Meteorites give financial boost to Turkish villagers

By Servet Gunerigok

ANKARA

Residents in eastern Turkey are hoping to make a financial killing from meteorites that have fallen from the skies in recent weeks.

In Saricicek, a village 5 kilometers (3 miles) east of provincial capital Bingol, showers of extra-terrestrial rocks have fallen on their land since early October.

After hearing rumors that researchers and academics were keen to collect the small meteorites, villagers have been gathering them day and night.

Mehmet Nezir Ergun is one local who claims to have earned large sums from selling the rocks to astrologers and international collectors.

“At first I was treated like I am mad,” he said. “I also did not know the stones were precious but later Istanbul University said they were precious.”

Another resident, Necati Bulgulu, said he had spent the last four days hunting for pieces of meteorite. “So far, I have found a stone that weighs 7 grams [less than quarter of an ounce],” he said.

Ozan Unsalan, an associate professor at Istanbul University's science faculty, has created a website to gather information about the meteorites.

He told Anadolu Agency the shards found around Saricicek were part of 4Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in the solar system, and were considered precious among the scientific community.

“What makes it precious is, firstly, it’s precious due to its rareness and scientific value and then the fact that it was immediately collected [after falling],” Unsalan said in an email.

He added: “Following our research and the announcement on our website, the meteorite collectors put forward a price and began to sell these stones for 10 times more on international auction websites.”

On Tuesday, two collectors from Poland visited the area. “We are meteorite collectors and have been interested in meteorites for more than 10 years,” Maciej Burski told Anadolu Agency by phone.

Burski said he and his friend Iwo Szklarski had previously traveled to Russia, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark and Arab countries in search of interesting specimens.

Provincial Governor Yavus Selim Kosger said NASA and 20 universities from Turkey and around the world had studied the meteorites.

“Academicians from various countries bought the stones from locals in return for some amount of money and citizens are [now] searching the area for the stones,” Kosger said.