Wild and Woolly Turkish Video Depicts Lake Van Cryptid
Posted by: John Kirk on May 7th, 2007
While sauntering through youtube.com the other day I came across a really wild video in Turkish all about the mysterious cryptid of Lake Van.
I have to say that it was mind blowing to watch what appears to be a movie prop monster cruising the lake as well as appearing to eat a diver. There is some great scenery depicted in the video, interviews with witnesses and some footage which appears to show the actual animal that is causing all the excitement at this lake in Eastern Turkey.
As I don’t speak Turkish I am unable to tell whether the footage of the actual animal is that of the Japanese film crew who were there last summer. They were supposed to have obtained some footage, but despite my efforts I have not been able to find anyone in Japan who has seen it yet.
If there are any Cryptomundo.com readers who can understand and translate Turkish I would appreciate you posting here for the benefit of other readers and myself.
You can view this eccentric footage at youtube here.
About John Kirk
One of the founders of the BCSCC, John Kirk has enjoyed a varied and exciting career path. Both a print and broadcast journalist, John Kirk has in recent years been at the forefront of much of the BCSCC’s expeditions, investigations and publishing. John has been particularly interested in the phenomenon of unknown aquatic cryptids around the world and is the author of In the Domain of the Lake Monsters (Key Porter Books, 1998).
In addition to his interest in freshwater cryptids, John has been keenly interested in investigating the possible existence of sasquatch and other bipedal hominids of the world, and in particular, the Yeren of China. John is also chairman of the Crypto Safari organization, which specializes in sending teams of investigators to remote parts of the world to search for animals as yet unidentified by science. John travelled with a Crypto Safari team to Cameroon and northern Republic of Congo to interview witnesses among the Baka pygmies and Bantu bushmen who have sighted a large unknown animal that bears more than a superficial resemblance to a dinosaur.
Since 1996, John Kirk has been editor and publisher of the BCSCC Quarterly which is the flagship publication of the BCSCC. In demand at conferences, seminars, lectures and on television and radio programs, John has spoken all over North America and has appeared in programs on NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, TLC, Discovery, CBC, CTV and the BBC.
In his personal life John spends much time studying the histories of Scottish Clans and is himself the president of the Clan Kirk Society. John is also an avid soccer enthusiast and player.
Hey Loren!
I’ll show that video to my barber, he’s from Turkey…and if that fails, I have a few Eastern European friends who can either understand that or know someone who could.
It does look interesting…I think the close ups are from a movie made in those parts of the world…but the other long range footage looks pretty…well…look at it…
But then again, those Eastern Euros love to fib the tourists!
dws – Loren did not post this blog. John Kirk did.
It doesn’t look like there’s much new actual footage. Lots of footage of monster models or puppets, though.
That “actual” footage that shows the eye and the animal blowing bubbles has always looked like a swimming elephant to me, including the “liver spots” that older elephants get. I don’t know about the “hump” footage.
I think I recognized some of the props from Türist Ömer Uzay Yolunda aka Turkish Star Trek!
Always loved the real footage they stuffed in there – I don’t think anyone’s definitively discredited it. The movie stuff looks like just what I’d expect (see Turkish Star Wars).
Problem is – and correct me if I’m wrong – Van is a highly-alkaline, dead lake devoid of life, is it not?
Perhaps there is a Turkish sea serpent film to explain the wild attack footage. Any experts on the crazy world of Turkish genre films know?
I’m going in… Turkish Sea Monster Films… Back with a report later…
OK… I did some looking and didn’t find much on Turkish Sea Monsters… Hmmm… Go figure…
Now I’m really getting intrigued. Hope we solve the mystery of this wacky footage. Notice how the head of the prop is, or is based on that dragon mask you can get from costume shops? A local comic shop had one of those masks several years back. For you wrestling fans, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat came to the ring one time wearing that type of mask.
I can’t read or speak Turkish either.
However, to me, it looks as if someone in Turkey is making a Monster movie based on the Lake Van “monster” and this might be part of its trailer?
Actual cryptid footage interspliced with movie prop monsters makes it all confusing, especially when I can’t understand a word they’re saying.
We need some Turkish speakers out there to give us a hand on this one.
According to wiki Lake Van is both alkaline and brackish. Apparently only a species of herring (Chalcalburnus tarichi) can survive this combination. But as we saw from the footage the lakebed is richly covered in eel grass so our cryptid could be a modified manatee.
I can buy the elephant thing depending on what the whole story is…as in, did the witness stick around long enough to see where it went or what…If it was an elephant, I can see it swimming, but I do not think elephants dive or could go too terribly long without air like seals or whales…would think it would keep its trunk up to breath also…somebody out there correct me if I am mistaken on the whole elephant diving/breath holding thing….
Maybe the parts that show a trunk or clearly identify it as an elephant were edited out.
Did anyone else notice that the creature had two different heads? One had few and fat, short, sharp teeth, the other had lots of long, skinny teeth.
Wow Mr. Coleman please don’t tell us you thought that was real! It’s just the Turks trying to get on the good side of the planet after their blood thirsty past haha.
But thank you for posting this, it made me laugh :))
My friend just told me it’s advertising the footage taken by the turk people by a turkish lake and the other footage is from a movie. She’s turkish so I hope she’s correct!
I’ve seen that “real” footage before, so I doubt it’s new, although it remains intriguing. As for the staged stuff, well, it’s a pretty nice looking dragon really, no “Giant Claw” type critter here…
LOL, It looks like the mechanical beast that Arnold fights in the 2nd Conan movie. I kept imagining the screaming noise when the prop reared from the water.