ESRA BAŞAK / AYAZMA
- Jun 8
- 3 min read
Esra Başak is a researcher and project developer who has worked for many years in the fields of nature conservation, ecosystem services, and cultural heritage. Throughout her years in Ayvalık, she has continued to bring this knowledge and experience to the place she calls home.
We photographed Esra at Panagia Phaneromeni Ayazması, one of Ayvalık’s most important historic landmarks. Built around a sacred spring and an icon of the Virgin Mary believed to have been discovered following a dream in the second half of the 19th century, the site served as one of the town’s most significant religious centers for many years. Although it lost its original function after 1922 and remained neglected for decades, today it continues to live on as an important part of Ayvalık’s cultural memory.
Esra’s connection to this place began through the Ayvalık Ayazması Association. Encouraged by her uncle, Şerif Kaynar, she joined the board when the association was founded in 2018. The organization is run entirely by volunteers and, even today, does not have a single paid employee. Despite this, its members have devoted years of effort to protecting, restoring, and bringing the Ayazma back into public life after decades of neglect. Following a long and demanding restoration process, the site was revived and reopened to visitors.
Throughout this process, Esra has contributed to developing content, generating new ideas and projects, and helping the association reach wider audiences. She has also taken on many of the less visible responsibilities, including administrative and bureaucratic work that keeps the organization running. Today, the Ayazma continues to serve not only as a historic monument, but also as an important place that helps preserve and carry forward Ayvalık’s cultural memory.
Esra’s connection to Ayvalık is rooted in her family history. Her grandmother was from Ayvalık, and her family had come from Lesbos before the population exchange, making their living through the olive oil trade. Although she did not grow up here, she began visiting Ayvalık frequently in the early 2000s to see her great-aunt Gönül Karaca and her cousin Tulya. The old Greek house where her great-aunt lived, along with Ayvalık’s narrow backstreets, left a lasting impression on her. Over time, these visits evolved into a sense of belonging, and in 2015, when her daughter Delphine was still very young, Esra made Ayvalık her home.
Since graduating from university, Esra has dedicated her professional life to nature conservation. She began her career at the Turkish Society for the Protection of Nature, before moving to the Netherlands to pursue a master's degree at Wageningen University. It was there that she began working on ecosystem services, a field that remains at the center of her work today. At its core, ecosystem services seeks to better understand and make visible the many ways nature contributes to human well-being.
Over the years, Esra has worked with numerous NGOs and conservation initiatives. Since 2009, she has been a partner at Proje Evi Cooperative, where she continues to work on projects focused on ecosystem services, nature conservation, and environmental policy.
Esra is also deeply concerned about Ayvalık’s future. She closely follows the pressures facing the region, from development around Tavuk Island and damage to the dune ecosystems of Sarımsaklı, to the loss of wetlands and increasing interventions along the coastline. In her view, Ayvalık’s greatest assets—its natural and cultural heritage—are too often vulnerable to short-term decisions and development pressures.
Yet despite these concerns, she remains hopeful. What gives her hope is the presence of people who continue to speak up, research, collaborate, and work collectively to protect the places they care about. Much of her optimism for Ayvalık’s future comes from these people and their efforts.
Her work in Ayvalık is a natural extension of this approach. Viewing the protection of natural and cultural heritage as deeply interconnected, Esra continues to contribute both her professional expertise and her volunteer efforts to the place she calls home.
Walking through Ayvalık with Esra is an experience in itself. A ten-minute walk can easily turn into an hour, as she is constantly stopping to greet someone, exchange a few words, or pause for a quick coffee. Over the years, she has built strong connections throughout the town—connections that make her not just a resident of Ayvalık, but a genuine part of its social fabric.
When asked what she would recommend to someone visiting Ayvalık for the first time, her answer is simple: a long swim among the rocks of Badavut, a picnic at the historic Sarımsaklı stone quarry, and a quiet prayer at the Ayazma.
