I have friends who believe that the Twin Towers was an inside job and that they were brought down by controlled demolition. I also know people who think that the Covid 19 pandemic is a hoax intended to allow a small minority to control the world.
I scoff at these conspiracy theories. Or I used to. Now I find myself succumbing to one.
Holiday rental agencies are slowly taking over the world. Everywhere I look I see their offices. They seem to sprout like extra heads, above supermarkets, down side streets. A shop closes and instantly up pops a garish sign advertising the office of villajacuzzi.com, Kaçakvillam.com, Korkunçevim.com, Smackmybricksup etc.Would anybody like to guess the number of them in the Kalkan area. Seriously, 50? 60?
What do they all do? There are not enough holiday rentals in the Western World to support this number of agencies. It is sinister. It is being masterminded by a global consortium. They have an agenda but I have no idea what it is.
Even ye ölde village of Islamlar, which used to host just a barber’s shop, a couple of small grocery stores a cafe and a teahouse now boasts four holiday rental offices and an estate agent. It’s now as quaint as a Luton Car Boot Sale.
But just as despair threatened to overwhelm me, amidst the plastic estate agents’ signs a new business has appeared in The Willage. At first glance, on passing quickly through,I thought the tasteful wooden sign said My Organik Villa. But no! It is something like Missie’s Organic Shop. Decorated in soft greens and fitted out with wooden shelving, it sells village produce and other local stuff.
There is a new reason to visit our village! Hoş geldin.
As I stand saluting the sun from my deck in the early morning sun, I look straight down throught the pines to the distant blue hills and the azure turquoise of the Mediterranean. A blackbird is also saluting the sun with a captivating aria that is beautiful beyond belief.
I do wonder if the locals realise what a jewel they have here and how much it is worth protecting. The peasant farmers have done a pretty good job in looking after this land for centuries; little clearings with olive trees jostle with vines, amongst which goats, sheep and the occasional cow graze whilst chickens dash across the road under the strutting eye of a snappily dressed rooster. Dogs snooze in the middle of the road. Single and double story cottages are absorbed in to the landscape, smoke drifting from the chimney. The most beautiful are built in stone with red tiled roofs.
Not for nothing did Atatürk say “Köylü milletin efendisidir.” The villager is our country’s real master.
But the villager’s stewardship has exacted a high price from them; hands horny and calloused, countenance prematurely aged and back bent from toil in the fields. Although admittedly the men have not fared so badly.
Never could resist a gag but, joking aside, the contribution of the small farmers in managing this land has not been recognised. So when Islamlar was “discovered” a few years back opportunity came knocking for locals to sell at previously undreamed of prices or develop their own holiday rental villas and collect. It is not difficult to understand their willingness to do so.
It is much harder to understand or forgive the willingness of the authorities, national and local, to turn a blind eye to the hideous Pas de Deux danced by Monsieur Bulldozer et son paramour Madame Beton across village lands.
With few exceptions (although there are some good builds) this odious pair’s offspring now crowding our hills are pretty hideous; concrete boxes around which flaps the curtaining that provides the privacy the new breed of conservative Turkish visitor demands.
How did this happen in a landslip area where all building is forbidden?
So, to borrow a slogan from the brave women of Turkey’s struggle against male violence, I Will Not Be Silent.
It is no coincidence that American Bill Bryson was President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England or that some of the most lyrical writing on Britain’s countryside was penned by Dutch immigrant John Betjeman. Outsiders can bring an uncluttered, if occasionally naive, eye to their adopted country’s problems.
I am not against tourism. Bring it on. The villagers should be allowed to develop. They must benefit from the prosperity around us. But they should be encouraged and supported to preserve, protect and produce as well. Development must be planned, be in harmony and scale with the beautiful natural environment.
If Islamlar can keep its magic mountain story, it will keep giving back for generations.
Review the landslip zone! Legalise development! Have a plan and stop the massacre. No more illegal buildings or the promise of amnesties which encourage it.
A big welcome to Islamlar’s organic shop. I hope it makes a fortune for its visionary owner.
Wake up Powers That Be and do your job. Act before we all open our windows and find the planet covered with Villa Rental Agencies and a black clad Bill Gates astride a cement lorry telling everybody to stay in their homes.
Maybe I need professional help
Very well said. I have to admit to being charmed by Kalkan and it’s surrounding areas over twenty years ago, to such a degree that I bought a wonderful house in one of the first areas to be built on; the Lykia estate. The houses were thoughtfully designed and I like to think , sympathetic to the topography of the local area. You are SO right about the standard of design and build of some of the newer “villas”. Regulations need to be introduced and enforced.