altinkum didim today
DESCRIPTION
Altinkum Bodrum and Kusadasi News in EnglishTRANSCRIPT
Didim TodayAltinkum Didim Akbuk Local News in English
Altinkum Beach by AEY
Altinkum holidays in Turkey
Expats enjoys in TurkeyA l s o c a l l e d D I D Y M I , o r
BRANCHIDAE, ancient sanctuary and
seat of an oracle of Apollo, located south
of Miletus in modern Turkey. Before be‐ing plundered and burned by the Per‐sians (c. 494 BC), the sanctuary was in
the charge of the Branchids, a priestly
caste named aer Branchus, a favorite
youth of Apollo. Aer Alexander the
Great conquered Miletus (334), the ora‐
cle was re sancti#ed; the city adminis‐tered the cult, annually electing a
prophet. About 300 BC the Milesians be‐gan to build a new temple, intended to
be the largest in the Greek world. e
annual festival held there, the Didymeia,
became Panhellenic in the beginning of
the 2nd century BC. Excavations made
between 1905 and 1930 revealed all of
the uncompleted new temple and some
carved pieces of the earlier temple and
statues.
Made a township in 1991, Didyma is a
peninsula surrounded by the provincial
limits of Mugla and the Akbük cove in
the east, the Aegean Sea in the south and
west and the lake Bafa and the river Me‐ander in the north. It is located 106 km
from Aydin, 53 km from Söke, 73 km
from Kusadasi, and 110 km from Bo‐drum. e number of its inhabitants is
10.400 according to the census of 1990,
and its area 300 km2.
Didyma possesses a bed capacity of
15.000 in 200 facilities either certi#ed by
the Ministry or by the Municipality.
ere are a lot of invaluable historical
sites, ruins, ancient cities and recreation‐al facilities by the seaside in and around
Didyma which make the region a world-
known tourism center. is shows that
Didyma is a town of history, legends and
nature with the Dilek peninsula on one
side and the Meander delta and the
Dilek peninsula on one side and the Me‐ander delta and the take Bafa on the take
Bafa on the other. Having a coastal line
of 60 km Diduma further has hundreds
of coves.
Didyma is an ideal holiday resort for
those who like aquatics. # shing,
trekking, youth and student tourism,
hunting, healthcare, historical works, sea
sun and nature. e colors created by the
setting by the setting sun over the sea at
Altinkum are not those that can be seen
elsewhere. You can enjoy with much sat‐isfaction that moment with a goblet of
drink at any restaurant by the seaside.
2 Didim Today
Didim
Apollon Temple in Didyma
Altinkum, Didyma is an excellent resort
for those who would seek for the sea,
sun and sand. You can have a sun bath
on on golden sandy beaches, participate
in aquatics in the coves where any kinds
of such sports can be performed. When
the sun start to set. Altinkum gains a
nerdish color. Later than that hour, you
can have dinner at hundreds of restau‐rants that serve the Turkish and various
other cuisines from all over the world.
And Altinkum, which looks small and
quiet awakens in the evening. As the
time goes by, you can see that people
start dancing and chatting at the bars. If
you are unable to slow down in the later
hours of the night, you can dance in one
of the discos which will entertain you
until the morning. at is not all. You
can also ride a bicycle to see the bars. If
you are unable to slow down in the later
hours of the night. You can dance in one
of the discos which will entertain you
until the morning. at is not al you can
also ride a bicycle to see the coves and
historical sites around the place. Besides
the sea and sun on one side and the end‐less golden beaches on the other. histori‐cal and artistic wonders in everywhere.
e Apollo temple of Didyma (the Didy‐maion), located within the boundaries of
the village of Yeni Hisar in the Söke dis‐trict of the province of Aydın, was
known as a sanctuary and seat of an ora‐cle attached to Miletus. Recent excava‐tions revealed remains which showed
that Didyma was not only a seat of an
oracle but also the site of dense settle‐ment.
e research concerning the origins of
the names of Didyma and Didymaion
has been a subject of discussion going on
for years. Along with several other
myths, it was thought that the name
Didymaion which meant "twin temples"
or "temple of the twins", was related to
Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo. How‐ever, as no de#nite evidence could be
found, this theory also remained as a
myth. With the intensi#cation of work in
recent years on the "Sacred Road" con‐necting Miletus and Didyma, and the
#nding of the place of the Artemis cult
during the excavations however, it was
proved that this thesis was riğht. e two
temples built for the twin brother and
sister, the Artemision and the Didy‐maion, constitute the origin of the name
Didyma.
Apollo and Artemis were closely related
to the mother goddess Cybele who had,
from prehistoric times, a very important
place in Anatolia. e mother goddess
Cybele had various names (such as
Kubaba, Isis, Hepat, Lat) and epithets ac‐cording to localities and cultures. e
most widespread of these names was
Dindymene which was derived from
mount Dindymus and which is remark‐able for its resemblance to the name
Didyma.
e name of Apollo is considered not to
be Greek. Apollo, who, because of the re‐semblance in names was identi#ed with
the god Apulunas mentioned in Hittite
written sources, represented shape given
by rational perception, temperate power,
#ne arts and light. Besides these, he was
renowned for his ability to prophesy, and
he communicated to people through
mediums and oracles his knowledge of
the future.
e dependence of communities on reli‐gion increased as it was seen that gods
possessed forces to direct according to
their will, all phenonema and events re‐lating to nature and society. As a natural
consequence of the increase in religion,
belief in the power to prophesy of the
gods who could foresee events and phe‐nomena was intensi#ed.
In the Archaic period the oracle of Apol‐lo had great fame. e great number of
temples erected in Anatolia as seats of
oracles is evidence that belief in gods
had reached enormous proportions. e
most important of the temples dedicated
to Apollo were the Temple of Apollo at
Delphi in Greece, and the Didymaion in
Anatolia. ese to seats were in constant
rivalry with each other. A #ne example
of this rivalry can be clearly seen in the
following verses by the oracle of Delphi.
In the mid 7th century BC, in the oracles
of Apollo, the god could be consulted
once a year for official matters, and the
answers received to questions directed
would be in the form of "yes or "no".
When in later years, consulting the god
also for private matters became a tradi‐tion, these consultations became gradu‐ally more frequent. e oracles of Apollo
grew very rich as a result of this, and
their fame and in'uence spread over
large areas. ey became as powerful as
the state they were in and were effective
in shaping the destinies of persons and
communities, and particularly in politics
where they played a very important role,
they very oen caused wrong decisions
to be taken.
Pausanias states that the Apollo temple
at Didyma had been built before the
Greek colonization (10th century BC). It
is believed in the light of this that the ex‐istence of Didyma, like that of Miletus
and Priene goes back to the 2nd millen‐nium BC. However according to the re‐sults of excavations and research work
undertaken up to the present day, the
earliest temple remains date back to the
end of the 8th century BC.
One learns from Herodotus that valuable
votive offerings were presented to the
3Didim Today
temple by King Necho of Egypt at the
end of the 7th century BC, and King
Croesus of Lydia in the 6th century BC.
It is believed that the construction of the
Archaic temple was begun in the mid
6th century BC and was completed at
the end of the same century. In the 6th
century BC, the Didymaion was admin‐istered by a priestly caste named
Branchids. During this period which
lasted about 100 years, the temple 'our‐ished and went through its most brilliant
era.
It was completely burned and plundered
by the Persians during the battle of Lade,
the priests of the temple were driven to
Susa, and the cult statue of Apollo was
taken to Ecbatana. e statue of Apollo
which was dated back to 500 BC, was
made by the sculptor Kanachus of Sicy‐on and re'ects Anatolian - Hittite char‐acteristics.
e construction of the Hellenistic tem‐ple was begun aer the victory of
Alexander the Great over the Persians.
