So,
the ‘big stuff’ first. There have been
no new developments in the state of the country. There is still a feeling that America and
Europe do not understand the threat that the Gulenist network posed and are
therefore critical of the mass shedding of teachers, civil servants, judges
etc. However, James Jeffrey, former US
ambassador to Ankara, said recently in an interview:
“The Gülen movement has some infiltration at
the least in the military that I am aware of. They of course had extreme
infiltration into the police and judiciary earlier.... It is very clear that a significant
segment of the bureaucracy in Turkey were infiltrated and had their allegiance
to a movement, not a state. That of course is absolutely unacceptable and
extremely dangerous. It is highly likely that it led to the [attempted] coup.”
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| Another birthday cake - Happy Birthday Talia! |
What
is the latest down in Calis? Well, the
phone hasn’t stopped ringing today – which might be partly due the fact that we
finally remembered to plug it in (sorry all of you who have tried to call – it has
been plugged in to the credit card machine for the last month!). Turkish people are holidaying again – civil servants
have had their leave reinstated and others are feeling confident that things
have returned to normal.
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| Nostalgia - busy pool in 2010 |
Emre
has been busy too – we have a cunning plan to fill the hotel with students from
the university in winter (Fethiye is home to some of the faculties of Mugla
university). We did it about twelve
years ago and it was a disaster: they had no money and couldn’t pay their rent half
the time (no grants or even loans over here!) and they left the rooms in quite
a state. But this time we are better
prepared – with rental contracts and deposits – so Emre has been at their ‘freshers’
week’ signing people up.
It
feels good to have a few more guests in but I have been looking through old
photos - pictures of the pool full of people, of Turkish nights and barbecues
for 40 guests and 12 people in one car to go go-carting (see the Poppy Apart Hotel
facebook page) – and hoping that tourism recovers quickly.
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| A lively Turkish night - 2003 |
