Having started as an apprentice in his father's profession and accumulated invaluable experience over nearly 50 years, İsmail Gökdoğan is one of the industrialists who moved from Ata Sanayi to OSTİM.
Gökdoğan, who ships products to numerous countries including America, drew attention to the Ahi Brotherhood, one of the cornerstones of our culture, and the apprenticeship concept, the first step in vocational training. Gökdoğan reminded that developed countries apply the principles of the Ahi Brotherhood.
In which sector do you operate?
We were established in 1968 in Ankara Ata Sanayi. We manufacture, sell, and install wire mesh, barbed wire, panel fences, high-security fences, reinforced concrete posts and supports, razor wire, spiral barbed wire, steel fences, mobile fences, personnel and entrance gates, sliding gate systems, and related accessories.
How did your working life begin?
I started as an apprentice; it was also my father's profession. It wasn't a matter of being the master's son or the boss's son. Whether you were the boss's child or the master's child, you learned the trade from those who knew it better than you.
The master-apprentice relationship was based on respect and love. Because our master was everyone's master, we paid attention to our gait. When they said, "This is so-and-so master's apprentice," as we passed by them, it was a very special feeling. Today, thank God, I employ nearly 130 people.
How did you meet the late Cevat Dündar?
My acquaintance with Cevat Dündar and Tevfik Gönen dates back to around the 1960s. They were both good friends of my father. My late brother, Yaşat Gökdoğan, worked with Uncle Cevat at the Blacksmiths' Association. They also served together with Turan Çiğdem. They worked day and night for these services. May God have mercy on their souls and grant them paradise.
FROM A 100 SQUARE METER SPACE TO TODAY
When did you come to OSTİM?
When we started running the shop, and I was about to go to the army, Cevat Bey and Tevfik Bey used to go from shop to shop. They would say to the apprentices, "Give 50 lira, 100 lira and have your name written down."
They were recruiting members one by one. They went to everyone. They would say, "Son, go and register your name with the association. I'll give you both a shop and capital in OSTİM." We liked them. Above all, they inspired confidence. Ata Sanayi was tiny. You could shout and chat with the person in the shop next door. They had workshops of 50, 75, and 100 square meters.
I bought shares in OSTİM in 1983. Looking back, we were late. Those who became members before us were able to pay more easily and became successful business owners. When I arrived, I said, "Are we going to play football here?!" It has a 150-meter garden in front, 200 meters inside... and then there are the floors. In total, it's a 400-500 square meter space. There's a unique beauty to this place... We came from a 100 square meter space to where we are today.
You did business in OSTİM, partly as a small industrial site and partly as an organized industrial zone. As a tradesman, did you feel the difference between the two?
In the first years after I arrived, there weren't even proper minibuses. I remember walking all the way to Demetevler. If you were a little late in the evening, the fog would be so thick you couldn't see anything. Telephone lines were connected, streets were opened, but there was no asphalt. Because it was newly constructed, nobody complained. When the municipality didn't lay the asphalt, the administration had to do it themselves. Now that's done too. Everything is ready, but that's not how it works. You have to add something of your own to make it happen. The government does everything, and I just sit back and enjoy it? No way.
What would you say about the Ahi Brotherhood, which forms the core of tradesmanship?
We need to learn about the Ahi Brotherhood well. We've confined it to narrow frameworks. This is actually the model applied by developed countries. The late Turgut Özal sent his brother to Germany, saying, "The Germans came out of the war, and so did we. They're moving forward, why are we still like this? Go and investigate." The Germans asked his brother, "Why did you come? What do you want to learn?" They asked how they developed. They replied, "We took the Ahi Brotherhood book, we studied it. We act according to it."
I went to Germany in 1986. I looked at the men there, and they were up before sunrise. Our book says, "May the sun not rise upon you." Now, we see that at 4 or 5 in the morning, these men are already on their way to the factory, starting work. The Ahi tradition is the beacon of progress and development…
What are the challenges faced by SMEs and small businesses?
You can visit large factories, but they don't see the small businesses in OSTIM. No one asks, "Hey brother, what are you doing? Where are you selling your products? What kind of problems do you have? Can you get a loan?"
When applying for a loan, they immediately ask about the property that can be 'mortgaged'. If I had a mortgage, I would sell it, why would I need a loan? You say, "I have my tools, my equipment," but it's not accepted. I may not own the house, the shop may not be mine, I may be a tenant. But I've set up my tools there; that's where my main income comes from.
Neither the government nor the banks see this. They ask, "Are there any houses or shops?"... When I brought the machine to OSTİM, at that time its value, it could buy 11 shops.
“APPRENTICES FROM VILLAGES BECAME FACTORY OWNERS”
As you mentioned, many of our industrialists have an apprenticeship background. Could we get your assessment of apprenticeship and vocational training?
Most of us, for example 70-80%, are primary school graduates, having risen through the ranks as apprentices in OSTIM. The Iron Industry, the New Industry, the Ata Industry, the Great Industry – they all originated from here. Looking at their initial capital, they say, "My father gave 10 lira, my father gave 100 lira, I took my aunt's bracelets, my other aunt's bracelets, and that's how I bought the lathe."
These days, nobody likes any job. Because the apprenticeship system is gone. Coming at age 12 and saying, "I'm going to learn this trade," is already forbidden; there are penalties for it. You become an apprentice after age 15… You'll come at 16, and then go to the army two years later. I started before I was 12. My late older brother was also a graduate of a vocational school. Apparently, that school almost produced engineers.
In the past, we had what we might call 'factories' where apprentices came and were trained. Kızılcahamam and Kazan were factories. Mothers would send their children there to learn a trade.
Before 1970, the apprentices of Ata Sanayi, Demir Sanayi, and Büyük Sanayi—the masters of today—came from the villages. Mothers and fathers would bring their children from the villages of Kızılcahamam, Beypazar, and Elmadağ, looking for work. They would bring them and hand them over.
He grows up, becomes a master, learns a craft, time passes, and he wants to open a shop. If his master was a good person, he would say, "Son, so-and-so sells lathes and welding machines. I vouch for him." Then, before you know it, he's the owner of a huge factory.
Anything you'd like to add?
I love producing, I love my job. When I started this business, it never crossed my mind, never crossed my dreams. Exporting never crossed my mind. Now I've sent barbed wire to America… The state is sacred to us, governments come and go… Work, power, everything happens. May no harm come to our homeland. What matters is the homeland.
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