Project: Hazar Lake

In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of going back to nature, sustainable agriculture, do-it-yourself activities, consuming less, etc. From this point of view, we are planning a project that will focus on these mentioned and other related topics in the beautiful Hazar Lake, the deepest freshwater pond in south-eastern Turkey.

Hazar Lake and its surroundings offer organic agriculture and there are different sustainable living practices. We will create a space for participants to increase their awareness based on these sustainable living practices and help our beautiful local region to be known in Europe. We believe our region could be a good spot for community-based tourism and with this project, we are planting the seeds.

People from different ethnic groups live together in this region. It will be a good spot to create intercultural dialogue and bring together locals with participants. Thus, many activities will include local interactions.

The livelihoods of the region are fishing, milk production, strawberry production, oxeye grapes used in winemaking (which are endemic in the region) and industrial forestry. It is planned to participate in some of these production activities together with the local people and observe the process and learn the production technique. We also expect our participants to make presentations or workshops about the production of their local regions. For example, if we have a French group, we are expecting them to make a presentation of small-scale wine production; or a Swedish group can make a presentation of industrial forestry.

Hazar Lake is a hidden treasure for many Turkish and Europeans. It is aimed to promote the lake in order to create more touristic and economic awareness for the region. İntercultural dialogue, exchange of experience and cooperation will be the basis for our learning activities and project results. Having the deepest freshwater lake in Turkey, it is losing its flow day by day due to the increased impact of global warming, wrong irrigation and dam constructions. We will organize a few activities that are directly focused on creating attention on the lake to discuss these issues.

There are different means of transportation to the region. During the preparation phase, we will offer different roadmaps for participants to enjoy and discover Turkey even before the activities start.

Project activities are planned to be during September – October in order to be in the region during the harvest time. We will accommodate in a youth camp area. The area contains bungalows, sports fields, hot water, a kitchen, etc.

We invite any partner that is interested in this project’s purpose and can bring additional value to the activities. Please mention in your e-mail, what can be your subject to promote based on your region.