A young man in Adana, who has been claiming that the world is flat for some time, applied to the municipality together with other shopkeepers to name the street where his business is located “Flat Earth”.
Doğukan Özkan, who argues that the world is flat, not geoid-shaped, and continues his work under the Flat Earth Association he founded in 2018, applied to the municipality to name 27039 street in Tepebağ Neighborhood of Seyhan district as ‘Flat Earth Street’.
In 2022, with the closure of the association, Özkan, who continues to pursue his claim with his own circle, posed with flat earth t-shirts and flat earth license plates on the street, which is expected to be named Flat Earth Street. Özkan, who submitted his petition to the municipality to change the name of the street to ‘Flat Earth’ with the participation of about 25 tradesmen on the street, now wants the approval of the municipality.
Özkan, who has been arguing that the world is flat for years, has come to the fore in the past when he applied to the court to change his name to “Flat Earth”.
Street shopkeepers signed the petition
Stating that he has been a shopkeeper on the street for 26 years, Doğukan Özkan, Former President of Flat Earth Association, said, “We believe in flat earth. As flat earthers, we thought of naming our street ‘Flat Earth’ in order to make a change and beauty for our street and to make a change for the tradesmen.”
Stating that he collected signatures from about 25 shopkeepers to give the street its new name, Özkan said, “The shopkeepers already believed in me. They trust my word. We made a small announcement and collected the necessary signatures from many shopkeepers at the same time. I told them, ‘We will change the name of the street to Flat Earth.’ They were very happy, they liked it very much. They said, ‘It would be very good. This street is normally both known and unknown. Based on this, we had such an idea to officially change the name of the street and make it a nice event for flat-earthers, as well as to improve the work of our tradesmen and the neighborhood in the name of tourism.”
“It will be the first in the world”
Özkan also argued that if the street is named ‘Flat Earth’, it will be a first in the world and said, “This will be a first not only in Turkey but also in the world. If the name of this place is changed to ‘Flat World’, the interest will increase more and even people who do not know this street will come here,” he said.
Güray Koruloğlu, a barber from the neighborhood, said, “Doğukan is already a sensational man. He also loves the flat world. He defended it, he fell on it. We also supported him, and we love Doğukan. We saw no harm in changing the name of the street, I think it was good. We also support the change. This is a historical street. We want people to pass by and we want more people to come here. There would definitely be those who defend the flat earth and those who would want to come by saying ‘I wonder what’s there’.”
