MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Colemêrg – Hakkari’s Gever (Turkish: Yüksekova) district is famous for its lavash bread. The women of Gever keep the tandoor tradition alive in the district. The women have leavened dough in the morning and then baked it for 40 years. Pakize Keskin bakes lavash in the underground tandoor. She learned how to bake lavash from her mother and now she teaches her children. Despite her advanced age, she bakes lavash bread every morning because she doesn’t want to buy bread from the bakery. Pakize Keskin told us all women living in the district bake lavash bread in underground tandoors.

“We learn this tradition from our mothers”

“We wake up early in the morning to bake bread. We leaven the dough and bake bread in the heated tandoors. These tandoors exist as we remember. Our mothers and grandmothers also baked bread in these tandoors. This is our culture. I have baked bread in tandoor since my childhood,” Pakize Keskin said the bread they bake is both healthy and economical.

“Tandoors put the lives of women at risk”

Baking lavash bread also puts the lives of women at risk. Many women fell into the underground tandoors and lost their lives. “We don’t fear baking bread. Many women lost their lives while baking bread in the underground tandoors. But we don’t fear. They fall into the tandoors because they use their both hands. You should use one of your hands to bake bread while using the other to not fall into the tandoor. For this reason, baking bread in the underground tandoor is not an easy job.”