However, it was understood from the re‐mains that this Hellenistic temple was
not completed.
e temple of which the construction
was continued under Emperor Caligula
(37 - 41 AD) who wanted to be though
of as the god of the temple, and later un‐der Hadrian (117 - 138 AD), was never
completed. With the alterations made in
the 3rd century AD to protect it from
plunder, the temple took on the appear‐ance of a fortress, and 'ourished under
the reigns of Aurelian (270 - 275) and
Diocletian (284 - 305).
ere are #ndings which indicate that
work was done on the temple during the
reign of Emperor Julian (361 - 363).
In the beginning of the 5th century AD,
Emperor eodosius had a church built
in the sacred courtyard (Adyton -
Sekos). is church, which had the ap‐pearance of a three - winged basilica,
was destroyed in an earthquake and later
rebuilt with one wing (9th century AD).
In the 10th century AD, the two -
columned hall (Chresmographeion - hall
of the oracle) and the pronaos, which
were used as storage areas, were greatly
damaged in a #re, and most of the mar‐ble turned into lime.
Aer the Seljuks and the Mongols con‐quered the region the temple was com‐pletely abandoned.
An Italian traveler who visited Didyma
in 1446 records that the whole temple
was standing, however at the end of the
15th century the temple was completely
destroyed by an earthquake and turned
into a heap of marble. In later years the
temple was used as a quarry, and many
of its architectural elements were used as
building material in the construction of
dwellings and other buildings by the lo‐cal people.
EXCAVATIONS
e #rst excavations in Didyma were
made in 1858 by the English under the
direction of Newton. e area excavated
was the Sacred Road.
In the temple, excavations were #rst be‐gun in 1872 by the French under O
Rayet and A omas. e aim was to
#nd the cult statue of Apollo, but at the
end of the work which lasted two years,
the cult statue had not been found. How‐ever, it had been possible to determine
the dimensions of the temple and to re‐construct its plan.
In the excavations of 1895 - 96, again
undertaken by the French, the work, su‐pervised by B Haussoullier and E Pon‐tremoli, was concentrated on the north‐ern part of the temple. ese excavations
were stopped shortly aer due to eco‐nomic reasos. Excavations begun in
1905 for the museums in Berlin under
the supervision of . Weigand, were
continued on a systematic basis until the
year 1937. During this time a great por‐tion of the temple was revealed. Aer
this date, excavations were interrupted
and work on publication of the results
was begun.
In order #nd solutions to certain prob‐lems concerning the temple and its sur‐roundings, excavations were begun again
in 1962, this time for the German Insti‐tute of Archaeology, under the supervi‐sion of R Naumann. When R Naumann
le, the excavations in Didyma were
continued under the supervision of
Klaus Tuchelt. Work is at present still go‐ing on in the area with special attention
to research on the Sacred Road.
THE SACRED ROAD
e Delphinion is accepted as the start‐ing point of the Sacred Road connecting
Miletus and Didyma. e road ran from
the Sacret Gate of Miletus southwards in
the direction of the coast to Panarmos
Harbour (above Akköy), and - bending
south - east from the port, reached the
Didymaion. Within the boundaries of
Yenihisar, the Sacred Road runs close
along the side of the asphalt road. A por‐tion of the Sacred Road has been re‐vealed by excavations and exploratory
trenches dug in recent years. However,
due to certain bureaucratic obstacles, it
has not yet been possible to establish its
connection to the temple.
On either side of the road there were
statues of Branchids (priests and
priestesses attached to the temple),
crouching lions and sphinxes, all of
which gave the road an impressive ap‐pearance. Monumental tombs and sar‐cophagi belonging to important persons
were also dispersed along the road. Stat‐ues of Branchids revealed in the excava‐
tions carried out by Newton in 1858 on
the Sacred Road have been taken to the
British Museum. Some fragments be‐longing to the statues are in the store‐room of the house of excavations in
Didyma. Four of the Branchid statues in
which Hittite in'uence is apparent and
which have been dated back to the 6th
century BC, are on display in the muse‐um in Miletus. In the years 100 and 101
AD Emperor Trajan had the Sacred
Road restored. e parts of the road that
had fallen down were raised to a higher
level and the other parts were repaired.
Inscriptions indicate that the restoration
work was completed in a very short time.
It was understood from a milestone re‐vealed during excavations that the road
was 16.5 kilometers long. According to
the portions uncovered, the width of the
road which was made of stone blocks,
changed between 5 and 7 meters. On
both sides of it were rows of shops, vo‐tive fountains, monumental tombs,
baths, and the area for the cult of
Artemis. Findings indicate a dense set‐tlement. e group of people who set out
from Miletus to join the annual celebra‐tions and festivities which were held in
the Didymaion every spring, reached the
temple aer a long walk, there were
therefore, resting places on the Sacred
Road. It is understood that the Terrace
with the Sphinx, uncovered during exca‐vations carried out in 1985 about 4 kilo‐
4 Didim Today
5Didim Today
meters to the south of Akköy, was a halt‐ing place built for rest purposes.
THE ARCHAIC DIDYMAION (e
Apollo Temple at Didyma)
Remains of foundations of the Late Geo‐metric period were found during excava‐tions carried out in 1962 by German ar‐chaeologists within the secos of the Hel‐lenistic temple to look for the #rst Apol‐lo temple of Didyma which, according to
Pausanias, had existed before the 10th
century BC. e temple which, accord‐ing to the foundations of secos walls un‐covered in the north and south parts,
was 10.20 meters wide and 24 meters
long and slightly narrowed towards the
east, was built at the end of the 8th cen‐tury BC. e small and simple temple
contained a secos (sacred courtyard), an
altar, a sacred source, a cult statue and
the symbols of Apollo. e Late Geomet‐ric temple did not have a naiscos, the
naiscos is understood to have been built
at the end of the 7th century BC to pro‐tect the cult statue. Exploratory digging
carried out to the south - west of the
temple revealed the remains of a
columned building 15.50 meters long
and 3.60 meters wide. e remnants and
ceramic #ndings have been dated back to
the end of the 7th century BC.
Not many remains are le to the present
day from the Archaic Didymaion, as it
was burned, destroyed and plundered in
494 BC (the battle of Lade). Besides,
#ndings relating to the Archaic temple
are further limited by the fact that the
Hellenistic temple was built over the
foundations of the Archaic one.
However, the construction of the plan
was possible and various examples of re‐construction were made through ancient
authors, as well as architectural and
sculptural fragments found during bor‐ings and excavations.
e Didymaion became really important
in the #rst of the 6th century BC when
all Ionian cities, and especially Miletus,
reached their most 'ourishing era. e
temple was rebuilt in 560 - 550 BC with
larger proportions. e in'uence of the
temples of Hera at Samos and Artemis at
Ephesus are apparent in the Archaic
Didymaion.
e temple, an 87.65 meter long and
40.89 meter wide building of a dipteral
plan (having a double row of columns all
around), rested on a two - stepped
crepes. e longer sides had 21 columns
each, the east had 8, and the west 9,
whereas in the pronaos there were 8
columns in two rows. Together with the
columns within the peristasis (the sur‐rounding hall), the total number of
columns added up to 112.
e parts of the temple which were not
visible from the outside were made of lo‐
cal tufa, while those that were visible
were made of marble. e marble was
provided from marble quarries on the is‐land of Toşoz, and in the hills above the
village of Pınarcık near Bafa lake. One
can still see fragments of roughly pre‐pared column shas in the quarries at
Pınarcık. e party worked marble,
brought from the quarry to Latmos Har‐bour, was then taken by sea to Panarmos
Harbor, and from there it was carried to
the temple
e bases and capitals of the 15.45 meter
high columns bear the characteristics of
the Artemis Temple at Ephesus; the
bases consists of tori and double trochili,
the Ionic capitals have large volutes, the
column shas have 36 'utes. On the
eastern facade, the lower parts of the
columns in the front row were decorated
with reliefs; a head of a woman (Kore)
from these relief is on display in the
Charlottenburg Museum in Berlin. e
characteristics of all these elements indi‐cate that they were at the latest made in
the year 550 BC, which coincides with
the date of the initial construction of the
Archaic Didymaion.
e double row of columns in the
pronaos indicate that it had a roof. e
architrave is quite narrow. In the corners
are high reliefs of winged gorgons and
behind these are #gures of crouching li‐ons. It is believed that certain wild ani‐mals' #gures were also there besides the
lions. is type of decorations is quite
unusual in temple entablature. ese
pieces of work which can be dated back
to the end of the 6th century BC, were
probably made during restoration works
which took place in the temple at the
time. On the architrave rest, in due
order, a band of egg - and - dart
molding, dentils, another band of egg -
and - dart moulding, a cornice and a
roof.
