Writer: Mustafa Kaya
August 2008

If we consider that Kayseri, Bünyan, Yahyalı, Aksaray Taşpınar, Ortaköy Arısaman, Kırşehir, Avanos and Niğde have their own carpets, it cannot be thought that Ürgüp has no carpet for itself.  The combination of Bünyan and Kayseri and their effects can be seen in Ürgüp carpets but before 1950s there were a complete uniqueness in carpets of Ürgüp. The examples that I could collect about the carpets of Ürgüp or the carpets weaved in Ürgüp are around 25 or 30.
I think the oldest and the original motive of Ürgüp carpet is the one, 21x117 sizes and being exhibited in Kayseri Güpgüpoğlu Residence Museum. Although the motive of this carpet is a bit earlier than the motive of the carpet kept by Mehmet Toker, the carpet dealer; the fineness of the motives and the color pattern are evoking each other. The majority usage of red and yellow, the similarities in motives and shapes make us think about that these might be the original Ürgüp carpets. The prayer rug which is being exhibit in Ürgüp Culture Association and Museum in Thessalonica of Greece, has an original side motives of Ürgüp and the central motives reflects the effects of Kırşehir. The carpet weaving in Ürgüp stopped around 1975 as the tourism developed and as the cheaper carpets were brought outside. The weaving techniques of kilim, cicim and zili were left even earlier. According to Konya city yearbook off 1905, in Nevşehir, whose population was 5 thousand people higher than Ürgüp, there were 250 weaving benches but in Ürgüp there were 300; with a draft calculation we might say that, at that period every five of the houses had weaving bench.   This number was increased during the first years of the Republic.
To see the holes for pedestal of weaving benches in cave rooms of Ürgüp makes us to think about importing carpets with the help of Silk Road.
Murat Güzelgöz, the carpet dealer, divides carpet of Ürgüp into two; ‘natural’ and ‘the others’.  The natural carpets are the ones which were weaved by using the diversity in color tone of white or brown sheep feather without any color painting. One of the pieces in Arsanli Carpet and M. Güzelgöz Collection in the shop named Mustafa Halıcı, belongs to the period before the Big Permutation in 1924.  The interesting and successful things were being reflected immediately to the motives of the carpets by the young women of Ürgüp. Atatürk, İsmet İnönü and the leaf decorated iron gate and the staircase of the Ürgüp Ziraat Bank, the entrance side of the Ürgüp Yuannis Church were  weaved immediately as motives.[5] At that period to transfer a new and important construction on the motives were kind of a competition between the societies and the people. Here the most important thing is the joy of creating a motive.
The warp’s being cotton instead of wool is the other characteristic of carpet in Ürgüp. This might be explained with the deterioration in stockbreeding because of not having enough suitable fields.

Note: This article has been published in Peribacası Cappadocia Culture and Publicity Magazine, August 2008 issue. It is under protection of the copyrights of the magazine. No part of this article may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by electronic, mechanical or other means without prior permission from the owner. www.cappadociaexplorer.com