Kurdshop - Bairam Koyonjou, a 55-year-old man from Erzurum city in the North part of Kurdistan, has been occupied in his 40 meters square workshop, for 43 years now in making leather shoes.

Bairam Koyonjou, who began this job when he was 12 years old because his father asked him to do so, now makes shoes for all the cities of the North part of Kurdistan and Turkey in the Kavaflar market in Yakutia city.

Koyonjou, aged 55, works with his coworkers and friends and makes 9 to 10 pairs of shoes daily. Apart from the ordinary kinds of shows they also make shoes for Cricket players.

 Bairam Koyonjou mentioned that they have customers from foreign countries and said: some of our customers live abroad who order the kind of shoes they want and we make them. We make old fashioned or modern kinds of shoes. Most Turkish businessmen also give us orders. Not only do we make shoes for Erzurum city but we also ship the shoes we make to other cities. I also have made equitation boots for Oshak, Adapazari, Istanbul, and Bursa. That is why almost all the cities have known us because we make shoes for most of them.

Koyonjou clarified that shoe making has great and vast sections including molding, modeling, cutting, and sewing the pieces.

He also said that choosing the kind of shoes is not easy: first the model of the shoes must be chosen and then we begin our job.

Aidan Masati a 45-year-old man who is Koyonjou's coworker verified that learning how to make shoes is hard work: "We make all kinds of shoes. After the shoe factories developed, no one remained in this business because it is a handmade craft and it is very hard to make shoes. However, we like it a lot. I work in another place but whenever I have time I work here, too."