6 Didim Today
e inner sides of the walls of the secos
(sacred courtyard) were forti#ed by pi‐lasters in the form of half - columns,
which brought colour to the long, high
walls. e height of the walls of the 50.25
meter long and 17.45 meter wide secos
reached 17.5 meters. Walls of this height
give the imprecision that the secos was
was roofed, but the greatness of the dis‐tances between the pilasters on the walls
destroys this theory.
Within the secos stood the naiscos (little
temple) where the cult statue of Apollo
was kept. However, there are not many
#ndings belonging to this buildings.
During borings in the Hellenistic
naiscos, foundation remains belonging
to a smaller building were found. It is be‐lieved that these foundations belong to
the Archaic naiscos. e bronze cult stat‐ue is known as the "Apollo Philesius"
and represents Apollo catching a deer.
In front of the temple (east) and on the
same axis stands a circular altar. is al‐tar, of which the other diameter mea‐sures 8 meters and the inner one 5.5 me‐ters, had two doors. e holes for the
hinges can stil l be seen on the
thresholds. e altar of which the inside
is very well preserved, had been used in
the Archaic, and also in the Hellenistic
and Roman temples as the sacred place
where the animals presented as votive
offerings were burned. e great amount
of ashes found in the building during ex‐cavations is evidence of this. In ancient
times, animals offered to the gods of the
sky were burned in this type of altar, and
sancti#cation was achieved by washing
in the blood of the animals offered to the
gods under the ground. To the north of
the altar is the sacred source. e ma‐sonry of the lower parts of this circular
well shows that it was constructed in the
Archaic period.
3.5 meter high protective walls encircle
the front part of the temple. ese walls
must have been built to diminish the dif‐ference of levels in the large area in front
of the temple. In the uncovered portion
of these protective walls were #ve outlets
with staircases, each 2.5 meters wide.
e central stairs are situated just oppo‐site the altar, on the same axis. ese
stairs led to the terrace on which stood
the votive and gods' statues. e style of
the egg - and - dart molding used to dec‐orate the upper part of the terrace wall as
well as the workmanship of the wall and
stairs, bear the characteristics of the Ar‐chaic period.
On this terrace one also comes across
the remains of two long structures built
of limestone. e 34.5 meter long and 7
meter wide buildings must have been
shops where visitors took shelter or
shopped. ese buildings also show the
characteristics of the Archaic period.
Next to the stairs along the terrace wall
situate in the direction of the south - east
end of the temple are rows of benches. It
is understood that these benches extend‐ing parallel to the steps of the temple
were built in the Hellenistic period, and
were the rows of benches for the stadium
situated to the south of the temple, Every
four years festivities called the "Megala
Didymeia" and musical shows, were held
here, and torch processions and compe‐titions were arranged. e bases having a
hole in the center, which marked the
starting points of the races, can be seen
at the eastern end of the stadium. ese
bases lie on the same axis as the altar.
THE HELLENISTIC DIDYMAION
What remains of the temple in the
present day, through hundreds of years
of earth - quakes, #re, destruction and
plunder are mostly remnants of the Hel‐lenistic period. e Roman characteris‐tics witnessed in certain parts of the
temple, are elements which have reached
the present day from the temple, which
continued to be built during the Roman
period also.
It is known that the construction of the
Hellenistic temple was begun in 313 BC,
and that it was erected over the Archaic
temple which was burned and destroyed
in 494 BC. e donations of Alexander
the Great and King Seleucus I of Syria
were of great help in the rebuilding of
the Didymaion. Furthermore, Seleucus I
had the cult statue of Apollo brought
back from Ecbatana (300 BC) and re‐placed in the temple.
e plan of the temple was made by
Paionius of Ephesus and Daphnis of
Miletus. ese two renowned architects
had also worked on the Artemision at
Ephesus (one of the seven wonders of
the world) and the Heraion at Samos,
which were considered to be the largest
and the most magni#cent temples of the
Hellenistic period. e Didymaion
emerges as the third largest edi#ce of the
Hellenistic period, following the former.
e plan, as a requisition of the cult, had
to provide an open air space to hold the
Sacred Fountain, the Altar, the Laurel
Grove, considered to be the sacred tree
of Apollo, and it had also to shelter the
cult statue. All these elements had to be
arranged in a way not to disturb the cov‐ered spaces. e architects constructed
on ostentatious example of architecture,
by the perfect use of the local character‐istics of the cult of the oracle and of the
spaces of different levels. is temple dif‐fered from a normal temple plan in that
it was also the seat of an oracle. Teh edi‐#ce consisted of a long pronaos, a rect‐angular hall with two columns in the
c e n t r e ( t h e o r a c l e h a l l -
Cresmographeion), a sacred courtyard
surrounded by high walls (Secos-
Adyton), and in this courtyard a small
temple sheltering the cult statue of Apol‐lo (the naiscos), all set on the same axis
but at different 'oor levels.
e temples, situated over the Archaic
one and of Larger proportions, had ne‐cessitated an ucommonly high lower
structure. e temple rested on a 3.5 me‐ter high and 7 - stepped platform
(crepis), and had in the center of the
front facade a 14 - stepped stairway of
which both sides were limited. e width
of these stairs was equal to that of the
temple. is characteristic is also visible
in the Classical Artemision. e temple,
109.34 meters long and 51.13 meters
wide, was built on a dipteral (having a
double row of columns all around) plan.
It had 21 columns each on its longer
sides, and 10 each on the shorter ones.
Together with the columns within the
peristasis and the ones in the pronaos
and cresmographeion, the total number
of columns added up to 122. e cost of
the columns of which only three stand
today, was very high. Excavations have
revealed a great number of inscriptions
showing the calculation of construction
costs prepared during the building of the
temple. It is understood from these doc‐uments that the cost of one column was
40,000 drachmae and that the daily
wages of a labourer was only 2
drachmea. is means that one laborer
would have to work for 20,000 workdays
to put a column in its place, or to adapt it
to the present day, by assuming that the
minimum daily wage of a stone work‐man be 10,000 TL, the construction cost
of a column could be calculated to
amount to 200 million TL. It is also
known, from these inscriptions that,
from 250 BC onwards, 8 architects and
20 construction companies worked for
the temple.
Such a large and costly building could
certainly not have been #nished in a
short time. It is understood that the con‐struction went on in the 3rd and 2nd
centuries BC, and that some of it was
completed during the Roman period. Al‐though a great portion of the columns
were prepared and set in their places, it
can be seen that those in the outer row of
the peristasis and especially those in the
rear facade were never completed.
e height of the columns was #rst de‐termined in 1873 by A. omas as being
19.71 meters. e accuracy of the mea‐surement was evidenced by recent re‐search work also. e lower diameters of
the columns vary between 1.96 and 2
meters. is conforms to the rule that, in
the Ionic order lower diameters of
columns are equal to 1/10th of their
height.
