12 June 2021
Mutlu ULUTAŞ Bey
Belediye Başkanı, KAŞ
Dear Mr Mayor
I have been complaining about illegal building in the area. Apparently I am the most hated man in Kalkan right now according to my friend SB. He is a local builder and other builders say to him “Tell your friend Chris to behave. Tell him we are watching him.” He also said someone has complained to CIMER because I have a swimming pool.
In fact our pool has been registered on our Yapının Kayit Belgesi which I paid the Government for as part of the Imar Barışı process . Anyway, the complainers must be quick. Next year we are considering reducing our pool by 50% and using the space to create a water cistern to store the winter rains, 40,000 litres of water which we will need to maintain our green and beautiful garden during the dry season.
Because you see there is no more water in Islamlar. This once green village, famous for its source, Pınarbaşı, is being sucked dry by hundreds of illegal, unlicensed pools. ‘Luxury’ rental villas use a lot of water. And let us remember climate change too.
My friend SB also told me that I needed to understand how it is. People say to him “Why doesn’t he grow grapes if he likes them so much? Let him sell them at 1tl a kilo. We need to feed our families. That means building.”
By this argument it is acceptable for the poor African to slaughter an elephant for the ivory? And for a poor South American logger to clear the rainforest for timber?
He added that Turkish people understand that you, Mr Mayor, are just doing what you have to do. People build wherever, whatever and you collect the fines. Then you spend that money in Kaş. That is how all the work on the Kalkan harbour is funded I suppose? And the new walkway to Kalamar? And lots of other stuff. You are just keeping the wheels turning.
I understand that argument. People say “This is Turkey. This how it is. Nobody can change it”. I understand that argument but I cannot accept it.
One of our neighbours has built six houses around us. Another neighbour has built three and intends to build a fourth. A newcomer neighbour has just started his first villa and tells me he is going to build a second. And let us not start about the 4 storey, neon lit “Doğa Villaları”, complete with razor wire, just a little up the mountain. A destruction order was made in October 2019 but no action yet.
This is a cycle of crime. A racket. Everybody who is part of it becomes corrupted. Can you build a future for Kaş and its people on such foundations? What are we leaving for the next generation? We must have tourism in our coastal towns and mountain villages but not like this.
A local politician said it will require “courage and determination” to get out of this vicious cycle. I am asking you to be that man, the Mayor Who Said “Enough!”
Get some country areas open for development. Invest in a strong planning department. Stop the destruction and build a new vision for Kaş: a vision which values its natural, cultural, historic and scientific wonders. There is room for all; secluded villas, village houses, luxury houses, agriculture, cultural and sporting tourism. But it must be legally planned and controlled, part of a vision for a sustainable future.
If you do this you will win the next election because who will vote against Mutlu ULUTAŞ, the Saviour of Kaş.
And to those who are watching me I say “Do not watch me. Join me.” Yes I am guilty. We are all guilty; the foreigners who brought the first villa boom to Kalkan as much as those who build, rent or stay in the new wave of illegally constructed villas in the mountains. All of us. But it is not too late. Let us make a clean, legal, planned construction sector and build a Kaş Kalkan that will nourish, in every sense, of the word those who will have the privilege of living and working in this lovely area.
I hope you can find time to meet me and discuss these concerns and ideals which foreign residents and holiday makers share. I believe many local people share them to.
Chris Davies
Kalkan’s Public Enemy No 1 (for now)
chrisdavies_01@hotmail.com