Yaban
Gökçeada, Türkiye (2024 - )

“Poor peasant child! You are the offspring of two stepmothers. One is the mother who just beat you, the other is the homeland that beats you every day, ever since you were born. Caught between the pain of both, you have been scorched and worn away.”
— Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Yaban

Yaban traces the long shadow of displacement on Turkey’s largest island. Once known as Imbros, it was home to a Greek Orthodox Rum community for centuries until 20th-century state violence forced their departure. An open-air prison was built, properties confiscated, livestock stolen, schools shut down, villagers harassed, abused, and even killed. Many left, few remained. Meanwhile the state built new settlements and repopulated the island with sponsored settlers from various villages around Türkiye. Farmland was redistributed, and abandoned stone houses became storage for animals, makeshift homes, or ruins.
Today the island is marketed as a rustic retreat, and tourists are oblivious to the violent history. Tourism zones have been designated, and Gökçeada is sold as a peaceful kitesurfing destination where torn villages are branded authentic. The few Rums that remain, are reticent as the landscape whispers what has been lost.
The animals that also inhabited the island, goats bred mostly for food, were previously controlled, kept from fields and houses, and fines imposed if they were let loose. New settlers abandoned these practices and today free-roaming goat husbandry is now a profitable business. The animals move without guidance and the impact is destructive. Their paths cut through domestic ruins and once-cultivated fields. Over time, their unchecked grazing has stripped much of the island bare, speaking less of freedom and more of loss. Yaban is not only about Gökçeada, it is part of a wider story of dispossession, where places are repackaged, and new identities overwrite what once was.

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Emirhan Demirel’s Demo Web Site C.V. Ongoing 01—Yaban Ongoing 02—Doors of Construction Collections 01 Collections 02 Collections 04 Exhibitions © JW - ’26

Emirhan Demirel’s Demo Web Site
C.V.
Ongoing 01—Yaban
Ongoing 02—Doors of Construction
Collections 01
Collections 02
Collections 04
Exhibitions

© JW - ’26