From Turkey comes the story of an annual spring meeting that has captured the hearts of the nation. For 14 years, it has involved a simple village fisherman, Adem Yılmaz, waiting in his boat for the return of a friend: a white stork named Yaren.

Casting his lines and nets on the beautiful Uluabat Lake near Yılmaz’s home in the village of Eskikaraağaç in the Bursa region, he waited patiently, yet impatiently, for the white stork to arrive.

“Yaren usually arrives at the beginning of the month, and when he didn’t show up, I was afraid something had happened to him,” Yılmaz told national news. “I spent a week in sadness, thinking that he might have encountered danger on the way. But luckily, Yaren came back. This morning, he came to my boat and ate the fish I brought him.”

For 14 years, Yaren has been flying to the lake to sit on the bow of Yilmaz's boat, making the 2,500-mile journey from the species' winter breeding grounds in sub-Saharan Africa.

The white stork flies this route through the Balkans, Greece and Turkey, or via Gibraltar, every year before returning in the spring to nest and raise its chicks. Eskikaraağaç is part of the European Stork Village Network, an organization that honors and celebrates towns whose members prioritize and engage in stork conservation strategies.

Alper Tuydes, a Turkish wildlife photographer, went to the lake to wait for Yaren with Yilmaz and photograph the touching bond between man and bird that captivated even the political elite.

“Spring has come, the melancholy is over... This heartfelt meeting happened again on its 14th anniversary,” Ibrahim Yumakli, Turkey’s Minister of Agriculture and Forestry wrote, on X. “Uncle Adem and Yaren are together again.”

“This is a beautiful reminder of the importance of nature, friendship and the deep bonds that can transcend species barriers,” Turkiye Today wrote. “For those lucky enough to witness this annual meeting, it is a touching spectacle that continues to inspire and delight.”

ORIENT