Protest on Cirali beach

[janeanneteacake]

Just saw this on the main news tonight. It was a very short report and it took me by surprise so I couldnt catch all the details except that 18 donums (about 4.5 acres) of 'protected' beachfront land has been rented out for touristic purposes. The local villagers, God bless them, are very against any large scale touristic development along this beach, one of the best in Turkey and were out on the beach with their placards protesting this. The whole bay is a SIT area (enviromentally protected) and has a very low key, LOW IMPACT tourism economy..where there are no buildings above 2 storeys high, no bars, no discos, just some laid back, rustic cafe/restaurants on one part of the beach front and some lovely, small family run pensions....its how most of the coastline of Turkey was like back in the 1980's before the big tourism companies and mass market tourism moved in. Its very hard to buy land or property here, for Turks even, let alone Foreigners, and any new construction is strictly controlled. It is famous much in the same way Iztuzu beach is in Dalyan for the caretta caretta turtles, who also nest on Çirali beach.
Its just about my favourite beach holiday place in the whole of Turkey and I think I have been there every year for the past 17 years. This news (whatever the details are) is so sad and I hope nothing comes of it. The villagers here are so different in that they dont want lots of tourists, they dont want big hotels or bars or discos or roads or traffic or noise. They want to keep their unspoilt bay as it is.I know there was a member on this forum Carrie (Cirali) who owns the Canada pension....I wonder if she is still around and has any details about this or if anyone else has?

 

[huggi2010]

In some areas of Turkey theres a feeling that the locals would prefer no tourists- just their money

 

[janeanneteacake]

The locals here dont even want their money, not from foreigners or from turkish tourists.Thats what makes it different and why they were out protesting today.I might add that most of the tourists here are Turkish.

 

[Yildez Datca]

I'm so upset by this - I visited Cirali in 1990 and it was idyllic; friends who visited a couple of years ago told me that it was more or less unchanged. I hope that the villagers prevail but my cynical side says "yeah, right!".