Ünal Kozak's Lake Van Monster video

Lake Van sits at 1,719 metres in eastern Turkey. It is a landlocked soda lake, its water rich in sodium carbonate. Stories of something living in it go back a long way. On 29 April 1889 the Ottoman newspaper Saadet reported that a creature had dragged a man into the lake.

A century later the stories returned. From 1995, residents of the Van area began reporting a large animal in the water. About 15 metres long. Spikes along its back. Some likened it to a plesiosaur. Amateur photographs showed "something long and dark moving in the middle of the lake."

Ünal Kozak was 26. He was a teaching assistant at Yüzüncü Yıl University in Van. He took the reports seriously. He interviewed about 1,000 witnesses. Then he went to the spots where most sightings had been reported, and he waited. He said he saw the creature three times. He put its length at about 15 metres. And he filmed it.

The video shows a long dark body crossing the surface in a straight line. Its breathing appears as a continuous release at the water. CNN put the story online on 12 June 1997, under the headline "Sea monster or monster hoax?"

According to the reports of the time, the pictures were sent to Cambridge University for analysis. Marine biologist Jacques Cousteau was expected to investigate. No published result of either has surfaced. A later Turkish summary says experts found the video not convincing. Kozak and Mustafa Y. Nutku also wrote a book, Van Gölü canavarı, published by Yüzüncü Yıl University in 1996. It includes drawings based on the witnesses' descriptions.

Critics raised pointed questions. Why does the camera never pan left? Perhaps, they suggested, because a boat was carrying the "creature". Why does the path never curve through the water? Why is the breathing continuous, much like an air hose? Some saw a model towed by a boat. Others saw garbage bags dragged through the lake. Skeptics also noted that a poor eastern region stood to gain from tourism.

Folklore scholar James Russell met Kurds in Van in 1994 and 1997 who called the monster a "commercial ploy and a farce". He rejected any link to the Armenian vishap dragon traditions. He saw the 1990s sightings as shaped by Western popular culture.

Then came a confession. June 2025. Veteran journalist Mehmet Çetingüleç wrote that in 1993 he and Bitlis MP Zeki Ergezen had invented the "Van Gölü canavarı" to draw attention to the lake's rising water. He ran the story in Sabah and Yeni Yüzyıl. TV crews followed. "Asparagas yaptım, ama vatan millet aşkıyla!" he wrote. "I made it up, but out of love for country and nation!" His account never mentions Kozak or the 1997 video.

The monster outgrew the debate. A 4-metre statue stands in Van city. Former prime minister Bülent Ecevit wrote a poem about it. In 2009 director Bünyamin Yaşar shot the feature film Van Gölü Canavarı on the Erciş shore. Television came too, from Animal X to Destination Truth. The press compared it to the Loch Ness Monster and Lake Champlain's "Champ". Kozak's clip is still called one of the clearest lake-monster films ever recorded. What it shows is still argued over.