Our weekly roundup of the local news this week includes donkeys evicted from Tuesday Market, American couple in a lucky escape, cops take to bikes, mural created and an alternative to the ASBO dished out.

RSVP

The traditional wedding of the donkeys, Duman and Linda, which we reported a couple of weeks ago, hit a snag days before it was due to take place.

The owners of both donkeys took their animals to the Tuesday market as part of an exercise to give out invitations to the wedding.

As readers in Fethye will have noticed there are already significant numbers of tourists in the town and they were delighted to see the donkeys in the market.

A crowd quickly gathered and photographs were taken before the Council’s Zabita arrived and ordered the donkeys out.

“It isn’t safe to have donkeys in the market” was the justification.

But not so long ago the market would have been full of donkeys, indeed in the more remote parts of the country that is still the case.

Duman and Linda were removed but lots of invitations were also distributed so we await the report of the actual wedding.

Lucky Escape for American Couple

And an American couple, Victoria and John Donaghue, (both 57) had a lucky escape when driving their hire car up the hill from Ölüdeniz en route to Fethiye.

John was forced to brake suddenly and lost control of the car which spun and turned over.

Luckily neither of the couple were seriously injured and they intend to continue with their holiday in Turkey.

Crime Busters to take to Two Wheels

Fethiye police should soon be seen dashing to the site of incidents on bicycles.

The local Chief of Police intends to get his deskbound personnel out and about to combat crime in the summer season, and believes the best way to do it is to get them on their bikes.

We await photos of police pedalling from readers.

Self Taught Artist Creates Mural

Turkish artist Ali Rıza Başarır was in town this week creating a mega mural displaying Fethiye’s Lycian roots.

The work, some 350 square metres in total, was painted in one day by this self taught artist who failed at school and ended up working in a brick factory.

Now he exhibits his work all over Turkey and created this week’s mega effort on the terrace at Kale Park restaurant.

If any reader has seen it/has photos please let us know what you think.

Alternative ASBO

And you can still be ‘run out of town’ in Fethiye.

On Tuesday the police seized seven women, some with babies, who were begging in the market, loaded them into the back of an open truck and drove them out of town.