Our round up of the ‘holiday week’ news in and around Fethiye.

Of course the week was all bayram and this is reflected in the local news.

Kiss Me Quick

A traditional activity at bayram is to visit the graves of your relatives to pray and leave flowers.

Another tradition is children knocking on your door to kiss your hand and be given sweets/money.

This bayram some entrepreneurial children combined the two, and it was reported that the cemeteries were not only full of grieving relatives, but also bands of 6 – 8 year old boys collecting money.

One 7-year-old told the press he had amassed 10TL in one day of kissing hands in the graveyard.

If only there were more bayrams, he could have a career.

Police Pasting

The police in Burdur stopped traffic approaching the city and handed walnut paste to the drivers as a bayram celebration.

Not to be outdone by the police of Burdur, the local jandarma stopped drivers in Ölüdeniz on the second day of bayram, and handed out chocolate and lemon cologne.

Better than a speeding ticket say we.

Hospitals Full of Amateur Butchers

One consequence of the slaughtering of animals by men not normally engaged in such work is accidents.

This year was no exception, with over 2,000 men turning up in A & E departments all over the country to be treated for knife wounds.

The report said that the vast majority of injuries were superficial and quickly treated.

We liked the headline “Hospitals full of amateur butchers”.

Gruesome Catch

At the end of the week fishermen out at sea off Fethiye found the body of a woman floating in the water.

The Coast Guard was called out, the body recovered, and the local coroner estimated it had been in the water for about a month.

As yet she has not been identified.

Sad Loss

The week ended sadly when, on Friday evening, 62-year-old Erkan Aybek, the owner of the Çangal petrol station next door to Kipa, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.