This morning I was out and about, and found myself racing back to life in the touristic obsessed destination of Altinkum and normality. English breakfasts and football shirts suddenly seemed like a welcome sight.
Normally, I am a fan of getting off the beaten track and seeing traditional Turkish life so you may be asking the reason for my doom and gloom. The answer is my trip to a village called Akkoy. This is a small village situated between Soke and Didim on the Aegean Coast.
On many occasions, I passed through but never took the opportunity to stop and explore. I had the perfect excuse this morning when two of my friends decided they wanted a glimpse of Turkish village life so after breakfast, we jumped in the car and set off.
The Turkish Village of Akkoy
A short thirty minutes later, we pulled up in the village of Akkoy.
What was the first sight we saw?
You may be thinking of traditional Turkish shops and houses. You may be thinking of old village men on their way to the Turkish tea house. Neither of these.
The first sight I saw, was beach tourist towels!
Unbelievable! Beach tourists towels with B10, spider man and The Simpsons were adorning the walls of shops along with inflatable swimming toys.
Now my geography may be wrong here, but Akkoy is not near the sea and nor is there loads of tourists running through it, desperately seeking out B10 beach towels.
A walk round the rest of the village revealed abandoned houses, empty shops and people that seemed to have no life. One thing I admire about Turkey, is the ease of making friends. It is easy to stop and chat to a complete stranger because Turkish people are so friendly.
However you could quite easily assume this village to be of the living dead. There was no character and no life. I did wonder to myself, if the lack of friendlessness was because they did not want strange foreigners tramping through their village however this does not explain the rows of tourist beach towels and inflatable swimming toys.
One thing was easy to notice and that was the lack of young people in the village, who all leave to go and earn money in the holiday resorts. From the looks of it they do not return!
I fear of what Akkoy will look like in twenty years time and it made me wonder if the same situation is facing small villages all over Turkey. As big cities are built and tourist destinations spring up, is the past going to be well and truly buried?
One place I did admire in Akkoy was the Café Olive gallery which displays paintings from a Turkish artist. Erken the owner speaks very good English, if you are ever in that area and want to drop in.
Turkish Village Life : The Future
I think, if the village of Akkoy does not want tourism, it is doomed because youngsters are leaving in their droves. It seems some of the village people do think tourism is the answer but are going completely the wrong way about it.
It is a traditional Turkish village so emphasis that life. Fill the shops with home made honey, wine and olive oil. Promote restaurants with locals chefs cooking excellent Turkish foods.
Rent out bicycles for tourists to visit the surrounding areas of Miletos and Priene. Turn empty houses into museums. Anything has got to be better than Simpsons beach towels and inflatable swimming toys!
We can get all that back in Altinkum.
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Natalie says
atYou write such lovely words Isaac – I love your description of the type of the village that you want to live in
Isaac says
atDear Natalie,
Your very last answer is the right one.
I was born in Istanbul a very, very long time ago. I know today, after having seen a lot, that this gigantic city is not representative of Turkey only by itself.
Traditional Turkey would be a village away from the beaten paths, especially of the touristic ones. It would have simple, white chalked houses. It would have its animals moving around freely. Its fields would shine with colour of gold. All kinds of wonderful home-made dishes, simple but tasty would be served to guests, sitting together at the same table as the ´host family. Men would speak respectfully to each other; the children would sit and listen to them. The women, sitting eventually a bit apart, would talk about the things they love most, their children, laughing and crying at the same time.
If I had been able to start life anew I would go and live in such a village and participate in its development, slowly, hand in hand with nature, cultivating crops and raising animals, sharing the pleasure of seeing things growing and in the evenings I would sit with my friends, with a glass of strong, hot tea in my hand and perhaps a cigarrette in the other, making all the comments men make on politics, even if not very seriously.
This is a dream and what I do today in Europe is something entirely different.
Turkish villages must re-invest, money and time, in what was traditional, with small quantities of modern input to make things a little better and comfortable.
Who knows? As long as one is alive, one can knock on a blue-painted village door, say the magic words “tanri misafiri” and I would enjoy the magnificient, hearty Turkish village hospitality.
Kucak dolusu sevgiler!
Natalie says
atHi Trish, I have heard about the Cittaslow movement before in passing and would like to look more into it. Sounds like a great incentive
trish turkoglu says
atI love , love , love Kirazli. We pass through on our way to Yenipazar, my husband’s home town. Yenipazar is doing a great job in preserving its traditions and culture. It is a member of the Cittaslow movement which started in Italy and aims to preserve traditional crafts etc .
Natalie says
atI think you are right Jennifer. They are just grabbing at straws trying to sell anything. If they ditched the tacky beach towel look and started promoting the traditional Turkey, I think they would be more successful
Jennifer says
atI live in Florida, U.S.A and even I don’t like seeing such a worthless set of items! Is it a poor town? Do they put out whatever they could think of to sell that they could find at an affordable price to resell to visitors? I wouldn’t want to buy beach towels that look like that. This reminds me of a perfume store in a train station near New York City. Inside of it the store was a standing board shaped like a woman from a show called Jersey Shore, the woman’s name being ‘Snooki’. I asked her why it was there, and the lady at the store said that “Many people like Snooki”. I don’t, but given that the perfume store was technically in New Jersey (just close to NYC), the lady must have thought that people in Jersey would know of and like to buy perfume that was related to Snooki (I guess Snooki has her own perfume line). I hate that show. But my point is that maybe the people in the town had the same idea going… sort of… What do you think?
phil + Di marina gateway says
atyour so right nat we,ve been to akkoy a few times and i totaly agree with you and your ideas to promote the place
you should talk to them .x
Di
Karen says
atGreat, always happy to have visitors. We’re just over an hour’s drive from Didim. Klaus Jurgens recently wrote an article on the village – I think he published it in Zaman. We’re not touristy here, just real, apart from when Diane Travel run a little tractor tricked out as a train through the village so the tourists from Kusadasi can photograph us!
