October has been glorious. The weather is usually fantastic: plenty of golden sunshine but without the humid, energy sapping heat of an August day, nights that are cool enough to allow a proper restful sleep, the departure of the Turkish holidaymakers leaving the ton to residents and a welcome influx of big spending Johnny Come Lately British Tourists, whose holiday plans have, until recently, been frustrated by the British Government’s Pandemicus Horribilis travel restrictions.
The influx of mainly British foreign tourists also came at the perfect time for the 2021 Mouse Island Swim, allowing several extra swimmers to join a new and more easily transmittable variant of this eleven-year-old annual event. The tourist mini boom swelled the numbers on the beach and the conditions were perfect.
Rather than the usual dozen or so this year’s swim, organized with Turkish search and rescue organization AKUT, included some 50 swimmers of varying abilities. 16 of these swam the whole passage spanning some 6 or 7 kilometres depending on whose highly expensive smart watch you believe. You would not believe the variation. Keeps us in conversation for hours after swims.
As I write I have ₺83,000 and £ 13,619 in my Turkish bank accounts. In addition, AKUT have raised ₺ 35,800 to add to the pot. So (how I love spreadsheets!) I need the pound/lira exchange rate to reach 13.30489 before I can convert to an exact total of ₺300,000. Cannot wait for Monday when trading begins. My new hobby.
The swimmers have agreed with AKUT management on a plan to contribute ₺89,150 from the swim funds to make a total of ₺125,000 which they will use to buy a second-hand people carrier to transport team members on a callout. Currently they have to use their own vehicles.
The balance of ₺175,000 (depending on exchange rate) will be used to provide material assistance to a number of the 1200 families whose homes have been completely (800) or partially (400) destroyed. Plans are underway as to how exactly to commit this. We hope to concentrate on a small geographical area whereby we can hope to make a measurable impact.
A tragic situation but everybody has been lifted to see how well Turks and foreigners, residents and holidaymakers alike have worked together to make the swim, along with the party afterwards and the excellent artisan market organised by Indigo, a successful community event.
Depressing then to see, so soon afterwards, horrible divisions open up around the massive fireworks display given to mark the 98th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti or TC). I doubt if this somewhat bad tempered debate will have been replicated anywhere else in Turkey. Not to the same extent anyway.
I confess to enjoying a good fireworks display. There I have said it! I recall the groundsman at the Royal Masonic School for boys spending a month building an enormous bonfire which was topped by a guy and entered by a huge door to be lit from the inside. The flames were accompanied by a spectacularly scary display of pyrotechnics. A rare good memory from this part of my childhood. I remember too the incredible displays around the world that accompanied the dawn of a new Millennium. Sidney Harbour got the prize. I remember as well sitting with the Special by the banks of a river in a French town on Bastille Day fifteen years ago. We ate sausage, drank wine and watched a thunderous thirty-minute barrage launched from a floating platform. That said, I do not support the casual use of explosive fireworks. They should be controlled and reserved for specially licensed occasions.
People have different points of view. Nations have different stories. Our common humanity requires us to chart a path through the thorny undergrowth of diversity.
The Kalkan expat bubble has never looked quite so out of touch with its host community than on this issue of marking Republic Day with hugely noisy celebrations. For me the rift is not about fireworks (people have different opinions as to these) but about a lack of understanding of how important the ideal of the Republic of Turkey has become to many (but not by any means all) Turkish citizens.
And it is becoming more important every year. You can equate it in scale to the celebrations that will accompany the Queen’s centenary in England. Imagining how a protest by London Turks on the nature of the likely celebrations may provide a window in to understanding how local Turks here are likely to perceive our complaints about their noise.
Next year will be the 99th anniversary of the founding of the republic and the last before the hugely important 2023 Presidential Elections. With the opposition coalescing around the scrapping of the Presidential system and a return to parliamentary government, the stakes are very high. The outcome will set the tone for the Centenary of the Republic two years from now and the direction of the Turkish country going forward.
After eighteen years of a government that has tilted Turkey away from its relationship with NATO, Europe, Israel and America and towards the Islamist Arab world in particular and crushed dissent, celebrating Republic Day has become a safe way to demonstrate support for the legacy of Mustafa Kemal: secular government, democracy, equality for women and a set of values that are not associated with the Middle East. Not to understand the powerful symbolism of Republic Day is to risk showing ourselves and our concerns as foreigners living in Turkey, as an irrelevance.
That would be a shame as we can make common cause with our Turkish brothers and sisters on many issues; degradation of the environment, conservation of water and natural resources, animal welfare, equality of the sexes, LGBT rights and so on.
I am not one who believes foreign residents should keep their opinions to themselves. But we should show empathy towards the very different cultural and political dynamic of this extraordinary country in which we are fortunate to live or spend our holidays.
Iyi Bayramlar! Vive la République!
Have a nice weekend
Once again a thoughtful piece. Thank you.
Well-timed and well-observed, as always, Chris. I too don’t believe that, as foreigners, we need to keep our opinions to ourselves. That said, we should be sensitive and respectful to the traditions and culture of our hosts and neighbours. If we’re not prepared to embrace them (or at least refrain from insulting them) it begs the question of why we’ve chosen to be here at all.
Totally agree with your comments. Very well put.
well said I hate fireworks but it’s not for us to say how the Turkish people celebrate such an important day in their history.
Very balanced account. Love you blog
Have visited Kalkan for over 20 years and appreciate nothing stays the same. Saddened to read that people are objecting to the way local celebrate their special day.
Thanks Chris; you said it succinctly, more or less, that we are here by the graciousness of the country; and it behoves us to be good hosts not whiny brits or other who complain about rather insignificant things in this delightful country whose internal divisions, like many a country are huge. Vive la Republic indeed.