A von Gerkan has calculated the total
height of the temple, including the 19.71
meter high columns, the stepped lower
structure and the entablature, as 29.40
meters. is measurement gives an idea
of the magni#cence of the temple before
it was destroyed.
e double row of columns round the
temple gave the building a very impres‐sive appearance as well as depth. Of the
108 columns in the peristasis (the pe‐ripheral hall) about 80 are standing in
their original places. e letters seen in
the upper and lower parts of the frag‐ments of column shas were written by
the workmen to avoid any mistakes dur‐ing the placing of the columns in their
places. is is also an indication that the
columns had entasis (a swelling of col‐umn shas).
Of the three Hellenistic columns still
standing, the workmanship of two are
complete and they carry the entablature.
e third column which carries a capital
has no 'uting in its sha. According to
the characteristics of the capitals, the
columns were built in the #rst half of the
2nd century BC.
e bases of the columns in the peristal‐sis display different characteristics;
whereas some consist of plinthus, torus
and double trochilus, the column bases
in the central part of the other row in the
front facade show Early Roman charac‐teristics. One of these bases is divided in
to 12 rectangular panels decorated with
motifs of sea creatures, palmettoes and
other plants. On another base there are
double meander and palmento motifs.
ese bases were built between the years
37 and 41 BC by Emperor Caligula who
wanted to identify himself with Apollo.
e capitals situated at the outer corners
of the peristasis and ornamented with
busts of gods and bulls' heads as well as
the heads of Gorgons on the architrave,
show the baroque characteristics of the
2nd century AD.
e columns on the north side of the
temple, of which the workmanship is
complete, are all standing in their places,
whereas those on the west side were set
in their places, although their workman‐ship was incomplete, the latter now lie
on the ground, fallen in earthquakes.
Most of the columns on the south side
are missing, and it is understood that
they were never completed.
In the front of the temple, aer the dou‐ble row of columns, was the pronaos.
Also mentioned as the 12- columned
hall in archaeological literature, the
pronaos had a total of 12 columns in
three rows of four columns each, which
carried the roof (Dodecastylos). e
marks le by the #re of the Middle Ages
can be seen on the Attic styl, scale motifs
are carved on the upper parts of the an‐tae walls are pro#led in the same form.
is is the #rst time that this characteris‐
7Didim Today
tic, of which an example is in the
Porthenon, is seen in a Ionic temple.
ere were three doors in the rear wall
of the pronaos. e central door of mon‐umental appearance was 5.63 meters
wide and 14 meters high. e fact that its
threshold was placed 1.46 meters higher
than the 'oor of the pronaos shows that
there was no entrance from here to the
oracle hall. e prophecies of Apollo
were communicated by his pronouncers
to the people through this door. It is
therefore named the "Oracle Door". e
marble blocks on either side of the door
weigh 70 tons each are known as the
heaviest elements of antiquity.
e two other doors, one on either side
of the monumental door, were each 1.20
meters wide and 2.25 meters high, and
provided the entrance to the inner part
of the temple. ese doors were connect‐ed to the sacred courtyard by vaulted
and sloping narrow corridors. In the
lower parts of the corridors which
opened onto the Adytum were small di‐visions which had coffering in their ceil‐ings. Doric elements seen on the doors
are characteristics which remind one of
the propylaea of the Athenian Acropolis.
Only persons working in the temple and
priests could enter the inner part of the
temple. ese people would reach the
Adytum through the dark and mystic
corridors mentioned above.
To the east of the Adytum, between the
doors at the end of the corridors, was a
15.24 meter wide stairway consisting of
24 steps. ese stairs led to a 14.01 meter
long, 8.74 meter wide and 20 meter high
hall with three doors and two columns.
is hall which had no entrance from
the pronaos was Cresmographeion (the
hall of the oracle) which together with
the pronaos the #rst completed sections
of the temple. Only priests and mediums
could enter this hall, and they communi‐cated the prophecies to the people
through the above mentioned monu‐mental door. erefore, the Cresmo‐grapheion and the pronaos, which con‐stituted an entity, were considered the
most important divisions of the Didy‐maion. e two columns in the center of
the oracle hall had Corinthian capitals
and carried the roof. Understood to have
been built in the beginning of the 3rd
century BC on the evidence of their
characteristics, these capitals are consid‐ered to be among the earliest examples
of Corinthian capitals.
e doors the north and south sides of
the Cresmographeion open onto stepped
passages mentioned as Labyrinths in in‐scriptions. On the ceiling of the better
preserved southern corridor meander
motifs can be seen. ese passages
played an important role in acoustics
during cult ceremonies accompanied by
the chorus. e roof of the temple was
also reached by these passages.
e 21.71 meter wide and 53.63 meter
long Adytum is of a very striking appear‐ance with its 25 meter high walls and its
top open to the sky. e lower part of the
Adytum walls which are at the same level
as the Cresmographeion have the ap‐pearance of a high podium. eir base is
pro#led and the upper end is #nished
with a row of egg - and - dart molding.
e podium which is made of smooth
marble blocks displays a #ne workman‐ship. In the central parts of the walls are
pilasters in the form of half - columns.
Over the pilasters were pilaster capitals
ornamented with motifs of griffins or
vaulted plants, on the frieze between the
capitals were reliefs representing winged
lions holding Apollo's lyre between their
paws, and on top of it all was the cornice
ending in the cymatium. All these ele‐ments brought color to the long and ex‐cessively high walls. e decorations on
the walls of the Adytum bear the charac‐teristics of the Early Hellenistic period.
ese elements indicate that the Adytum
was built in the #rst half of the 2nd cen‐tury BC. It has also been proven by an
inscription that the Adytum had been
completed at that time.
One of the most important #ndings of
recent years in the Didymaion are the
drawings on the lower parts of the walls
of the Adytum. ese drawings which
can be seen with great difficulty and only
under certain lighting condition, #rst at‐tracted attention in 1979 and work was
begun on them in 1980. e work is be‐ing carried out by Lother Haselberg who
was the #rst to see the drawings. ese
were worked onto the smooth marble
walls of the Adytum by making about
half a millimeter deep incisions in the
surface of the marble by a very thin and
sharp point, and they represented the
plants of various elements and divisions
of the Didymaion. In order to obtain ac‐curate drawings, a grid consisting of hor‐izontal lines with 1.8 - 1.9 centimeter in‐tervals cut at regular intervals by per‐pendicular lines, was prepared before‐hand to serve as a scale. is grid facili‐tated the making of the actual drawings.
It is understood that these drawings
which are extremely accurate, were done
by the architects who worked on the
construction of the temple.
e plans cover an area of 200 square
meters. Some of the drawings were made
horizontally, whereas others are perpen‐dicular. In general, the horizontal draw‐ings are on a 1 to 1 scale, and the per‐pendicular ones on a 1 to 6 scale.
Besides the drawings of elements like
column bases and shas, the drawing of
o portion of the entablature of the niscos
was also discovered on the rear wall of
the Adytum. ese drawings, believed to
involve all the parts of the temple, will
throw a light upon many an unsolved
problem on the Didymaion, thus adding
new proportions to the work.
