Tarzan of Manisa

[2] In his early teens, he met Meral, the daughter of Sheikh Tahir, a Turkmen tribal leader, and got engaged to her.

[3] Carlak then reached the insurgents, serving under Kâzım Karabekir in the eastern front of the Turkish War of Independence.

[2] Struck by the consequences of the fire, Carlak made it his life's goal to reforest the region, single-handedly planting and cultivating innumerable trees on Mount Sipylus.

[2] He began to dress only in a pair of shorts, with a naked torso,[2] and lived alone for 40 years in a hut, which he called Topkale ("castle of the cannon"), named for an old cannon which he used every day to signal midday by firing a shot; because of that, the adjective topçu ("artillerist") was added to his nickname "pilgrim".

[2] Inside the hut, Carlak slept on a plank covered with old newspapers, washing himself in summer and winter with cold water.

[2] Bearded and bare-chested, Carlak took part in the official victory parades commemorating the revolutionary war, wearing his medal placed on a leaf of an ornamental palm tree that he had tied around his neck.

The environment week in the Aegean city has been named "Manisa Tarzanı Çevre Günleri Haftası".

[1] In the Fatih Parkı of Manisa, a life-size monument representing Carlak has been erected, known as Tarzan Heykeli.

[11] In sports, fans of Manisaspor call themselves Tarzanlar ("Tarzans") [12] and, in 2015, a local cross-country skiing event was named Manisa Tarzanı.

Carlak's life has been the subject of several books, and of a 1994 film shot by director Orhan Oğuz entitled Manisa Tarzanı.