60-year-old beach shacks in Antalya demolished amid controversy

ANTALYA

In a move that has sparked controversy, the 60-year-old shacks on a beach in Antalya's Aksu district have been demolished, three years after a decision was made to remove them due to their location on a vital sea turtle nesting site.

The demolition follows a 2021 presidential decree that placed the beach under protection and ordered the removal of the structures — a decision that faced repeated delays and became a drawn-out saga with local authorities postponing action over the years.

Ultimately, the Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry announced that the beach shacks would be dismantled on Nov. 20 this year.

Although three shacks were demolished on the scheduled date, local authorities later stated that the process was temporarily halted to give residents time to collect their belongings.

After a seven-day pause, municipal crews resumed the demolition on Nov. 27, arriving at the site with construction equipment and blocking all entrances and exits to the beach with trucks early in the morning. Police officers were stationed to keep residents off the beach as the final phase of the demolition took place.

Despite harsh winter conditions, three individuals remained in the shacks, resisting the demolition order, while others, realizing they could not prevent the inevitable, chose to set their own shacks ablaze.

Refusing to let firefighting teams intervene, the residents watched the blaze for a while before leaving the scene, leaving fire crews struggling to contain the flames.

Serap Baş, one of the residents, claimed that her shack was destroyed while her belongings were still inside.

"I requested that the tow vehicle come and retrieve my container. They claimed they wouldn't destroy a building that contained items, yet my container worth 250,000 Turkish Liras and all of its contents were destroyed.”

Another resident, Lale Akıncı, expressed her frustration, saying, “From now on, we’ll rely on air conditioning to cool off at home. We were constantly cleaning this place. We’ll have to wait and see what kind of mess it turns into next summer.”