The celebrations have been CANCELLED. More news in this URGENT article.

Yesterday we were told that, despite the devastating earthquake last Sunday in the east of the country, Republic Day celebrations would go ahead as planned. Now there has been a change of heart.

The Government has decided, and informed all towns and cities nationally, that the only activities taking place on the 29th will be those planned by the army together with anything involving children.

Fethiye's plans for the football stadium involved the Ölüdeniz Yarenler, the group of retired British residents who perform Turkish folk songs and dances.

They will NOT now be performing. All other performances at the stadium should go ahead, as they are being done by local schoolchildren as far as we are aware.

So don't make the trip to the Stadium if you hope to see the Yarenler, but do attend to show solidarity with a nation now in double mourning: for young conscripts killed in the east recently and the hundreds, possibly thousands, of people who perished in the earthquake.