Turks are welcome back to Greece

So this is what happened: we are going to shoot a movie in the summer, so I won’t have time to have a holiday, so I thought about going to Kemer on the Mediterranean coast. It rained in Kemer. Then I heard that there was too much wind in the Aegean town of Çeşme. Then I learned that the sea is icy in Bodrum. I did not feel like going to Dubai. We decided on a closer destination and said, “Let’s go to Athens.” When I started writing this article it was raining in Athens. But the issue is not about my unfortunate luck on failing to get a sun tan.

The issue is the fact that Turks are slowly and surely conquering these lands.

To be frank, I happen to be a fanatic of Bodrum, the beautiful holiday resort on the Aegean. That’s why I have not opted to go to a Greek island until recently. Yet, I have been hearing for years how people on the island started to speak Turkish, how the Turkish flow to the islands have become a real invasion, and how the number of Turks started to become more than the population in the islands. At the end of the day, the hotels and restaurants costed half the price in Turkey.

Then, rumors that some started buying summer houses in Athens and in the islands started to circulate three to five years ago. Well, the thing is, the prices of houses in Çeşme or Bodrum are at a Monaco level. When you add to this the opportunity to get rid of the necessity to acquire a Schengen visa once you buy a house in Greece; who can stop the Turks?

And let’s not forget those “concerned” citizens who say, “Let’ have one leg abroad; have an investment in another country.”

Recently, we heard news that Doğus Group bought a marina in Athens, the Hilton Hotel and the Astir Palace Hotel in one of the most popular holiday resorts in Greece. And we also heard news that Turkish constructors started several projects in Athens.

Taxi drivers show a building on the road and say: “Turks are making this.” 

I switched on the TV the other day in Athens and the program “Greek survivor” was about to finish. At the end of it, I saw the logo of Acun Media from Turkey. The two programs that are the most watched in the country, “The voice Greece” and “Survivor” are produced by Acun. The other programs that are most watched are Turkish TV series. There are banners in the streets of TV series like “The Magnificent Century,” which is being shown under the name “Suleiman.” Last year, when actor Burak Özçivit visited Athens for the “Turkish Film Days,” he was treated as a megastar due to the interest he drew from young women!

Turks are welcome back

The other day, as we were talking about the Turkish interest and presence in Greece, a restaurant manager voiced the title of one of my articles. “Turks have come back,” he said, referring to my article. “They are more than welcome.” 

The Greek economy is still in difficulty. The weekly limit of withdrawing cash from ATMs is only 400 euros, which has been in force since 2015, and is still continuing; there is no cash in the market. People are really unhappy with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, and the country has huge debts to be paid to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The locals are happy with the contributions of Turks to Greece, who are investing, opening offices, buying houses, staying in hotels, wining, dining and shopping.

They are so happy that they did not even mind my provocative references to Olympiakos’ loss to a Turkish team; they either said being second was also valuable for them or that they were a fan of Panathinaikos.