New Fire HQ

The Fire Service moved to its new headquarters this week on 625 Sokak in Tuzla – next door to the Park we wrote about in last week’s snippets.

The new building cost 500 thousand lira and, having moved the firemen in there, the Mayor said he was now looking to get them new equipment.

Green Credentials

The Minister for Environment and Forests was in town this week to plant a tree – well he put the first one in and more will follow – near to Kemer.

Of course it is just coincidence that he popped up when election campaigning is reaching its peak.  He did give out an interesting fact in his speech.

In 2008 Turkey was second globally in terms of tree planting.

Last year they planted 463,000 hectares with a huge number of trees (thousands of millions, the kind of number you think belongs in the phone book).

This year they are determined to gain first place for global tree planting and are aiming to plant up half a million hectares.

National Anthem Anniversary

And last Thursday was the 88th anniversary of the date when Istiklal Marşı became the Turkish national anthem.

This was celebrated in style in Muğla where the local education authority had run a competition to find the best child at reading the words of the anthem.

The words were actually a poem and the music was added to create the anthem. 

The winner was a girl who got to read her words to an audience of Muğla’s great and good.

Night Attraction?

Meanwhile the Governor of Muğla hit the headlines again this week with his plan to light up the Saklikent Canyon with hydroelectric electricity.

The canyon will be lit along the first kilometre of its length enabling people to wade up it at night!

He did not give any clue as to when this would be achieved, but he has employed a German company to do the work.

Smokers Targeted

Turkey is hitting the smoking habit hard despite the up and coming elections.

In a recent press conference the minister for health confirmed the extension of the current smoking ban in public spaces, such as shops and work places, to other indoor establishments.

On 19 July 2009 smoking will be banned indoors in bars, restaurants, coffee houses and other establishments.
 
Smokers were also hit with more bad news last weekend.

The tax on tobacco was increased by around 10% pushing the average packet of 20 up by 25kr.