EKİN ÇEKİÇ - "YUSUFELİ ÇOK GÜZEL BİR YERDİR"
This series documents a place on the edge of disappearance — a town suspended between water and memory.
Yusufeli Dam is one of ten dams built or under construction along the Çoruh River, which originates in Turkey and flows into the Black Sea through Georgia. As the river carves through steep terrain, it forms some of the largest canyons in Turkey. Now nearing completion, Yusufeli Dam will rank as the third tallest dam in the world built with its specific construction technique. First proposed in the 1970s, its realization was delayed for decades due to economic challenges. For over forty years, the people of Yusufeli have lived with the looming fear of displacement.
This fear is not new. The town center of Yusufeli has already been relocated six times for political and geographical reasons. Today, alongside the dam’s final phase, a new town center is being constructed once again. Once the dam becomes operational, entire neighborhoods, agricultural lands, cemeteries, and personal and cultural relics will be submerged.
When I first visited Yusufeli, I was struck by the realization that I was walking on land that would soon be underwater — that I was seeing things I might never see again. This series began with that sense of urgency. Its title comes from a billboard at the town’s entrance — a silent announcement of what is to come.
The people of Yusufeli share a deep connection with this landscape, a relationship reflected in the two rivers that pass through the town: the mighty Çoruh and the smaller Barhal. The Çoruh surges through cities and across borders, adapting and continuing its path even when dammed — discarding what it cannot carry. The Barhal, by contrast, stays close to its origins, destined to vanish. As the dam reshapes the geography, Yusufeli’s story will repeat itself once more — the town will move again.
So the question remains: in the future, will Yusufeli follow the path of the relentless Çoruh, or the quiet disappearance of the Barhal?
* "Yusufeli çok güzel bir yerdir" means "Yusufeli is a very beautiful place"
