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Turkey's threatened sea turtles

An AKP-affiliated developer's privatization attempts on a beach preserved for endangered sea turtles has turned Dalyan’s residents into environmental activists.
caretta UNDP Tahsin Ceylan.jpg

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.

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