We were welcomed into the living room by Karaca, who was about to end a meeting around his dining table. Seeing him still in his pajamas at that late hour in the morning, one wondered if he was protesting. Considering the topic of our interview, consumerism, he might be showing his contempt for this "unethical culture of consumption," as he referred to it several times in our previous discussion. Maybe he would like to show up in pajamas in photographs just to defy this consumption-oriented culture. But then he excused himself and came back clad in his red sweater and brown corduroy pants."Is this the famous sweater?" was the natural question. He answered that it was one of those red sweaters he has been wearing. "These red sweaters are 27 years old," he said. "In the past, I had asked my son to make me a few new sweaters. He made use of remnant yarns in the factory to make these sweaters. All the remnant yarns were red, so I've had a few red sweaters."
He was an industrialist who made a brand name out of his last name, which generated the motto "Karaca yıllarca" (Karaca for years), because of the durability of the knitwear he produced. This was before dedicating himself to nature and environmental causes.
He exported to five continents
"I betrayed myself. … I actually wanted to study history and literature. I graduated from high school at the end of 1939. My father was an industrialist. He wanted me to continue his business. I helped him and became a successful businessman," he said.
In 1965, he was exporting products to five continents, including the Americas. His garments showcased at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and Harrods in London one Christmas season after another, he recalled.
In his business, he was meticulous to the point of telling the yarn sellers where to buy the best yarns because he knew that his woolen items would be of poor quality if animal welfare had been denied. He said, "The wool is poor if the animal has been dehydrated."
He simply had a "trade ethic," he said. He wasn't yet fully aware of the "devastating effects of consumerism" on people.
"In the 1980s, I saw that my older son would be able to carry on the business, so I quit. I threw myself out to the roads and traveled all over Turkey. I've loved being close to nature ever since my childhood. I've been happy in villages. I was so happy when I was close to land and nature. There is no land in Turkey that I have not set my feet on."
‘Buy, consume, destroy, pollute’
Karaca, a clever observer with a great sense of humor, looked in a fatherly way at our young photographer and asked, "Who is he? He looks like an American. Does he know Turkish?"
After the photographer started speaking a native Turkish, Karaca said: "You wear this sweater with a Nike symbol on it. Do you know that it was made by poor Asian girls who work like slaves for almost nothing in return?" As stunned as he could be, the photojournalist said, "I didn't know." Karaca went on: "I know that you don't know. If you did, you wouldn't wear it. I know."
One wonders if his transformation from a successful businessman to an environmental activist was a result of his closeness with nature.
In response he said, in nature, every living being has a right to live: "I have a right to live and so do you. In that case, what do I do? I share with you. This is a natural balance, what we call the ecosystem. If I don't give you a chance to live, I have to destroy you. But if I destroy you, I'd destroy myself, too. Should I be my own murderer?"
He longs for a world where people share, instead of wasting everything they have. He mentioned a Turkish proverb: "One's spending is not halal if his neighbor goes to bed hungry," and adds, "We can feed somebody who is hungry, but we can never completely satisfy someone who longs for more to consume."
He also yearns for the "Anatolian ways" that people used to support each other in the small towns of Anatolia: "I grew up in an Anatolian town. People were poor, but we did not have hunger. In cities, people don't care. How can you spend 60,000 euros for a handbag and proudly show it to the cameras?"
And he is not short of statistics to support his ideas: "One percent of the world's population has 93 percent of the world's wealth. … Each year 5 million children under five years of age die in the world. Each year the world spends $15 million for perfume, Europe spends $11 million for ice cream. Do you know we need merely $1.3 million to vaccinate every child on earth?"
What is the remedy, then? To him, it's simple. "What we need is a place to live, education and health. That's it," he says, raising his voice and causing a scare.
No to ‘okey, pardon, baybay’
When Karaca was a teenager, he had a stutter. But eventually he realized he did not stutter while singing, so he started believing that he did not have a stutter and thereby ended his stuttering problem. He adopts the same philosophy of "believing first" before making his point, then he sometimes dramatically whispers, sometimes comically shouts. One often feels as he is in a drama class, and he thinks our situation is dramatic.
"In addition to a culture of over-consumption, cultural imperialism manifests itself in our daily lives, and one example of this is that children have been taught English starting from kindergarten," he said. He strongly objects: "This is contempt, this is sin, this is a shame, this is treason!"
He believes that people should learn many languages, but he insists on thinking in Turkish. He points to a sign on his window that shows the words "okey, pardon, baybay" inside a red circle with a red "do not use" slash through them.