To the west of the Adytum stood the
naiscos which sheltered the cult statue.
e temple, of which only the remains of
the foundations can be seen today was
14.43 meters long and 8.24 meters wide.
e plan of the naiscos, reconstructed
from discovered fragments, was a pro-
style. e temple was a small building
with antae obtained by the projection of
the two side walls of the naos and four
Ionic columns in front. Column bases
were of the Ephesus type. e Ionic capi‐tals, antae capitals and entablature orna‐ments, all show Early Hellenistic charac‐teristics. Wall bases were pro#led in the
Attic style like the Adytum walls. e ed‐i#ce, which looked like the Zeus temple
at Priene, was the #rst Anatolian temple
built in the Hellenistic period under At‐tic in'uence. In contrast with the
smooth, ornament less walls, the entab‐lature was very richly decorated. e cof‐fering of the ceiling in the front hall and
the soffits of the lower part of the archi‐trave, were decorated with 'ower motifs
polychrome in various colors. It is ac‐cepted, according to the ornamentation
of the entablature, that the naiscos was
completed in 270 BC and that the cult
statue of Apollo which was brought from
Ecbatana, was put in its place in the naos
in 300 BC.
e reconstruction model of the naiscos,
constructed by putting together the dis‐covered architectural fragments, is kept
in the storeroom of the excavation
house.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE TEMPLE
Besides being for centuries a very impor‐tant oracle seat, the Didymaion was also
renowned for its sacred water, sacred
grove, the many sacred elements it
housed, and its wealth. e riches of the
temple had its source in donations and
votive offerings made in varying forms.
e very valuable offerings of King Ne‐cho of Egypt, King Croesus of Lydia and
King Seleucus II of Pergamum, had an
important place among the donations
made to the Didymaion. e donation of
various sacri#cial animals, 1,000 in
number, and 12 rams by Lysimachus,
was also one of the interesting offerings.
e fact that Miletus attempted to build
a 'eet with the treasury of the temple be‐fore the battle of Lade, shows how rich
the Didymaion was.
One other feature of the Didymaion was
that it had the right to shelter. is right
which was termed "the Right of
Asylum", was the recognition of the right
of inviolability to people who took
refuge in the temple. e right of
asylum, which therefore created many
problems, had given rise to many a dis‐cussion. e boundaries of the right of
asylum, however, were gradually en‐larged and were increased to 3 kilome‐ters by Emperor Augustus Trajan en‐larged the boundaries even more and
wanted them to be recognized from the
beginning of the Sacred Road.
It is understood from inscriptions that
the festivities and ceremonies held every
year in spring went on even aer the
Didymaion was completely destroyed in
494 BC. e journey from Miletus to the
Didymaion was made by sea or by the
Sacred Road. e group of people who
set out from Miletus with ceremonies
begun in the Delphinion where they re‐ceived the sancti#cation of Apollo and
were sent forward by the Delphins, came
from the Lions' Harbour to the Panar‐mos Harbour, and from there reached
the Didymaion on foot. First, sacri#cial
beasts and votive offerings were present‐ed to the god, then, aer ceremonies to
the accompaniment of music and
chorus, the important persons entered
the temple, and aer that, the questions
asked by inquires were answered by the
oracle. e ceremonies were directed by
the Stephanephors. It was shown by in‐scriptions that the Emperors Augustus
a n d Tr a j a n t o o k t h e t i t l e o f
Stephanephor and carried out this posi‐tion. In the Roman period, the Sacred
Road gained in importance as the har‐bors #lled up with alluvial mud and trav‐el by sea became unfeasible.
e reason for this extremely impressive
and magni#cent temple's not being con‐sidered among the seven wonders of the
world is related by the authorities to its
not having been completed.
8 Didim Today
Major changes to Turkish law in 2012Looking back, I feel as though 2012 'ew
by so quickly, or maybe I feel that way
because I am getting older.
You know the theory “time goes quicker
as you get older.” is should be mathe‐matically correct and please correct me if
I am wrong. If you are only a one-day-
old baby, the whole day would seem like
a lifetime. When you are a 1 year old;
one day is already 1/365 of your life so it
elapses relatively faster.
For me, the year went very quickly but
looking at the performance of Parlia‐ment, which was eager to make laws, sub
legislation and decrees, they did quite a
lot in a very short time. In some cases,
instead of making real laws which are
clear to everyone, Parliament chose to
make a law giving the authority to the
Council of Ministers to regulate the mat‐ter later on.
Whether the government has the vast
majority of the seats in Parliament or
not, it is much easier to regulate things
amongst the members of the Council of
Ministers, who apparently are the most
dedicated people in the governing politi‐cal party. Having this power, the govern‐ment, indirectly through the Council of
Ministers, can easily make regulations
which may affect daily life. I do not agree
with this type of assignment of powers to
a limited number of people who can
make rules faster, easier and customize
them.
Indiscriminately opposing everything is
a great mistake for any opposition. is
kind of opposition may end up eliminat‐ing the opposition itself. Opposition
should be made with care and certain
decisions, actions, operations or policies
of the governing party should be appre‐ciated if they deserve such appreciation.
To sum up, the method of delegating
some powers to the Council of Ministers
is sometimes useful. In cases which need
fast action, it is a must or at least some‐thing which should be considered. I can‐not say the same for all matters, though.
For the sake of objectiveness, I will not
give any examples regarding this matter.
If I may go back to my topic, there were
many amendments to the Turkish legal
system during 2012. Considering the
topic to be central in respect to Turkey's
relations with the rest of the globe, I will
touch on some of the most important
ones from those amendments.
One of the amendments is that Turkey
revoked the reciprocity rule on the pur‐chase of property for foreigners in
Turkey. Before this amendment, foreign‐ers were not allowed to purchase proper‐ty in Turkey if Turkish citizens were not
able to purchase property in that
country. With this amendment, the re‐strictive reciprocity rule has been
quashed and some other restrictions
have become more lax. ereby, invest‐ments have increased, giving strength to
Turkish relations with other countries
without being dependent on reciprocity
rules.
Another amendment was to the Law on
Basic Provisions on Elections and the
Voter List in 2012. ere are millions of
Turkish citizens living abroad and before
this amendment, citizens living abroad
had to come to Turkey to participate in
the elections. With the amendment, the
possibility of voting at Turkish con‐sulates abroad has been provided to
these citizens. Of course, this is an im‐portant development for democratic
participation.
Turkey is located in an earthquake zone
and there have been many large-scale
earthquakes. To make provision against
damage caused by earthquakes, many
resolutions were adopted. One of them is
the Disaster Insurances Law and with an
amendment to this law, it is intended
that compulsory earthquake insurance
will become more effective. According to
the amendment, title deed offices will
seek to ensure that transactions are not
carried out unless properties are proper‐ly insured for earthquakes.
Surely, the most important change is the
new Turkish Commercial Code coming
into force in 2012. One of the basic
changes is the de#nition of minority
rights granted to the minority group
shareholders in companies. With the
new law, minority rights have been ex‐
panded and minority group shareholders
have more opportunities to be represent‐ed on a company's board.
e other amendment is to do with
transparency of companies. With this
amendment, any kind of information re‐lated to the company and audit reports
will be accessible to related third parties.
Parliament, as I said, made thousands of
regulations last year but these are the
ones of utmost importance in my opin‐ion. I hope that 2013 will be a better
year. Looking at the deaths that are oc‐curring, I might be engaged in wishful
thinking.
NOTE: Berk Çektir is a Turkish lawyer
and available to answer questions on the
legal aspects of living and doing business
in Turkey. Please send inquiries to b.cek‐[email protected]. If a sender's let‐ter is published, names may be disclosed
unless otherwise expressly stated by the
sender.
9Didim Today
PlayStation 4 Coming Soon
e curtain is lied on the future of
gaming. Here’s your rundown on the
news from PlayStation Meeting 2013 in
New York. Discover what’s been revealed
so far about PlayStation 4, the new DU‐ALSHOCK 4 controller and the initial
games line-up.
PlayStation 4
PS4 promises games that can be experi‐enced whenever, wherever and however
you want, thanks to a system specially
built to cater to the needs of the best de‐velopers in the world.
You’ll be able to play digital titles as they
download from PlayStation Store, and
update PS4 even when it is switched off.
