We continue our round up of the week’s local news from the Fethiye area.

Turkish Language and Dialects Celebrated

At the beginning of the week Fethiye hosted the third annual gathering of Turkic/Turkish peoples under the title ‘Turkish Language and Dialects’.

This conference attracted representatives from over 20 countries: ethnic Turks from regions once part of the Ottoman Empire and Turkic peoples from the Central Asian countries.

The event lasted three days and included a fair amount of celebration as it spanned 21st March the traditional ‘Nevruz’ or Spring Festival.

Lack of Education and Dire Poverty to Blame for Burial

A sad story this week comes from a small village outside Kemer, Fethiye where a ten-week-old baby girl died, and was duly buried by her father in the village cemetery.

Two days later, following complaints to the authorities in Fethiye that she had been buried without any death certificate being issued, and that there were doubts as to how she died, the baby was exhumed and her body sent to Izmir for a post mortem.

The next day it was returned to her family and her father reburied her.

There have been no charges following this procedure, and the local Muhtar told press that the parents are victims of ‘lack of education and dire poverty’, hence the lack of official paperwork.

Cash Smash Injures Seven Kills One

And the week ended with more tragedy when two cars collided head-on at the junction of the Taşyaka-Patlangıç- Ölüdeniz roads.

All eight people from both cars, all Turks including several teenagers, were taken to hospital where the driver of one, Arife Hıra aged 41, later died.

Help the Aged

Last week was World Old People’s Week, and to mark this the Mayor, Behçet Saatcı, visited the residents of Fethiye Council’s Care Home.

Whilst there he told the press “We shouldn’t just visit older people during this week, we should visit them whenever possible and spend time with them”.

Advert - Booked your to Turkey Flights Yet?