Reminded of his love of poetry and literature, all of a sudden he starts reciting from famous 19th century Turkish classical music composer Hacı Arif Bey's well-known verses:
Olmaz ilaç sine-i sad pareme
Çare bulunmaz bilirim yareme
Baksa tabiban-i cihan çareme
Çare bulunmaz bilirim yareme
That is, his beloved is ill and no physician is able to cure this illness. But the one who is at a loss is the lover, who has to watch his dearest wither away and who cannot do anything. As Karaca sees it, his country is the beloved and he is the lover.
‘I owe my country’
A recipient of more than 40 national and international honors and awards from universities and institutions, including the United Nations Environment Program's (UNEP) Global 500 Roll of Honor in 1992 and a medal from the Turkish Ministry of Environment in 1992 and 1993. What else does Karaca have?
He said he has the biggest treasure: his knowledge. This is what he wants to share.
"I grew up with an attitude of sharing. The ones who have should share. I'm in this position today because I used the possibilities of this country. So I am in debt to my country. I share my wealth, which is my knowledge," Karaca said, handing out books and adding: "Read and make others read. Reading is an act of worship."
At one point during our conversation I mentioned that my son displayed in his room one of the pictures of the forest fires Karaca had given to me previously. Karaca told me, "You did a good thing."
Another feature of his character is not sparing any of his straightforwardness.
"Television, newspapers and magazines cannot give you knowledge. … I need to read more to learn. I need to share to teach. Our leaders have been uncultured. They have been graduates of universities, but they don't have the power to share what they've understood."
He's been critical of all Turkish governments because of their bow to the "superpower," the United States, he said. He added that he wrote a letter to the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asking her to stop meddling in other countries' affairs.
He thinks the best thing the US has done for Turkey was to introduce an embargo following Turkey's interference in Cyprus in response to a coup in Nicosia aimed at union with Greece.
"We've been under economic invasion. Where are the 'Anatolian Tigers,' the free thinking young and energetic entrepreneurs of Anatolia?"
Books everywhere
A flood of books seems to follow wherever Karaca goes. His library at his summer resort house in Yalova -- where in 1980 he started the first private arboretum in Turkey, today holding over 14,000 species, subspecies and varieties of trees -- was unable to contain Karaca's collection, so hundreds of books have been stacked on tables, coffee tables and floors and in corners and various other places around the house.
In his apartment in İstanbul he proudly displays a newly built library. The books show variety, from poetry to history, economy, religion and environment.
"To read is an act of worship," he repeated several times. He adds, "Read and make others read, too."
He gave me a number of books. One is on soil erosion in Turkey, and this is no surprise.
Since the late 1970s, he has traveled extensively in Turkey, guiding many international scientists in collecting seeds and plants. During his travels he realized the scope and threat of soil erosion in Turkey. In 1992, his concerns led him to the establishment of the Turkish Foundation for Reforestation, Protection of Natural Habitats and Combating Soil Erosion (TEMA), the first nongovernmental organization to trumpet the message that "Turkey will become desert land if precautions are not taken" and to suggest that one way out of this problem is to plant trees.
He practices what he preaches and checks if someone really reads. During a previous interview at his Yalova home, he asked his relative's 17-year-old son how many pages he read that day. He said he has given away 9,000 books from his home library. He subscribes to 32 periodicals, and he has been archiving 56,000 nature slides which he has taken from all over Turkey.
In 1992 he began publishing the Karaca Arboretum Magazine, almost an obligation with the Karaca Arboretum having become the central breeding ground for the endangered species of Turkey.
‘Care and Share’
"I wasn't like that before. I was just an ethical merchandiser. Then I realized that we had better share instead of consuming so much," he said.
He recalled the poster displayed at the ground-breaking Earth Summit, or Rio Conference, of the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, at which close to 180 governments addressed the links between pollution and climate change and decided to take action with a treaty. The poster read, "Care and Share."
Karaca said: "It has become my motto, and I started to say, 'Help others survive to be able to survive.' I have the means, but I don't have a right to consume."
Having such self-control and not being captivated by the glitter of advertisements is not easy. Eighty-six-year-old Karaca, a man of strong conviction, can do it. But the question is: Can everyone do it?
"I am Karaca. I am one person. One is big enough if he has faith. Atatürk was one person. Ghandi was one person. What did he have? He covered himself with a white cloth. He had glasses attached with a piece of string. He had a crooked stick, and he had a goat. But he cast out an empire without firing a single shot. Rachel Carson was one person. She wrote a book titled 'Silent Spring' in 1962. The book showed the detrimental environmental impact of the use of the pesticide DDT in the US. As a result, DDT was banned. One person is big enough if one has faith."
He is about to share even more of what he already knows with a book of almost 500 pages on his own life next year. Meanwhile, he loaded my arms down with more books, brochures and essays to be read and "to make others read."
