- Bircan Ünver: Governor Sabahattin Oztürk, thank you for the time you are devoting to this interview. I attended last weekend to the 3rd Bolkar Festival and Medetsiz Climb and camp at the skirt of the Bolkars (around the Karagol lake), and fell in love with the mountains and its charming surroundings. We, at Isikbinyili.Org e-published previously the request that the Bolkars be named a national park. With regard to the Bolkar festival and Medetsiz Climb (organized by Darkay.Com) that are there other similar projects which the Governor of Nigde organize?

- Governor Sabahattin Sabahattin Öztürk: The area in which the Bolkar Mountains reside has been named areas of culture and nature that need to be protected. There have been various efforts about this area in the past, but recently, we have applied to the Ministry of Tourism to make this region an environmental and natural sports tourism spot. The process to make it a tourism spot had been started by our tourism office. Soon, when our procedures are finished, we are going to send them to the Ministry of Tourism. Hopefully, with the decision of Council of Ministers, the area will be designated as a tourism region. This land has been free of human touch, but has many opportunities both in the winter and summer. There’s perfect snow for skiing in winter, while one can enjoy beautiful lakes in summer. These lakes have unique “Toros frogs”- interesting frogs that do not make noise- found only in Nigde. They have developed in this area, either because of ecological factors or mutations, and are very special.

- B.Ü: Isn’t being a touristic area different than being a national park?

- Governor Öztürk: Of course, it is different to be a national park. For the Bolkars to be a tourism region they will be subject to touristic regulations. The conditions to become a national park are completely different. The Ministry of Tourism will be in charge of telling us where to put what. When the processes for making the area a touristic region are over and it is time to open the area to tourism, we will not be able to whatever we please with the area. We will have to preserve the natural flora and take into account the environment. If we rent the place to someone, he or she will also need to follow the standards. This is what it means to be a tourism area.

- B.Ü: What are your short-term and long-term plans for the area, after you give the proposal to the Ministry of Tourism?

- Governor Öztürk: Of course, natural tourism is our priority. Because the mountains’ natural characteristics have remained untouched, we have thought about nature tourism along with skiing tourism. Previously, we had started construction for a hotel, but never finished. We gave it to someone else to finish and run. This person could not make any progress on the building due to legal issues. As a result, we began our efforts to become a tourism area, to lift the legal issues concerning construction. We are trying to establish a legal foundation for our future works. The Ministry of Tourism approved our plans, and we have started the bureaucratic transactions.

- B.Ü: This is very exciting news…

- When it is completed, it is going to be even better news. A decision will probably be reached in a few months.

- B.Ü: I first learned of the Bolkar mountains through Tülün and Mustafa Ulusoy (Darkay.Com). Last year we e-published news about the festivities they have planned for the past two years on our website. Last December, we received information about the Bolkar Mountains becoming a national park, and we e-published that as well. As a result of this, and of the photographs I have seen of the Bolkar Mountains, I decided to come here to take photographs of Karagöl and its surrounding flora. After climbing the Bolkar Mountains, I realized how phenomenal of a nature marvel the area is, and wondered if it is protected. An American engineer I met camping also expressed the same thoughts, adding that it was one of the world’s most beautiful mountains.

- Governor Öztürk: The area is being protected. The whole area is under protection, especially the Karagöl area. No interference in the area is tolerated, but it needs to become a tourism area for the protection to be wide and inclusive. Hopefully, this will happen.

- B.Ü: Do you have any projects concerning the photographs you have taken of this world wonder, such as an exhibit, or catalogue to introduce it to the world?

- Governor Öztürk: We have broad projects concerning the publicity of Nigde, but no projects specific to the Bolkar Mountains. We have sections of the Nigde information reserved for the Bolkar Mountains, but no separate brochures. Now that you mention it, we should focus on the Bolkars, because we always think of Nigde as a whole. We have Demirkazik as well, which is rich in mountaineering and known throughout Turkey and even internationally. It is a great area for mountaineering, but the Bolkars offer different opportunities. We want to open the Bolkars up for skiing and, in the summer, nature tourism. We actually have all kinds of tourism in Nigde, excluding ocean tourism. We have thermal tourism, cultural tourism, mountain tourism, mountaineering, and skiing tourism. The interest and publicity toward them is not enough.

- B.Ü: How do you inform people outside of Nigde, or Turkey about these different opportunities?

