AMIK GOLU. SOUTHEAST TURKEY: A PL£A FOR NATIONAL PARK STATUS 
Or Hans Kumerloeve 
Before its final drainage in i975 , Amik Gblli, situated near Turkey's 
Syrian border, was perhaps most famous as Turkey's sole breeding site for 
the Darter Anhinga melanogaster , but it was also important for a great 
variety of other breeding and migrating birds. Breeding species included 
seven herons, both Dalmatian Pelecanus crispus and White Pelicans 
P. onocrotalus , Marbled Duck Marmaronetta angustirostris , Pygmy Cormorant 
Phalacrocorax pygmeus , Moorhen Gallinula chloropus , Purple Gallinule 
Porphyrio porphyrio , White-breasted Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis and 
White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla . The large number of migrant 
birds included, for example, 25-30,000 White Storks Ciconia ciconia 
present in March 1965. The lake held a great many wintering wildfowl 
(e.g. 1,000 White-headed Ducks Oxyura leucocephala and 12,000 Pintail Anas 
acuta), and was the site of great rarities such as Turkey's first 
Yellow-billed Stork Mycteria ibis and Caspian Plover Charadrius asiaticus . 
In all, some 190 species of bird were recorded at Amik Gblli. 
In the late 19th century, Amik Gblii covered some 350 km^ , although this 
had been reduced to around 310 km^ in the early part of this century. In 
1953, the year of my first visit to the lake and 20 years after 
Meinertzhagen visited the area, access was possible only by using the 
small boats of the local Arabic fisherman and hunters. By 1956, however, 
cattle and horses had begun to replace the water buffaloes for 
agricultural use and the mechanized drainage of the lake had begun, In 
the 1960s, only about 40-50 km^ of the lake remained, and many of the 
water birds relied on drainage ditches for shelter and survival. Drainage 
of the lake continued until its completion in 1975. 
