In any decent travel guide for Turkey, one of the must-see sites on the western Mediterranean coast would be Iztuzu Beach, better known as the Turtle Beach, or Dalyan Turtle Beach of Mugla province. Nearly a million tourists visit Dalyan annually. With its Kaunos ancient city, mud baths, the Lycian rock tombs and picture-perfect beaches, Dalyan is a major tourist attraction for Europe.

Iztuzu Beach is a narrow strip; about 5 kilometers (less than 3 miles) long, where fresh water from a river meets the sea, forming a delta lagoon that creates a natural habitat for Caretta caretta turtles (also known as loggerhead sea turtles), an endangered species. If you happen to be in the vicinity between May and September, you will see the beach is sealed off from sunset to sunrise and no umbrellas or chairs are allowed so as not to disturb the incubating and hatching of these rare and endangered loggerhead sea turtles. They hatch out of their eggs under the sand and crawl to the sea. Looking over the white egg shells and little baby turtles crawling all over the place during the season, one may find it hard to believe they are endangered; however, they are on the red list of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). There are about 20 beaches worldwide where Caretta carettas nest, and Dalyan ranks as one of the most important.

Yasemin, a native of Dalyan town, who only shared her first name, told Al-Monitor with tears in her eyes: “You may think turtles are old and rough animals, and there are so many of them out here, why the worry? Well, that is wrong, because their numbers have been decreasing 6-8% every year, precisely because of us, our recklessness. This beach is where I learned to swim. At the time, we did not know the white shells were where the turtles came from. Once we were old enough to understand, my friends and I made it a task to be the guardians of the eggs and the babies. We would hover over the strangers who might be stepping over them, or reckless young boys. This is why it is forbidden even to lay a towel beyond a line on the beach because that is where the majority of the eggs are laid.”

Yasemin was in tears because on the night of Dec. 29, developers cut the locks on beach gates and drove their bulldozers and large trucks on the beach. She said: “I am just a regular, 50-year-old housewife, and now I have become an activist. I know “Captain” June [a 90-year-old British woman who has lived in Dalyan since the 1970s and actively worked to protect the turtles] saved this beach from developers in the 1980s, and now I will join forces with her and others to protect the turtles. We owe it to the next generations.”