Turkish Village
Copyright 1965, 1994 Paul Stirling. All rights reserved.
Paul Stirling
CHAPTER ELEVEN
GROUPS, FEUDS AND POWER
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Page 260
arguments to support it have already been published in a much fuller account (Stirling (1960) pp. 63-9).
I have already (p. 145) spoken of the pre-eminence in the village of Kara Osman (Ax). This man had taken over a great deal of fertile irrigated land, belonging formerly to the next village, and had become pre-eminent in the area, not merely in the vllage. I met him first in 1949 in Sakaltutan. Sometime during or after the war others had begun taking over village pasture on a large scale. The eldest son of Hayip (B) (p. 144) had been headman about 1946: a fact undoubtedly related to the extent f his father's land at the time of my field work. B lineage had been allied to Ax the lineage to which Kara Osman belonged. Hayip's son was, it seems, deposed on charges of misuse of his office. The two headmen who followed him were opponents of Ax, and during this period several fights seem to have taken place. The main issue was the taking over of yet more village pasture for private arable land. On this issue the faction opposed to Kara Osman eventually won the day with the support of the government authorities. Kara Osman himself died in 1950. When I reached the village it was divided into two camps, Ay leading one and controlling the headmanship, and Ax backed by B leading the other. There had been further fighting at the election of the headman in 1950.
While I was in the village two interesting events took place. A senior member of Ax betrothed his daughter to the son of a senior but slightly marginal member of Ay. At the same time the factional dispute became entwined with a personal quarrel. Yusuf, a young man of Ax, had quarrelled with a young wife at the fountain, and struck her. This girl was a sister of the four leading men of Ay, one of whom was headman. Her husband Mehmet (C), away on military service, was the son of a leading member of C lineage; his father had given him in infancy to a childless brother. Mehmet had inherited a house and lands from his mother by adoption, and was a close neighbour of his wife's four brothers (Ay). The quarrel on this occasion led to general fighting, but no one was hurt. When the husband Mehmet returned from military service he is said to have threatened dire action to avenge the insult to his wife. His opponent Yusuf clearly took these threats seriously, as well he might.
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