Immediately pick up any saved game
where you le off – the “suspend mode”
of PS4 gets rid of loading times and lets
you carry on by simply pressing the
power button.
Gaikai technology will let you instantly
try out sections of any game that catches
your eye on PlayStation Store.
Check out what your friends are up to
and see the games, TV shows, movies
and music recommended especially for
you on the newly designed PS4 menu
screen.
Broadcast as you play via Ustream. If
you get stuck, your mates can join in to
help you or offer comments in real time.
You can use a variety of applications,
such as a web browser, while you play a
game. Your favourite PS4 games will be
playable on PlayStation Vita via Wi-Fi
with Remote Play.
Meanwhile, the new PlayStation App lets
you turn your smartphone into a second
screen – for example, to let you view a
map or see how a friend is tackling the
same part of a game.
DUALSHOCK 4
A new, built-in sensor will enable highly
sensitive motion control. You’ll be able
to interact with games in new ways
thanks to a touch pad on the front of the
controller.
Additional sound effects will come from
an inbuilt speaker; a headset jack lets
you hear these in detail as well as chat
with friends.
e controller’s familiar dual analog
sticks have been enhanced to provide
better precision.
New, curved L2 and R2 buttons will give
you greater control.
Upload images and video to Facebook
with a tap of the new SHARE button.
An LED Light Bar on the top of the con‐troller will match the colour of in-game
characters so players can keep track of
each other. You’ll also be able to spot
when a character has been injured, for
instance.
A new camera has been developed
alongside the controller, and tracks the
location of DUALSHOCK 4 via its LED
Light Bar.
e games..
So get ready for PS4 soon because much
more to see.
10 Didim Today
Turkish champion Galatasaray has made an easy task look difficultTurkish champion Galatasaray has made
an easy task look difficult aer it could
only manage a 1-1 draw with German
Bundesliga struggler Schalke 04 in their
UEFA Champions League last 16 #rst
match at Türk Telekom Arena in Şişli on
Wednesday evening.
e Lions, as Galatasaray is popularly
called in football circles, was expected to
beat Schalke 04 in İstanbul and turn the
re tu r n l e g at Ve l t i ns - A re n a i n
Gelsenkirchen on March 12 into a mere
formality. “You can't always get what you
want,” according to the Rolling Stones,
and therefore Fatih Terim's men had to
make do with a draw.
Galatasaray coach Fatih Terim, as ex‐pected, #elded his two recent expensive
signings -- Dutch mid#elder Wesley
Sneijder and veteran Cote d'Ivoire strike
Didier Drogba in his starting line-up.
Aer all, this duo was acquired during
the January transfer window to help the
team progress in the Champions League.
But Sneijder, who had been sidelined by
Inter for three months over a salary cut
dispute before joining Galatasaray,
showed serious signs of match un#tness
-- meaning he is not yet physically and
mentally #t to make the starting XI in
the big-time Champions League.
Moreover, Terim #elding the Dutchman
in the le wing position made that 'ank
Galatasaray's weakest link and that's
where the Lions were most vulnerable,
especially in the #rst half, and it was also
where Schalke 04 launched most of its
deadly attacks. Little wonder Sneijder
was substituted aer half time.
Drogba displays his class
Drogba, though not yet 100 percent #t,
was nonetheless more impressive on his
C h a m p i o n s L e a g u e d e b u t f o r
Galatasaray. e Ivory Coast striker, last
year's Champions League hero for
Chelsea who moved to the Lions last
month aer a spell in China, linked up
well with Burak Yılmaz in attack.
Burak scored his seventh goal in seven
Champions League matches -- all the
goals Galatasaray has netted in the com‐petition this season, putting his side
ahead in the 12th minute when he
picked up a pass from Selçuk İnan and
'icked the ball around a defender to
send in a stinging right-footed shot past
Schalke goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand.
“We scored a beautiful goal early in the
game with Selçuk's intelligent pass and
Burak's talented shot. We could have
scored a second goal; we found the
chances. e game could have taken a
totally different shape,” Reuters quoted
Terim as saying.
Schalke equalized at the stroke of a very
exciting #rst half. e visiting team
broke quickly, Jefferson Farfan passing
across the goal to Jermaine Jones, who
side-footed past Fernando Muslera.
“We played very well tonight and did
many right things on the pitch. We
found many chances but made individu‐al mistakes, one of which cost us a goal,”
said Schalke coach Jens Keller.
“We could have scored more goals, but I
am very happy with our performance in
this great atmosphere,” he added. “We
will learn lessons from this game and
take necessary precautions for the sec‐ond leg.”
Faithful fans
Spurred on by the passionate home fans,
the Lions soon began to demonstrate
their attacking power in what was an
open game from the outset.
Schalke had a chance to equalize soon
aer Burak's opener, but Klaas-Jan
Huntelaar failed to steer the ball in at the
far post.
Hamit Altıntop nearly doubled the home
team's lead in the 18th minute with a
powerful shot which ricocheted off the
bar aer Hildebrand saved an effort from
Drogba, who took the winning penalty
for Chelsea in last season's #nal
shootout.
Burak had another chance to score in the
38th minute when Drogba put him
through on goal but Hildebrand blocked
his shot.
e match continued to alternate attacks
in the second half and Farfan had a
chance to put the visitors ahead in the
55th minute, but his effort was blocked
by Sabri Sarıoğlu.
In the #nal stages, Galatasaray pressed
harder for the winner while Schalke
hung on for a draw.
Burak had a great chance to put
Galatasaray back ahead in the 77th
minute, but he #red wide of the Schalke
goal.
“We could have scored or conceded in
the second half. Of course, Schalke holds
the advantage now, having forced us to a
draw, but we will keep chasing the
chances until the very last second,” Ter‐im said.
In other words, Terim, like his Schalke
counterpart, has a lesson to learn from
Wednesday's game before the second leg
in Germany next month. One thing is al‐most certain: Sneijder will start from the
bench and may only be #elded depend‐ing on the result at Veltins-Arena on
March 12.
e Galatasaray coach and his men real‐ly have plenty of time to do their home‐work and #ll those gaping holes in mid‐#eld and defense.
11Didim Today
Google Attempts to Rede"ne the Mobile Market in 2013
Last week Google already announced it’s
no longer allowing advertisers to target
desktop and mobile users separately
within AdWords. Which means we all
know that everyone trying to control
mobile advertising this days and increase
every other day! Baking mobile into
desktop means a major simpli#cation to
how advertisers track and manage cam‐paigns, which in turn means CPCs for
both channels will become the same. Ad‐ditionally, consumers could potentially
receive marketing content in non-opti‐mized formats.
In effect, Google is removing some of the
choices for advertisers who want to tar‐get different devices or operating sys‐tems and forcing everyone to pay more
for mobile inventory, which typically
commands a lower CPC than desktop
inventory.
Brand advocates, marketing managers
and tech enthusiasts alike are uni#ed in
their response: e market isn’t ready for
this kind of change, even as Google
squeezes more money out of advertisers
while limiting the controls they have
over managing their campaigns.
As part of the explanation for the
change, Google has pointed to the gener‐al increase in time spent on mobile de‐vices, which in turn has forced advertis‐ers to cobble together and compare sev‐eral different campaigns. While this is
true on some level, and mobile and desk‐top are steadily moving towards a point
of convergence, they simply aren’t there
yet.
Marketers and publishers have different
goals and business models for desktop
and mobile, and many are still working
out a mobile strategy. Forcing their hand
has the potential to cause adverse effects
for the advertising ecosystem.
According to a new report, only 16 per‐cent of marketers (out of 250 surveyed
globally) have even developed a mobile
strategy aimed at building customer en‐gagement, and only 14 percent are satis‐#ed with the way their brands are access‐ing and leveraging mobile. e fact re‐mains that advertisers have plenty more
work to do optimizing both their content
and their strategies before the market
reaches a level of maturity indicative of
Google’s rationale.
