{"id":1105,"date":"2025-04-21T06:27:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T06:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/?p=1105"},"modified":"2025-05-04T17:34:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T17:34:33","slug":"adem-yaren-fisherman-friendship-stork-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/adem-yaren-fisherman-friendship-stork-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature and lasting bond: stork journeys 2,500 miles visiting fisherman friend in Turkish village every year for 14 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(quote)

\n\nThe Old Man and the Stork: An Unlikely Friendship That Captivated a Nation<\/a>
\nFrom Turkiye comes the story of an annual spring reunion that has captivated the hearts of a nation for 14 years. It involves a simple rural fisherman Adem Yilmaz, waiting in his boat for the return of a dear friend: a white stork named Yaren.

\n\nCasting his lines and nets upon the beautiful Uluabat Lake near Yilmaz\u2019s home of Eskikaraagac Village in the region of Bursa, he has waited patiently, eagerly, for the white stork\u2019s arrival. \u201cYaren generally comes at the beginning of the month, and when it didn\u2019t show up, I feared something had happened to it,\u201d Yilmaz told national news. \u201cI spent a week in sorrow, thinking it might have faced danger on the way. But thankfully, Yaren has returned. This morning, it came to my boat and ate the fish I had brought for it.\u201d

\n\nIt is the 14th year that Yaren has come to the lake to perch on the prow of Yilmaz\u2019s rowboat after making a 2,500-mile journey from the species\u2019 winter breeding grounds in sub-Saharan Africa. The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) flies this route, via the Balkans, Greece, and Turkiye, or via Gibraltar, every year before returning in spring to nest and raise its young. Eskikaraagac is part of the European Stork Villages Network, an organization that honors and celebrates towns whose members prioritize and engage with stork conservation strategies.

\n\n\u201cSpring has come, longing is over\u2026 That heart-warming reunion happened again on its 14th anniversary,\u201d Ibrahim Yumakli, the Turkish Minister for Agriculture and Forestry, wrote on X. \u201cUncle Adem and Yaren are together again.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful reminder of the importance of nature, friendship, and the deep connections that can transcend the barriers of species,\u201d wrote Turkiye Today. \u201cFor those lucky enough to witness this annual reunion, it\u2019s a heartwarming sight that continues to inspire and delight.\u201d

\n\nThe Eskikaraa\u011fa\u00e7 Stork Village<\/a>, the only village representing Turkey in the European Stork Villages Association, is on a migration route that tens of thousands of storks use every year during the migration period. The village is also home to resident storks.

\n\nThe duo\u2019s story gained international fame after it was photographed on the lake. The story was performed as a shadow play in Greece and became the subject of textbooks in Austria and Germany.

\n\nIn 2019, the documentary \u201cYaren,\u201d filmed by Burak Do\u011fansoysal and prepared with the contributions of the Karacabey Municipality, returned from the Prague Film Awards with the title of best documentary.

\n\n(unquote)

\n\nImage courtesy Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(quote) The Old Man and the Stork: An Unlikely Friendship That Captivated a Nation From Turkiye comes the story of an annual spring reunion that has captivated the hearts of a nation for 14 years. It involves a simple rural fisherman Adem Yilmaz, waiting in his boat for the returnRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,8,9,12],"tags":[44,26,27,80,18,39,52,60,68],"class_list":["entry","author-wcp-story-teller","post-1105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-figures-and-facts","category-health-and-lifestyle","category-life-nature-society","category-movies-books-and-entertainment","category-us-and-world","tag-animals","tag-facts","tag-figures","tag-friendship","tag-life","tag-nature","tag-people","tag-true-story","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}