By Sarah Rainsford

BBC News, Turkey



In eastern Turkey family honour is all-important. People are killed because of it and so-called blood money is paid to restore it. One former butcher is dedicating his life to resolving feuds and ending family vendettas.

I met Metin in a funeral parlour in Diyarbakir.

Metin and his father seek help

Metin was in his twenties - and in serious trouble.

He had violated the strict code of honour that rules much of south-eastern Turkey, and he knew he was lucky to be alive.

Eighteen months ago, Metin married.

He had kidnapped the girl he loved because he could not afford a dowry. The couple have since had a baby but the bride's brothers are after them. They believe killing the couple will cleanse the family honour.

As he told me his sorry tale, Metin's eyes brimmed with tears of desperation. At one point he rounded on his elderly father, half deaf and stooped over a walking stick.

"I had to steal her," Metin wailed in accusation. "You never gave me any money for a dowry - you never even sent me to school!"

His poor father looked like he had been punched in the stomach - and I gulped back a lump in my own throat.

"I have not got any money," he protested, "or I'd have given it to you."

Peace mission

Luckily for Metin, what his father did have was an idea. He brought his son into town to visit the man locals here have nicknamed the "President of Peace".

A funeral parlour is the HQ for Sait's (centre) peace mission

The district funeral parlour is now an unofficial headquarters for his peace missions: a spacious hall lined with sofas, and with a never-ending supply of sweet, soothing tea.

Sait is actually a butcher by trade, but he handed his shops over to his sons six years ago to devote himself full-time to peace. Since then he says he has resolved more than 400 feuds.

According to ancient tradition here, if a man is killed his soul cannot be at peace until blood has been cleansed with blood. That tradition is clearly still strong. The sofas in Sait's office were filled with men, seeking his mediation.

Yusuf was there to beg Sait for help, after one of his relatives killed a man in a fist fight. Now his entire family is in fear and in hiding - waiting for the other side to take revenge.

Mehmet's son was sent to prison for killing a man - but the victim's family demanded their own form of justice. So Mehmet had to flee town with his entire family, tearing them from their land, and their income.

Sait told me he sees little sign that modernisation is having much impact on attitudes in this neglected, mainly Kurdish corner of the country.

It is a place where social pressure is nothing to do with having the latest gadget or label. Here it can be a matter of life or death.

Clan-based society

A sociologist I tracked down in Diyarbakir smiled at my efforts to understand what drives these bloody vendettas.

Sait has devoted himself to mediating between feuding families

"If you have a blood feud in your family and you don't take revenge, no-one will talk to you because you are dishonourable," Mazilar explained.

"It's thought you have a problem and you are afraid to deal with it."

I could really feel that pressure when Sait took us to meet one of the families he is working with. The men were out on the terrace as we arrived, a row of solemn faces on blue plastic chairs.

They are still mourning the death of their relative Hamza.

The unwritten local rule says his family should take blood in revenge for his shooting. I got the distinct impression at least one brother was itching to do so, but Sait the peacemaker had stepped in and the killing is on hold.

Truce

Now Sait is shuttling between the two families, attempting to negotiate conditions for peace.

Sait oversees a truce and a handshake of peace

Until he succeeds though, whether that takes a week or a year, the killer's family has to stay indoors. Venturing out would be seen as a provocation and - Hamza's brother told me openly - in that case, he would have to kill.

It could have been a deeply depressing visit to Diyarbakir - but before I left, there was one uplifting moment.

Sait invited us to watch as the hapless Metin was reconciled with the father of his stolen bride.

The peacemaker had promised to find funds himself to help Metin make his bride an honest wife.

As that news sunk in - young Metin's whole body seemed to unwind. He smiled for the first time since we had met and happily pulled out a photograph of his baby boy.

The truce will remain precarious until the day the money comes through. But for Metin it does seem that the patient negotiations of Sait's President of Peace may have just paid off.

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 11 November, 2006 at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.