Fleeing voters and flying Turks

We had elections here on Sunday but not the result we would have liked. Note I don’t say ‘the result we hoped for’ because there wasn’t much chance of it happening, but still…The party that has been in power since 2002 won again with close to 50% of the vote. Muğla (our region) is one of only seven in the country where the opposition CHP (Republican People’s Party) won.


The winning party, called the ‘Justice and Development Party’, are politically centre-right and have, admittedly, had a positive effect on the economy. However, though they claim not to be a religious party, many of their members were previously members of an Islamist party and a lot of people are afraid they will undermine the secular nature of Turkish society.

This is why issues such as the wearing of headscarves by students and government workers, to many foreigners a seemingly harmless topic, become the subject of such passion here. One of the latest topics to cause uproar is the plan for censorship of the internet. I am obviously concerned about this too though I don’t know how extensive it will be; what I do know is that it will cause a lot of discussion, protests and demonstrations.

Election day itself is quite a social event here. It is always on a Sunday as schools (and teachers) are used for the elections. I sat outside in the car while Cem’s cousin and a couple of others went in to vote (I was voting at a different place) and watched the people arrive in cars, on scooters, bicycles and on foot, hanging around to chat to friends. There was also some drama as the police had decided it would be a good time to ‘catch up with’ people on their wanted list (we’re not talking bank robbers and murderers, more people with unpaid debts or bounced cheques). We saw one man beat a hasty retreat when he found his name was on the list and one of Cem’s friends was not so lucky and spent the night in the cells.

The good news this week is that we got paid the early booking money. Don’t know whether our threats to head office had any effect but at least it came through.

Better than that, all the guests seem delighted with the newly-decorated apartments. We had a lovely couple staying last week who were booked in for last year – until Goldtrail went bust. They made it to Poppy this year and enjoyed their stay. At the moment we have two ladies, one of whom teaches swimming and says she has seen many, many pools but never one as clean as ours!

We have also had a family from South Africa staying – possibly our furthest-travelled guests. They came partly for the Enduro World Championship leg which was held here last Friday and Saturday. Emre was on duty as a marshal, entrusted with retying the plastic tape when they broke it (often) and waving a flag to attract someone when there was an accident (thankfully not so often). The winners came from Spain, Italy and Finland, with France also doing well but our South African guests, one of whom is a competitor himself, said the overall standard was very high.

There was also a performance by the ‘flying Turk’ (not Cem after a night on the vodka!) The ramps were set up in the marketplace for him to do his acrobatics. See the video below – but don’t try this at home!