Natalie says
atHi Karen,
You are spot on. Perhaps the elders of Akkoy should visit your village. I have never heard of it before but would like to go and see it. Will leave a message on your blog when I can get there and hopefully we can meet up.
Karen says
atI think Akkoy struggles with being so close to Didim, it sees the buses go through crammed with tourists on their way to Altinkum and it thinks passing trade is an easy way to make money instead of celebrating it’s uniqueness.
In my village, Kirazli, near Kusadasi we have two small boutique hotels and I do B&B for visitors and we’re attracting real travellers who are often amazed to have found the village.
The village itself is really leaning towards organic farming, self sufficiency and diversity as a long term sustainable strategy to keep the energy and population here. Now a certified organic village and marketing organic products under it’s own label I think Kirazli is pretty unique but Akkoy could find a similar niche if it doesn’t fall for the fast buck mirage that comes from being so close to Didim.
Natalie says
atHi turkey’s for life,
That would work 100% in Akkoy. At the moment everyone in the area flocks to Bafa lake for the traditional Turkish breakfast however Akkoy is closer. I am sure that once word spread, they would go there as well.
There is also a lack of facilities here for back packers, so there is a market. Next time I see Ergen from the local Cafe Olive, I will pass on your suggestion.
turkey's for life says
atThe village breakfast is very fashionable in Fethiye at the moment. Every Sunday, many people (tourists and locals) flock to the local nearby villages to sit and chat over a traditional Turkish breakfast.
These same villages are now slowly thinking about ways to keep those visitors coming back. Some of the old buildings have been made into wine houses, small restaurants and pensions, providing work for the younger people of the village. The Fethiye area does have the advantage of the mountains so campsites with tree houses and the like are also popping up for trekkers and backpackers.
Would this work in Akkoy? I don’t know that area of Turkey very well.
Natalie says
atHi Adam,
Yes, some youngsters do return to the villages in the winter months but the empty, crumbling houses in Akkoy with no furniture made me assume that a mass exodus has taken place.
I really do fear for the future of this village and wonder what it will look like in ten years time. There is a lack of back packing hostels on the Aegean coasts. Perfect opportunity for them to promote themselves as a back packing destination and then, they are not competing with the holiday resorts that the tourists flock to.
Adam says
atHi, interesting article.
But have you considered it could just be the ‘time of year’ that you visited this village?
After all the pictures look like its the height of summer, from what i heard from a friend of mine who recently (2010) visited Turkey he tells me that most of the people from the countryside go to work in the Tourist resorts during the summer months and they earn enough money from that to ‘go back home’ to their ancesterol towns/villages and just lounge around during the other months of the year when there are no tourists/work.
But i do agree with your overall sentiments, there is only so much a village can offer and the appeal is usually seasonal, still it simply cannot compete economically with the larger cities.
Natalie says
atHi Liz,
Glad to see you on my blog. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog and writing. I love your style. It forms an instant picture in my head of the scene you are describing.
Re the agencies, I am not sure if I know who I would take it up with. Not sure if I am ready to take on the task either.
Liz says
atHi Natalie,
good post, and the pictures really work for you, it makes the point. We all have our own style don’t we. Are you going to take it up with any tourist agencies, government ones I mean? You are right and village people cannot be expected to know how to re-create themselves, they need some help. Your ideas would be good.
Liz
Natalie says
atHi Brenda, Good to hear from you again. I am quite sure my friend will remember the idea when it is far too late and others have cornered the market.
It is however like you say, 100% commitment is needed. Providing the eco aspect without the service or comfort is not ideal and will not spread the word.
I bookmarked the companies that I found on Google yesterday and will look more into that. I can feel a traveling trip coming on. LOL
Brenda Farrell says
atI love the concept of eco-tourism and with my limited experience am not exactly an expert in this field. However, British Columbia has a wealth of eco-tourism initiatives, including the wildly successful Clayuquot Wilderness Resort.
Back to Turkey now … a few years back I visited an eco farm close to Fethiye, The website over-delivered and promised a truly earthy and delicious experience. In reality, though, the property definitely under-delivered with regard to comfort, service (what service?) experience, food etc.
My feeling is that when somebody in Turkey decides to embrace eco-tourism in a mindful way, it will be very successful.
As you said, Natalie, your friend brushed the idea off. In time, I wonder if that same friend will remember your suggestion when others build successful businesses around eco-tourism in Turkey.
Natalie says
atHi Yellow Flower, Good to see you back again. Unfortunately I do not know of any hotel of agency that partakes in Eco Tourism on the Aegean coast. I have just done a quick search on google and there are companies promoting it, but they are not well known.
A friend of mine owns a small 3 star hotel and he received an invitation to have a Eco friendly audit completed on his hotel. When I explained the concept to him, he laughed and brushed it off. Just no getting through to some people.
You have given me an idea for a good blog post though. Thanks.
YellowFlower says
atI know! You’re so right. They have the wrong idea of tourism. If only, villages like these would promote themselves at what they are really good at. That’s what tourists want to see.
I’ve been reading alot about eco-tourism lately. Do you know anywhere around the Aegean coast that partakes in it? I’ve read its quite popular in Malaysia and Greece.