I was born on 2 January 1956 in Alanya. I come from a 'Youruk' family which lived on Taurus mountains. Youruks are Turkish people which inherited a nomadic lifestyle for many centuries in southern and western Turkey with a unique and exceptional culture and life style.

I started to learn French on the beach during my high school education. My passion for French language and learning pushed me further and I studied French language in Istanbul University. I worked as a tourist rep during my college education and after graduation. In those days Turkish kilims were very popular and I would take the tourists to carpet showrooms almost every single day. That is how I developed an interest in Turkish kilims and carpets as the kilims left a remarkable impression on me. Eventually I opened up a kilim and rug store back in 1981.

I married Umran Sipahioglu in 1984 who is a daughter of a carpet merchant. We live in Alanya and have a daughter, Ayse Nur, who is a qualified solicitor.

After a while, me and my wife Umran developed an interest in the treasures of the earth, stones. We started to investigate and collect stone information and knowledge. We travelled to see and learn. We met many nice people at several corners of our wonderful country who worked on the same field. We tried to benefit from their knowledge and experience and started collecting the stones that we liked. When we reached to a considerable level of knowledge, we decided to carry our expertise to a commercial level in our family establishment, Antika Hediyelik.

The more we learned about the treasures of the earth, the more we felt like a 'mineral hunters'. Climbing the mountains in seacrh of stones, finding new stones and endemic plants and taking their photographs is our favourite activity. As a consequence of our interest, we started to make jewelry with the stones.

Altough we love most of the stones, we have a focus on Turkey unique stones. We use Anatolian stones in most of our jewelry. One of these stones that we use in our jewelry is the Turkish diaspore which is one of the most precious stones on the planet. We consider ourselves the ambassadors of the stones who help the stones meet the rest of the world. The stones posses many treasures inside, open the gates for a healthy and quality life. We form the bridge between the stones and yourselves.

We use both quality silver and gold when maling our jewelry and they are all handmade unique pieces. We can make custom jewelry upon request.

In addition to our gemstones and jewelry, we enjoy showcasing Turkey unique products. We have traditional handmade vintage Turkish kilims and carpets, various antiques from the Ottoman era, contemporary bags made of old hand-woven kilims and oil paintings by my wife Ümran DERE AMOURTACHE is a Turkish brand, confirmed by TÜRK PATEN VE MARKA KURUMU (TURKISH PATENT AND TRADEMARK INSTITUTION ) under number: 2018 88797.

Welcome to the AMOURTACHE family.

Emin DERE
AMOURTACHE