Mugla’s Gocek Bays in danger: Residents say “Coasts belong to public”

Day-trip facilities will be built in the bays of Göcek in the Fethiye district of Muğla. One of them is Osmanağa Cove. The CHP-led Fethiye municipality issued a building permit for the cove within the protected area. Residents of Göcek have objections: ‘We will not stand idly by while these bays and coasts are plundered for the benefit of certain groups and individuals.’

Behind the construction project is the company named MUÇEV, established in partnership with the Muğla Service Foundation and the Environmental Protection Foundation affiliated with the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate. The management is kept secret.

At the Turkish Grand National Assembly Planning and Budget Committee in 2020, CHP Muğla Deputy Mürsel Alban said, ‘Another company has been added to the “5-member group”. He used the following expressions: ‘This institution is named as ‘MUÇEV,’ a limited company, but as if it were a public enterprise, it has taken over and operates 14 bays directly given by your ministry in Muğla province.’ Alban also asked the question: ‘Is this MUÇEV a parallel structure established as an alternative to local governments?’

The bays entrusted to MUÇEV have begun to be leased to companies. One of these bays is Osmanağa. Based on a report on “diken” web page, the cove has been leased to the company Hasay Emlak Construction Tourism Ltd. The company, planning to build a day-trip facility in the cove, has also obtained a building permit from the CHP-led Fethiye municipality on September 8, 2023.

The Göcek bays are classified as 1st and 3rd-degree natural conservation areas. The area opened to exploitation is marked in red by the ministry.

Visual: From the Says (Site Areas Management System) page under the Directorate General for the Protection of Natural Assets on the ministry’s website.”

SOURCE: DIKEN