“Of course, it is not a myth. See for yourself!” The 19-year-old captain points impatiently toward the blackish, dried rosebud that hangs above the cockpit of his boat. Tourists on board immediately start snapping photos. Two of them are already carrying rose saplings carefully wrapped up in white plastic that they want to take home, plant and see whether they’d yield the famed black buds.
The black rose of Halfeti is an enigma for the tourists who visit this picturesque town on the banks of the Euphrates River. It may well be the best-known feature of this southeastern town, along with the fact that it is the birthplace of the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, Abdullah Ocalan. Locally known as the Crying Arabian Girl, the rose has inspired a romance novel, a long-winded TV series that went on for three years and a perfume. Yet a quick Google search shows a sharp division between Turkish officials quoted in local media who cite the beauty of this rare rose, and foreign sites — including Snopes — that say it is nonexistent beyond doctored photos on the internet.
