkeepers, saying “Ez bırçime, goşt, goşt!” (I'm hungry, meat, meat!). She would eat the raw meat given to her. One day, a villager said he was Cemile's brother; he took Cemile with him to one of the mountain villages. However, Cemile escaped from there and returned to Iğdır.

Dear Readers:

Here I want to touch upon an important point. Those captured in the Sheikh Said and Dersim Rebellions were tried and sentenced to death. The situation in the Ağrı Mountain Rebellion was different. There was a strict order: Rebels, civilians with them (children, women, elderly), or rebels who fled to Iran after the rebellion and later returned, and the families who harbored them, would be executed by firing squad. Many such incidents occurred. Many families were collectively executed by firing squad where they were caught for harboring rebels. This situation continued for 3 years. In the Iğdır region, for example, civilians belonging to the Mametkan tribe who took refuge in Melekli were executed by firing squad in the Erhacı plain without trial and left to wild animals in the open. In short, no court was established for the Ağrı Mountain Rebellion. There is, of course, an organic link between the Zilan Valley incidents and the Ağrı Mountain Rebellion, but in the eyes of the state, the rebels in Ağrı Mountain had to be completely annihilated, and the tribal leaders in the Zilan region had to be caught and tried.

Therefore, all those sent to Adana for trial were related to the Zilan Valley incidents. All those who participated in or supported the Ağrı Mountain Rebellion (rebels or civilians) were executed by firing squad where they were caught, without trial. Rebels or suspects caught in the Zilan Valley incidents were tried in Adana courts.

CONCLUSION

Dear readers!

Every baby, when born, is actually a semi-animal that doesn't know the rules. As time passes, it learns how to drink water, how to eat food. It learns to express its desires by speaking. It recognizes social rules, shame, prohibitions, and mingles with other people like itself. Unconsciously, it adopts its language, religion, sect, and becomes a member of the society it lives in.

Let's imagine taking one of the people of Iğdır who put a leash on Cemile and paraded her around, and leaving him alone in a city in the middle of China. He would be shocked because he doesn't know the language or culture. He would be disgusted to see them eating snakes and dogs. He has no money anyway. Since he doesn't know the language, he won't be able to find a job. People will look at this Iğdır native, who doesn't resemble them, with repulsive eyes and find him strange. He will realize he is excluded and unwanted in this society and withdraw into himself. He will huddle in a corner and sit. He has no chance to go to a hotel or take a plane back to Turkey. He is hungry, what will he do? With a heart full of fear, he will try to guess what other calamities will befall him. If he is lucky, a Chinese Mir Ali Ural will notice his existence, take care of him, show him a place to sleep, and help him feed himself. However, encountering such a person is not easy at all. Did we, as people of Iğdır, appreciate our valuable people like Mir Ali Ural? Did we internalize their spiritual richness and learn lessons? My answer, unfortunately, is a resounding NO.

As you can see, when the shells of religion, sect, language, ethnicity, etc., are peeled away from us, we are all actually a Hurç Cemile, but we are unaware of this due to our spoiledness. The person who understands that they are a Hurç Cemile in the depths of their heart and mind is a true and enlightened human being. Thanks to them, the world resists endless wars and conflicts, opposes religion, sect, language, ethnicity, and other discriminatory factors, struggles for this, and pays a price. They spend their days either in prisons or on the gallows.

As long as humankind does not perceive the innocent Hurç Cemile within themselves and does not imagine themselves as naked humans, they will always fall into the chauvinistic and discriminatory traps of politicians and ill-intentioned rulers. The HURÇ CEMİLE that every human unconsciously carries within is actually the fundamental value of universal DEMOCRACY. Let's not mock it, let's appreciate its worth. To be honest, I would prefer a society adorned with its own naturalness, like Hurç Cemile, rather than being a citizen of a rich and magnificent country where people's hearts and minds are filled with chauvinistic, discriminatory, and fascist feelings.