Authorities determined to make Marmaris Holidaymakers welcome
Monday, 26th April 2010
The Hurriyet Daily News carries the following story:
"As the tourism season opens, local municipalities on the Aegean and Mediterranean shores are taking precautions to prevent tourists from being disturbed.
The precautions include measures against “hanutçu,” the Turkish term used for those who heckle visitors to shop or eat at their establishments, a major source of foreign tourists’ complaint. The municipal officials are also keen not to let beggars, sellers and “maganda,” a Turkish term for those who harass women tourists, not to bother the visitors.
It has been only a short time since the first tourists of the new season arrived in Turkey but the Turkish media have already reported on many instances of “maganda” watching the sunbathing female tourists.
A Tourism Coordination Board meeting is scheduled to be held in the Aegean resort town of Marmaris this week. The board brings together state, municipal and police officials as well as representatives of nongovernmental organizations and chambers. The agenda of the meeting will be the precautions to be taken to stop harassment of tourists, and a stricter implementation of the current regulations and fines is expected.
Police officers on foot and bikes will patrol the streets and beaches of Marmaris as in previous years. Officers who can speak at least one foreign language will be brought in from Muğla for the job. In addition, the “Zabıta,” or municipal police, will be fighting against sellers and beggars on the beaches and around the marina and fining those who harass the tourists.
Marmaris Local Governor Serdar Polat said Marmaris is one of safest towns in the southern Aegean, but this is not enough for him. Everyone has a responsibility to make the visitors feel safe, he said. “The precautions and measures we take before the tourist season will be stricter this year, and those who try to disturb the piece and security in Marmaris will receive the toughest fines and penalties required by the law,” Polat said. “The Mobile Electronic System Integration, or MOBESE, cameras in the town will be fully operational as of the second week of May and will have a deterrent effect on the potential perpetrators. The security forces will be able to act more quickly thanks to the camera footage and will have the chance to intervene before a crime occurs.”
Marmaris Mayor Ali Acar, a member of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, argued that the state officials do not show enough support to the municipal forces. “The deck chair and umbrella arrangements on the beaches are the municipality’s responsibility, but we do not have the right or authority to say, ‘You cannot sunbath on the beach’ to anyone,” said the mayor. “The security officers, the police and the gendarmerie should help us more on this issue.”
Acar noted that Zabıta officers can fine beggars and sellers and confiscate their merchandise. “But even if we do that, they keep coming back,” he said. “And most of these people are not only sellers, but they also get involved in theft cases. The law-enforcement officers should step in when confronted with such situations.”
The mayor gave Zabıta the responsibility of the marina and all the areas closed to traffic with a force of only 20 members. “Such a small force cannot be enough for such a big responsibility. We need back-up,” he said.
The popular resort town of Bodrum, where similar problems occur, also plans to take the first step toward tighter regulation with a Tourism Coordination Board meeting scheduled for early May.
Bodrum Mayor Mehmet Kocadon, a member of the Democrat Party, or DP, noted that the municipality will not let anyone on the beaches in and around Bodrum swim in their underwear. “The ban on swimming in underwear has been in place for a couple of years,” he said. “We said, ‘if you cannot buy a swimsuit for 5 Turkish Liras, we will provide one for you.’ We cannot ban any of our citizens to sunbath or swim in Bodrum, but we cannot let anyone disturb the tourists who are our visitors and spend a serious amount of money in our country.”
Kocadon said the municipality cannot let such incidents occur at a time when everyone is trying to increase the quality of tourism and the number of tourists in Muğla.
“We will have undercover Zabıta officers on the beaches and use photographs and video footage to catch the maganda red-handed. Then we will file a complaint against them to the prosecutor’s office,” said Kocadon. The mayor added that the owners of hotels, restaurants and bars near the beaches have been asked to indicate to Zabıta about maganda and hanutçu.
The Aegean town of Datça is one of the problem-free resorts. Although the officials have not received any complaints from the tourists so far, they are still cautious.
Local police head Tugay Yalçın said police officers will start patrolling the areas where car patrols cannot reach on bikes as of May 15.
Datça Mayor Şener Tokcan, a member of the CHP, said the municipality is ready to work together with law-enforcement officers on this issue. “Although we have not received such a complaint so far, we are on the issue and will not let it ever happen,” said Tokcan. “The local governor’s office, the municipality and the police have joined forces in Datça for a peaceful tourism season.”
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