Dursun Ali INAN

My childhood passed in streams. I used to fish a lot but couldn't find a place to sell it, I would bring the fish home. My mother used to be angry with me and said, "These fish consume a lot of oil while cooking, they are very expensive, take them away from home". I did not want to hurt my mother and I did not want to take the fish back. I was trying to make small ponds and keep the fish alive. I had many projects in mind. I believed I had to do something here.

It is difficult to get along here. People were generally engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry. We were also working in the forest with my brother. I saw that there was no future in the forest business. The difficulty of making a living was forcing people to migrate. Some of the people here were migrating to Van due to the state's housing policy. One day, my brother packed all of his stuff to go to Van. I hung up on his collar, I stopped going. Later he went to Germany, in 1969 he took me with him. I had this place in my mind when I was there. I was determined to make a definite turn.

I returned to the land where I was born on April 9, 1974. I got to work on March 15th. Nine people with digging shovels turned the water of the stream and dried one side. 380 fish emerged in the dry place. We drill small holes in the pickle drums and throw the fish we catch into it, and leave the container to the water, so the fish stay alive. We need to bring these fish alive. There is no car, while I was thinking about how to bring it, I thought about the troughs that gave water to the cows. I made a rudder behind the trough, filled with water and put the fish, then stretched wire mesh over it. I brought the fish by floating the trough with the fish inside the stream. We put perforated boards on both sides of a small spring flowing through our land in a way that fish cannot escape. We put the fish between the two boards. We need to feed the fish, but there was no fish food in those years. I dug a hole in the ground, put sawdust and animal scraps inside, and fed the maggots and fish that came out there. Apart from that, I used to feed the fish with ground beef and pasta. I was doing other jobs besides fishing. I was investing the money I earned from those jobs in fish. While doing these, I was thought to be crazy by the people of the village.

In 1975 I opened a small restaurant. Truck drivers came first to eat fish. Later, the people of Uzungol, Çaykara and Of, started to come from Trabzon. I was cooking the fish myself. The Governor of Trabzon also heard about the trout here, came and liked the work we did, and sent me a letter of appreciation. Until 1978, people were coming and going daily. I thought the people who came should stay here. I built two bungalows with eight rooms. In the following years, I increased the number of bungalows. In 1995, together with ten bungalows, we became a business with a capacity of fifty two beds.

I had a lot of difficulties while doing all these, and I learned something from all of them. Sometimes I got mad stamp. Those who called me crazy did what I did. The cooks and waiters who grew up with us also left and started to operate pensions, hotels and restaurants. I was very happy with their success, too. As Uzungol became known and customers were satisfied with the service provided, the demand increased. Turkish tourism started to develop as well as Black Sea tourism.