Ünal Akkemik

Tree fossils recently discovered in eastern Turkey have provided insights into the country's climatic history, a member of Istanbul University's Faculty of Forestry said on Aug. 18.

Professor Ünal Akkemik told the state-run Anadolu Agency that fossils dating back 160 to 170 million years were found in the eastern province of Erzurum's Narman district.

Dubbed as the "Plant Library of Turkey," the Forestry Faculty of Istanbul University, located in Istanbul's Sarıyer district, hosts some 37,000 plant species found in the country's rich flora.

"There are plant samples here in the 'plant library' that have been collected since the 1950s," Ünal Akkemik, an academic from the university, told Demirören News Agency on April 20.

Prof. Ünal Akkemik, the head of the Forest Botany Department of Istanbul University's Forestry Faculty, is the one who enabled me to meet the Belgrade Forest in Istanbul in real life.

He is the protector of the Belgrade Forest for me.