- Governor Öztürk: Most of the people that come here hear about us through tourism agencies. Many people who come to visit Kapadokya visit us as well. Many people who come for mountain or nature tourism come on their own account, hearing about us through our brochures or their friends. Most of the people who come for our thermal benefits are Turkish; we do not have international thermal tourists. People go to the thermal springs for health benefits. But as I have said before, Demirkazik is known world-wide and almost all of the mountaineers know of it. It is also known by our Federation of Mountaineering and the others around the world. Many mountaineering clubs at our universities send their students here to climb. Generally, culture tourism and nature tourism are very closely related because most of the people who come to the mountains are interested in nature too, with the exception of skiing tourism. People that come to ski are mainly interested in having fun, and many of the people that come do so for skiing. At the moment, we do not have professional skiing accommodations, but we have places that could be used for skiing. There are not only the Bolkars, but also Ketencimini. We have everything in Nigde. We just do not have adequate publicity, unlike the places close to us with a large tourist population. Cappadocia, Nevşehir, Ihlara and Aksaray all surround Nigde, so we do not get much attention in comparison.

-B.Ü: I have heard about it, but never seen it. Maybe I just have not been here at the right time- there is also a Cherry Festival, right? I think you are not having it this year?

- Governor Öztürk: Yes, there is. This year we did not cancel it, the municipality did. The Municipality of Darboğaz is in charge of the Cherry festival, and they did not want to have it this year because they did not see a need for it after selling their cherries so easily. Generally, the municipality is the main planner of these types of events, and the governor helps out. Because the Municipality of Darboğaz is so small, it has a tight budget, and although the Ministry of Tourism helps financially, this year the festival could not happen. There is still time for them to plan it and put it together because normally it is at the end of July; so we will see, maybe it will still happen!

- B.Ü: I have another question about the Bolkar area. The region has black rocks that do not fit the geology of the land, and look like they fell from the sky. Do you have any idea where these came from?

- Governor Öztürk: We do not know whether there was another civilization before us. We think that this area is some kind of a volcanic area. It is one of the highest peaks of the Toros. Karagöl seems to support this theory as well, because it is actually a crater type lake. I do not know much else about this, but we plan on researching this topic.

- B.Ü: Those rocks have the metaphor of black stone, like the ones in Kaaba and India.

- Governor Öztürk: We think they might be meteors, but we are not sure. Maybe a meteor fell, and made the lake; we just do not know.

- B.Ü: Those rocks have such a unique look, like they could not have been a part of that nature, not from that mountain, that hill, or that soil. They just look like they fell from somewhere.

- Governor Öztürk: Yes, they certainly could have fallen. Another view is geology related. Many people who live in this region can say that there is a large carved hole.

- B.Ü: Coming from Nigde to Aksaray, I noticed a few large empty spaces on the ground first on the left side of the road, then on the right. They looked like their insides had been carved out. At first I thought they were man-made for construction purposes, but as we continued south, I saw more holes on both sides of the road. The last two were especially big, and I noticed that they had a crater-like texture in its inner walls and surrounding edges. It reminded me of the meteors that fell into Australia, and left huge holes. Does this area have a history of similar occurrences?

- Governor Öztürk: We do not know. One thing we do know is that in the Aksaray region, there are swallow holes. As the underground water empties, the soil falls through, forming large holes. This happened last year, 2008, in Konya too. We even named a town Obruk, meaning “swallow hole.”.

- B.Ü: Is it a natural process?

- Governor Öztürk: Of course it is a natural process. Based on my geographic understanding, the Central Anatolia Region used to be a sea in ancient times. Because it is a sea, it has an underground salt and water layer. As the water recedes, the soil on top collapses. The empty spaces left after the collapse of the soil are called swallow holes which is probably what you saw.

- B.Ü: Are you from Nigde?

- Governor Öztürk: No, I am from Trabzon.

- B.Ü: How long have you been the governor of Nigde?

- Governor Öztürk: It has been over 1.5 years, almost two.

- B.Ü: You do work country-wide. When your time in Nigde is completed, with what achievement would you like to be remembered?

- Governor Öztürk: My hopes are not limited to a single field. What I would like most though, is for Nigde to be successful in Culture Tourism and Publicity, and Education. Nigde needs to exceed its current state. It has both the potential and the resources to do this, and is built for it.

- B.Ü: Could you elaborate more on what you meant by education?

- Governor Öztürk: Our goals are to elevate the quality of elementary and secondary schools and increase the number of people pursuing an education. Because secondary school is not required here, we do not have 100 percent of children attending. Elementary school has 100 percent of children attending, and middle school is very close to reaching the same standards.

- B.Ü: Do you have anything you would like to add?

- Governor Öztürk: No. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to promote Nigde.

- B.Ü: And thank you for your time and the valuable information with which you have provided us.