Bodrum nostalgia

Bodrum, or ancient Halicarnassus, has 5,000 years of history, but those who enjoy the sea and the sun in today’s Bodrum have very little knowledge of the town’s history.

Looking at the old, mostly black and white, photographs of Bodrum makes one wonder, “How did this small town turn into a world-renowned holiday resort?”

The photographs have recently been released following over two years of work. They were lying silently in dusty archives, the chests of the elderly and the city library on the Greek island of Cos until a Doğan news agency reporter brought them back into daylight.

Bodrum Mayor Mehmet Kocadon, a member of the Democrat Party, or DP, said every person has his or her own perception. “The old Bodrum is a personal thing for every person; it is the first day he or she sees Bodrum,” said Kocadon. “What one thinks of the town if they saw it in the 1970s is much different than another one who first came here in the ’90s.”

The mayor said many people have similar things in mind when missing the old Bodrum. “It is the quietness, calmness, the wild greenery, the deep blue sea that seems to be endless, a musty café visited for a cup of tea, the stone houses, or a traditional wedding ceremony in a village. We will not forget these, and we will not let them be forgotten.”

Galip Gür, vice president of the Union of the World’s Most Beautiful Coves, noted that Bodrum discovered tourism in the 1950s, but the town’s lack of precautions has caused problems to grow in time, leading to the town’s struggle today.

Bodrum is a unique place in Turkey and in the world for its natural beauties, added Gür.

“The people who used to make a getaway from the city to come to Bodrum for its nature, beauty, simplicity and its unique social structure are long gone,” said Gür. “Bodrum is losing its town spirit of the 1960s; it is turning into a mini Istanbul.”

Gür said it was wrong to try to solve the town’s problems with examples from the big cities. “The same mentality that once turned a church into a public education center now argues that the building must be renovated as a church again,” said Gür. “Those who sat silently as shopping centers and supermarket chains were coming to Bodrum now oppose them.”

Despite all his pessimism, Gür thinks there can still be hope for the town. “We should not let Bodrum entirely lose its soul as a small town,” said Gür. “We should not act with the paranoia of a metropolis; we can only preserve Bodrum for the future generations if we focus on its properties that reflect both the Aegean and the Mediterranean cultures.”

Bodrum Mayor Kocadon noted that the biggest blow to the town was the “summerhouses boom” in the early 1980s, followed by the construction of huge five-star hotels. “It was around the same time the locals met the problems waiting ahead,” said Kocadon. “The tourists to Bodrum did not even come to the town center because they were here for the nature in the first place.”

Kocadon said, instead of commemorating the past in black and white photos, Bodrum must blend the old and the new to preserve the town’s unique structure.