Turkish Fake Carpets Sold in Turkey

At the end of his trip to Turkey, American journalist Marc Weber Tobias put together a report on the sales of Turkish carpets. In his article, he noted that he visited many cities and managed to get acquainted with the attractions of the country.

After visiting the Kuşadası city, which is located in Western Turkey on the coast of the Aegean Sea, Tobias went on a trip to Turkish shops and markets and took interviews from local sellers. The owner of a carpet store Ramzi Sari said that the Turks had been repeatedly appropriating national values of other countries.

“Kuşadası is a tourist city, and it is famous for its rich assortment of antiques and hand-craft goods. In this city, people often buy handmade carpets mistakenly assumed to be the property of the Turkish people”, the article noted.

According to Sari, the place of origin of such carpets are Armenia, Iran, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, China, etc. Tourists, not knowing anything about the culture and history of these countries, often acquire carpets (and sometimes their counterfeits of Turkish manufacturers) for fabulous money – from €5.000 to €100.000.

As for the sellers, they do not care where their goods come from. They always assert that all their products are being manufactured in a local factory.

“The carpet business in Turkey is very deceptive. Therefore, if you want to purchase a carpet there, you’ll need the help of a specialist. Only he will be able to identify fakes and originals as well as tell which culture or people a carpet belongs to”, Tobias noted in the article.