Bombyx mori

Nearly all the workers lost their houses, the accountant and vet disappeared along with their families, but after the deadly earthquakes that devastated Türkiye's Hatay province, "the silk of peace" is helping make new connections.

"I had to convince myself to start up again," admits Emel Duman, rolling between her fingers a small and incredibly fine ball of fibers.

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For 13 years, Pjetraj and her family have run a small silk farm in the village of Dajc, part of a wide low-lying and fertile plain in the region of Zadrima in north Albania.

Zadrima is known among Albanians for their motif-rich, labour-intensive handwork in tablecloths or silver ornaments, whose motifs usually combine red and white and bear the name Zadrimore.

The prospect of creating a sericulture park in northern Evia, an ambitious project of national and local importance with multiple benefits, but also the simultaneous recovery of Greek sericulture and silk industry, was expounded upon by the Deputy Minister of Agricultural Development and Food, Mr. Simos Kedikoglou, in a meeting with relevant agencies.

While wool, hair and mohair production increased in Turkey last year, honey and silkworm cocoon production decreased, data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed yesterday.

At Kostas Mouhtaridis' silk factory in Soufli, the non-stop "clunk-click" of the weaving machinery is a loud but welcome sound.
The factory is a few hundred meters (yards) from the Evros River, which forms Greece's natural border with Turkey. It is one of Europe's most heavily militarized areas, patrolled constantly to deter illegal immigration into the European Union.