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The House of The Rising Sun

We went to Alanya to capture human mobility generated by Turkey’s moderate climate. Alanya was in the hands of Germans, indeed. They had their own Beerhalles and drugstores, but a major portion of Alanya’s German populace was there not only for the sun. A couple of thousand retirees stay in Alanya for nine or ten months each year, fly back home for Christmas, only to return to their hotels thereafter. When booked via mass tourism agencies in Germany, Alanya’s four-star hotels offer these people full pension rates at sometimes € 10 a day!

We came across other older people who had moved away because they’d had enough of these invading immigrants in their city and the peer pressure they created: The so-called “white” Turks. We caught up with the urban fugitives of Turkey in Bodrum where they were holding a kermis to raise funds for the education of children from poor families on the occasion of Christmas. A huge banner read ‘Contemporary Outlook’ under the oversize eyes of a blown-up portrait of Atatürk. Above the banner dangled a Santa Claus key holder. Wasn’t Santa Anatolian, after all?

Another highlight in this episode, is the story of the retired communist and feminist activist Yüksek Selek, who also settled over to Bodrum.