At Outbrain, our philosophy is that buy‐ers should have choices when it comes to
where their campaigns run so they can
better derive the most value and provide
users and publishers with device-opti‐mized experiences. Ultimately, these
campaign levers can result in better ROI
for marketers and the best experience for
end users.
e industry as a whole is working hard
to adapt to the rapid shi from desktop
to mobile, but until the convergence be‐tween the two worlds is more complete,
the more transparent and 'exible the
system, the better for all parties.
12 Didim Today
Advertise Here
13Didim Today
Yacht Weddings in Altinkum Now!
Altinkum Weddings in 2013 start to of‐fer boat, yacht weddings for you now
and why not have your aer wedding re‐ception-party on a fully decorated dou‐ble decker Boat departing from Al‐tinkum Harbour, which is 5 minutes
away from Altinkum? All the yacht or
boat weddings includes starters, BBQ,
Aers, Music, alot of local drinks.. But‐ler service under the moonlight and
stars. We decorate the vehicles, both,
Bride-Bridegroom Vip and Guests Vehi‐cle We will pick you all up from your Al‐tinkum Hotels or apartments in Al‐tinkum Turkey.
We will take you to Altinkum Harbour
where the boats are. We get to the deco‐rated boat. Downstairs are the tables and
bar and toilets, upstairs ideal for dancing
or watching the stars on the sky. Meal in‐cludes BBQ Chicken or BBQ Fresh Fish,
Salad, Starters, Pasta, Fruit.
Complimentary bottle of Champagne
will be served to Bride and Bridegroom
from Altinkum Weddings. Drinks are
extra to remaining guests always. Little
bit #re crackers will be also added to
make your evening colorful, not as much
as the amount used on the new year cele‐brations around the globe.
Aer the cruise we will dock back on the
harbour. If you wish you can visit a nice
bar in Altinkum or we take you back to
your Hotels, apartments in Altinkum
Didim or Akbuk.
Dont forget this kind of wedding pack‐ages suitable for all ages, under 18 with
legal guardian or permission. You can al‐ways contact Altinkum Weddings Plan‐ners and get more details and even qoute
today right now.
Weddings in Turkey never been this easy
because we do all the legal paper works
for you and assist with all the way!
14 Didim Today
Protesting against DolphinAer a nice and very friendly demon‐stration in the center of Zuerich, the ac‐tivists now put their promise to junk a
Japanese car into effect. With this action
they want to put a stop to the Japanese
dolphin- and whale-hunt.
Angie Neuhaus from Lucerne sacri#ced
her Japanese car for this action: “is car
is still running, but I did not want to
drive it around any more on our roads.
All the reports from Japan about the
slaughter of dolphins and the hunts to
sell them worldwide to the dolphin in‐dustry, as well as the whale hunts, have
made me very sad and I shall very care‐fully pay attention that I do not own any
Japanese products and I will not buy any
in the future.”
At the very impressive demonstration in
the center of Zuerich, animal protection
activists and passing pedestrians were
able to write their opinions about the
Japanese dolphin and whale hunts on the
car. Amongst those were: ”Freedom for
the Dolphins!”, “Stop the Killing”, and
“Shame on the Murderers of Taiji”. Many
a pedestrian, amongst them some Orien‐tals, were quite surprised about this ac‐tion and the approval rate was quite
high.
e demonstration in Switzerland was
co-organized by Andreas Morlok, CEO
of the German dolphin- and whale pro‐tection organization ProWal, who had
been an eye witness to several of the dol‐phin drive-hunts in Japan:
“Dolphins are caught at these hunts and
then sold for more than 100.000 Euros
to dolphinariums all over the world. is
is a lucrative billion-dollar business for
the #shermen, handlers and the whole
dolphin industry. All the animals that
are captive in the around 330 dolphinari‐ums, in existence all around the world,
are being exploited for commercial gain
until their death. ose member of a
dolphin family that have been caught
and are not material to be used for
breeding purposes, because they might
have scars or skin lesions from #ghts
with sharks, will be slaughtered by the
Japanese #shermen. Even young animals
or babies are not saved. Mainly Bot‐tlenose-Dolphins, Striped-Dolphins,
Risso’s dolphins, Spotted-Dolphins,
Short-#nned Pilot-Whales, Small Killer-
Whales and Dall-Porpoises are being
caught and killed in the coastal waters
around Japan. e #shermen get about
400 Euros for the meat of a dolphin,
which is sold on the local markets.
We also condemn the false scienti#c
whale hunt of the Japanese, which in re‐ality is nothing but a commercial enter‐prise. e scienti#c results that are
gained hereby, are totally worthless, be‐cause the dead whales are only measured
and the stomach content is examined to
#nd out, what the animals ate.
Only very seldom dioxin analyses are
performed, because people are afraid
that the results, which are bound to
show that the whale meat is contaminat‐ed with mercury and other environmen‐
tal poisons, will turn the consumers
away. Although the demand for whale
meat is shrinking in Japan and the coun‐try meanwhile is sitting on a mountain
of 5.000 tons of frozen and unsellable
whale meat, several hundred whales are
still being killed under different whaling
programs in the Antarctic and in the Pa‐ci#c.”
e animal protection activists will con‐tact the Japanese government and will
show them the power of the consumer
with their action. e Japanese car was
expertly delivered to the junkyard in
Switzerland. Angie Neuhaus meanwhile
is driving a new car, which is much more
to her liking. It is a French product.
e confrontations for the Japanese
whale hunters are getting more and more
numerous. Just a short while ago the en‐vironmental protection organization
“Seashepherd” discovered the Japanese
whaling 'eet in the Antarctic.
15Didim Today
She was among the core that founded the PKK with Abdullah OcalanWhat do the corpses of three Kurdish
women activists of the PKK found killed
with silenced weapons at the Kurdish In‐formation Center of Paris in the early
hours of Jan. 10 tell us? e keys to an
answer are actually in the question
above. e identities of the victims re‐veal important points. Sakine Cansiz,
said to be above 55 years of age, was an
important #gure inside the PKK.
She was among the core that founded the
PKK with Abdullah Ocalan. As such, she
had a substantial and emblematic posi‐tion in the history of the Kurdish move‐ment. We are told that she spent 10 years
in the Diyarbakir Prison, notorious for
torture and ill treatment of Kurdish pris‐oners, following the 1980 military coup
and that she had become one of the sym‐bols of resistance in prison. Sakine Can‐siz was a prominent name among politi‐cized Kurdish women. With all her par‐ticulars and background, she won’t be
simply forgotten by Kurdish nationalists.
e second person killed, Fidan Dogan,
31, was the representative in France of
the National Kurdistan Congress, which
also made her a valuable target. e
third victim was a younger woman, ac‐tivist Leyla Soylemez, 24.
Comments by French President Francois
Hollande, carried by the Turkish press,
offer clues on the extent of the political
activities of the victims: “is disastrous
incident has directly affected three per‐sons, one of whom I knew personally, as
she was meeting with us regularly. Many
politicians and I knew her.”
e murder of these persons is a heavy
trauma for the Kurdish movement in
Turkey and Kurdish public opinion. Ad‐verse consequences should be expected.
e timing of the murders also offers
signi#cant clues. e murders took place
at a time of preliminary contacts be‐tween Turkish state officials and the
PKK’s founding leader Abdullah Ocalan,
who is serving a life senence in prison.
e Turkish side had described these
talks as intending to persuade the PKK
give up its arms.
Many observers, including the spokes‐men for the Kurdish movement, believe
that these contacts with Ocalan at a spe‐cial prison on the Imrali Island in the
Sea of Marmara have not yet been ele‐vated to a systematic peace-negotiations
process seeking to end the Kurdish issue
between the Turkish government and
the PKK. But there was hope that such a
process could start soon.
at is why the Paris murders serve the
interests of actors who would like to de‐stroy the process even before it starts.
And there are powerful actors who don’t
want Turkey to reconcile with its own
Kurds for the time being and whose in‐terests could be harmed by such a peace.
e technique of the murders speaks
volumes as well. Only professionals can
commit perfect murders. e office door
had coded entry system, but it was
opened without force. is tells us that
the victims probably knew the killers, or
the killers want us to think that. e near
consensus in Turkey is that the killers
wanted to destroy a peace process. If it is
a conspiracy against peace, and it is, then
we have to look for answers to two ques‐tions:
Who would want to block peace?
And who among them would have ade‐quate intelligence and operational capa‐bility to carry out such a perfect murder
in Paris?
Let’s start with the “Turkish-agents” hy‐pothesis, the immediate “usual suspect”
of Kurdish public opinion in Turkey and
in the Diaspora. For the culprites to be
agents working for the Turkish govern‐ment is a most absurd allegation. Why
would a government that wants the PKK
to give up arms want to block the pro‐cess with its invisible hands? And why
would it endanger its very valuable Turk‐ish-French relations by committing mur‐ders on French soil? Unless they are to‐tally moronic, this is unthinkable.
ere is also suspicion of a “deep Turkish
state,” which also out of place. In the
Turkish political lexicon, the “deep state”
is an illegal, unaccountable phenomenon
that uses state facilities and commits
crimes for the so-called “high interests”
of the state. We knew that Turkey’s for‐mer military/bureaucratic tutelage
regime was opposed to a political settle‐ment of the Kurdish issue. e “deep
state’” was an adjunct of this regime. e
AKP rule eliminated this tutelage regime
and all the institutions that the “deep
state” relied on either came under gov‐ernment control or were eradicated.
16 Didim Today
Harmony Bay in Akbuk
erefore, the probability of the provo‐cation in Paris to be organized by the
remnants of the Turkish “deep state” is
close to nil. If they had any potency, they
would have used it for provocations on
Turkish soil. As to the assumption that
“Turkish nationalists” could have com‐mitted the murder, this is also without
foundation. ey have neither the back‐ground nor the operational capability for
such actions abroad. If they really meant
to do it, it would have been much easier
for them to stage such provocations in
Turkey. e #nal analysis was by Turkish
government officials, who said the Paris
murders could be an “internal PKK ac‐count settling.” Even if the ones who
pulled the triggers may have been people
known to the victims, we can’t ignore the
element of timing, which could not be
distinguished from the Ocalan-Turkish
government contacts.
It would be naïve not to understand that
those who planned the murders sought
to raise questions about the Ocalan-gov‐ernment contacts, to instill atmosphere
of distrust and #nally erase the hopes for
peace.
It is impossible to ignore such a spectac‐ular crime in one of the important cen‐ters of the world just as peace was com‐ing onto the agenda.
If they had done something similar in
the mountains of Turkey, it would have
been ignored, but not in Paris. at Paris
was the scene of the crime also tells us
things. e possibility that the killers
were PKK militants just like the victims
could not be treated separately from the
regionalization of Turkey’s Kurdish issue.
e Syrian crisis led to regionalization of
Turkey’s Kurdish issues, and Ankara’s
Syria policy made potential results much
more menacing for Turkey. You can no
longer ignore the involvements of Iran,
Baghdad, Erbil, Damascus and Syrian
Kurds as parties to the Kurdish issue.
It is not a secret that among these actors
there may be those who want a solution
to Turkey’s Kurdish issue even less than
the Kurdish hawks, and who want to
maintain this issue as an instrument that
could be used against Turkey when
needed. It must never be forgotten that
among the powers who may want to
block progress on a negotiation process
may have their own extensions inside the
PKK.
It’s still unclear who killed three women
prominent in Turkey’s Kurdish autono‐my movement, who were found shot to
death in Paris on ursday, and why.
One of the three, Sakine Cansiz, was a
founding member of the rebel PKK
movement and #rst senior female mem‐ber of the organization. e other two,
Fidan Dogan and Leyla Soylemez, where
activists working on behalf of the PKK
in Europe.
Harmony Resort Bay Spa in Akbuk
Turkey for you because in the face of a
generally gloomy world economy, it
seems there is nothing but good news for
Turkey. Finance Minister Mehmet Sim‐sek has reported that the economy grew
around 3 percent in 2012 and is expect‐ed to grow by 4 percent in 2013 with e
World Bank adding that it anticipated a
further 4.5 percent growth during 2014.
Turkey’s economy has been strengthen‐ing for years. By 2011 the country was
ranked 18th in the world in terms of
GDP(World Bank) while its economy
was the fastest growing in Europe at 8.5
percent. With in'ation falling and
healthy growth predictions for the com‐ing years, Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan is con#dent in his coun‐try’s ’2023 Vision’ of becoming one of
the top ten economies in the world.
Overseas investment makes up a signi#‐cant part of the economy: in the past
nine years, Turkey has absorbed $110
billion of overseas investment according
to CNBC, while A.T. Kearney’s Foreign
Direct Investment Con#dence Index
ranked it as the 13th most attractive des‐
tination for foreign investment in 2012.
With the number of tourists arriving in
Turkey increasing year on year (reaching
31.78 million visitors in 2012), and over‐seas investment in the Turkish property
market predicted to rise from $2.5 bil‐lion to $10 billion over the next few
years, it is easy to see why award win‐ning developer Akbuk Resort Group has
identi#ed Turkey as the ideal place for its
stunning new Harmony Bay Resort &
Spa. Scheduled to open in 2014, the re‐sort is attracting a healthy blend of busi‐ness partnerships and individual invest‐ments. Agreements have just been #‐nalised with Wyndham Hotel Group and
Sophos Hotels, who manage a large pro‐portion of the Wyndham Ramada re‐sorts, meaning the resort will come un‐der the Ramada brand as ‘Ramada Re‐sort Akbuk.’
e resort, which boasts magni#cent
panoramic views across the beautiful
Akbuk Bay and the Aegean Sea beyond,
will feature a delightful hotel and a range
of luxury suites. Its exclusive spa, #ne
dining restaurants and extensive leisure
and #tness options will add to the attrac‐tions of the area’s stunning coastline and
wealth of historical sites. Lee Harley, Op‐erations Director of Akbuk Resort
Group, explains the development’s in‐vestment opportunities, “Harmony Bay
Resort & Spa has something to offer ev‐ery investor. We are excited to be part of
Turkey’s bright future and are offering a
'exible range of investment options, in
line with the country’s forward-thinking
economic outlook.
From full purchase to fractional owner‐ship SIPP (Self Invested Personal Pen‐sion) investments, we are enabling our
investors to generate lucrative returns by
becoming part of one of the world’s
f a s t e s t g r o w i n g a n d s t r o n g e s t
economies.” Investment options begin at
just £11,688 for fractional ownership,
with full ownership prices ranging from
£61,600 to £107,800.
In line with its reputation for innovation,
Akbuk Resort Group is proud that the
development is Turkey’s #rst fully SIPP-
compliant resort. Depending on the cho‐sen investment option, returns can in‐clude 4% interest paid until completion,
Rental Assurance of 8% for the #rst two
years following completion and a clear
exit strategy with buy-back options in
year #ve. With 'exible, investor-friendly
options such as these being offered, it is
no wonder that overseas investors con‐tinue to be attracted to Turkey and to be‐ing part of the country’s bright and dy‐namic future. For further information
contact Akbuk Resort Group on +44
(0)845 230 5210 or info@akbukresort‐group.com.